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WVSPORTS.COM West Virginia head coach Neal Brown press conference summary

Keenan Cummings

Fact Based and Wonderful
Staff
Sep 16, 2007
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--West Virginia head coach Neal Brown wishes the women's soccer team a congratulations. He is the father of an aspiring soccer player and his daughter was fired up.

--Losing stinks and when you invest and they don't go how they want them to go it stinks. They competed hard, but things didn't go their way in the fourth quarter. Oliver Straw has had a really good freshman year and their coverage units are a strength. The roughing the punter was the correct call. The letter of the rule that was roughing. Justin Johnson was the only player that stood out and they just never got in a rhythm. JT Daniels was off and they just never won many one-on-ones. Iowa State is good on defense, but that was just a poor performance. On defense, they played well for three quarters but in the fourth they tried to make some plays instead of playing team defense and it let some runs squirt out. West Virginia played better up front. The Mountaineers have to find ways to create take aways and they didn't create any at all.

--West Virginia is glad to be back home. Home football games they only have six and they are events in our state. All four of the home games have been entertaining. They have played well at home and he hopes the people show up. The players are going to play hard and it will be an entertaining game. Dillon Gabriel is a dual threat guy that can run. The running back Eric Gray can do it in the run game and pass game. Bill Bedenbaugh does a great job and they run the ball well. Always talented at wide receiver and they are going to play really fast. Defensively Oklahoma is multiple and they are going to be aggressive. They are new each week and have a lot of team speed. They create negative plays. Special teams wise their punter and kicker are as good as anybody. It's a huge challenge for them. The attitude of the team is positive and it's about three games left in the season and do the best they can. The mentality of the team is good.

--The way Brown looks at it is football problems are better than most problems but the investment is high. You always have next and the reason the guys are excited and they have an opportunity to beat Oklahoma for the first time since joining the Big 12. This team has an opportunity to be the first so it is added incentive.

--Justin Johnson played well so the running back position was not the issue. They have to get in a better rhythm and play at a faster tempo. West Virginia has to make it more difficult on the defense. West Virginia has to push the ball downfield more. The Mountaineers have to get some things on the edge.

--Iowa State got some pressure on Daniels. McDonald was the player of the game and he was the single biggest factor in the football game. Daniels was just off. Iowa State got some pressure on him and they had some drops there and he has to play better. They can get him some easier completions to help him out. Brown expects him to bounce back and play well this week.

--James Gmiter will be out, Davis Mallinger is out for season, Tony Mathis and Lance Dixon will return and Charles Woods will be questionable. Aubrey Burks returned and will practice today.

--Garrett Greene played well when he came into the game. Probably should have gotten him in a series earlier. Greene has given them a spark where he's been in there. West Virginia had a dry spell in the first half and when it was 10-0 they scored and the coaches thought they had a feel for how they were playing and didn't have a positive drive until the final one of the game.

--Daniels is healthy. The Mountaineers didn't play well, they didn't see Daniels struggling due to an injury but he didn't play his best. Brown isn't looking for excuses with injuries. They had a difficult time blocking them at the point of attack and didn't play with good fundamentals.

--Whoever the next guy is has to play and put them in position to be successful.

--Brown hates losing. It makes everything difficult to deal with and he hates it because the people here invested a lot and they haven't had to experience this type of losing often. What people say doesn't bother him, but the losing is painful to go through. He refuses to let it make him negative and they aren't going to feel sorry for themselves. They are going to prepare to try to win a game this weekend with everything in their power. Brown gets lost in the work and failure is temporary unless they accept it.

--You just have real conversations with his family. His family and the families of the staff that are involved is where it is real bothersome as well as the players. What he tries to relay to his family they are not attacking you personally. It's not personal and if you allow it to be that's on you. Almost all people that are doing that don't know me and it would be foolish to take it personal. They are not pleased with the product.

--West Virginia has shown they are capable of playing good football. It's 10-7 and they have a chance to get the ball at midfield with a roughing the punter. Nobody in the program has lost vision that they can't compete and beat people in their league. It's natural tendency to start worrying about what's next but you're doing yourself an injustice. You have to worry about the here and now.

--You have discussions about playing a different quarterback but JT Daniels has earned that job.

--Brown can't pinpoint the reasons for the success on at home on offense and not on the road.

--Tony Mathis's return will help. He is a downhill runner and is physical. After JT Daniels and Zach Frazier from a skill position standpoint he is the leader among those guys. He is patient and has put a lot of work in and has worked hard in his rehab.

--Chad Scott is really consistent with his approach and how he coaches those guys in the backfield.

--The only game he has an issue with how his team has played with effort is Texas Tech. They are going to play an entertaining brand of football on Saturday and they are working their ass off to do that. They have a good energy and a strong belief. How can they get better today to get better on Wednesday and so forth. Then it's how can they make some plays.
 
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Brown has the sure fire losing technique of playing players by seniority and not talent.
 
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Yep, he's definitely uses a time in grade approach to playing time. Might have worked at Troy, but not in power 5.
 
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As an early FYI, our OOC schedule in 2023 is Penn State, Duquesne and Pitt. While Duquesne is a gimmie, Penn State is a pretty sure loss and Pitt is probably a tossup. We were 2-1 OOC this year but may be 1-2 OOC next year.
 
As an early FYI, our OOC schedule in 2023 is Penn State, Duquesne and Pitt. While Duquesne is a gimmie, Penn State is a pretty sure loss and Pitt is probably a tossup. We were 2-1 OOC this year but may be 1-2 OOC next year.
I'm going with 2-1 and if Brown is still here (which he probably will be) we will go 4-5 in conference and finish 6-6. If they do start out 1-2 then it's a 5-7 record.
 
No way wvu beats psu with neal brown as coach. Which is cool as fk, I've been pondering it. We don't need to be good. We just need to be a player led team and get woketo infect all of wv. Forget winning, let these kids crank their music, run the roost and not be accountable for anything. Kids have always made great leaders, right? Neal brown is a penius. I mean genius
 
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Freeze's new deal will pay him $40 million through 2030, though he reportedly has a Power Five-friendly buyout.
 
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