--West Virginia head coach Neal Brown is in Las Vegas for the Campbell Trophy presentation where Zach Frazier is up for the award. This week is busy with player retention, high school recruiting, portal recruiting and having to get ready for the bowl game. He is really excited about representing the Big 12 in this bowl. A large group of Mountaineers in Charlotte and it’s a great location for the fan base. It’s a quality matchup with North Carolina and he has a lot of respect for Mack Brown. On offense, they have one of the top ten offenses in the country and they are really balanced. Know their personnel well because they recruited a lot of those players and didn’t get them. Drake Maye is going to be a huge challenge and Omarion Hampton is a big physical runner. At receiver, Tez Walker transferred from Kent State and JJ Jones’s dad played at West Virginia. On defense, the thing that sticks out is they mix their fronts, and they are huge up front, it will be one of the biggest ones they’ve faced all year. It starts with their linebacker Gray and Rucker on the edge has had a lot of success rushing the passer. They are a veteran group in the secondary and have several transfers that have stepped up.
--The plan this week is the last for classes they are spending a lot of time with Mike Joseph and doing a little bit of football work. They will start practicing Saturday and Sunday but will pick back up next Friday due to finals. They will start North Carolina prep there Friday-Monday then give the guys some time off and get into their game week Dec. 22 before leaving Dec. 23 for Charlotte. The goal is to make this an enjoyable experience for the players and then try to get a ninth win.
--I plead the fifth on the first question on whether he likes Mayo, but Brown will gladly take the Mayo bath if they win their ninth game.
--Last week was an interesting week. Brown has done this long enough now that there are a lot of unknowns. The bowl season has changed quite a bit in the last few years and now the pendulum swung several different ways last week. Last Sunday afternoon Wren Baker called, and he said this is a little out of left field and asked him what they thought. They wanted to play a power five opponent in the bowl game, and they felt this was a tremendous opportunity. It’s a six-hour drive from Morgantown and he has done several events in Charlotte, so he knows there is a lot of fans there. There are regional rivalries or games the fans would be interested in, so it made sense for this game. North Carolina is a very talented team, and it will be an intriguing matchup for sure.
--Zach Frazier successfully had surgery and is well on the road to recovery. Brown was disappointed he wasn’t in line for the Rimington Award. Preston Fox it’s too early to tell if he’ll be available, he’s recovering and it’s going to be a process. They won’t know that until game week. As far as retention, it’s something they spent a lot of time on this week. The hope is they can hold onto their main players, you’re going to lose some that’s just normal, but they hope they can keep them all together. And he’s sure they will have activity after the bowl game, too.
--It will be on a case-by-case situation whether they would welcome players back that left, and a lot depends on how they exit the program and how they handled themselves on the way out. They would welcome some players back, but some not. Some guys left for reasons he understood, and they handled themselves in the right manner and they would welcome them back, but others wouldn’t.
--Anytime you play a game that is nationally televised and there’s nobody else in that window it will draw people into the game. It’s important for a recruiting from a branding.
--Offensively they will be really careful, the things you need to understand is immediate help and also where you go from a mindset standpoint it’s the same with high school recruiting with multiple years. They have a certain number of commits at receiver and will take two more, so they will count some of those young portal guys in those high school spots and they want to do that with offensive line as well. It’s not always going to be a developmental guy. One proven guy at wide receiver in that room, that’s a room that Bilal Marshall has done a great job. The young guys really got better as the year moved forward. Defensively they need numbers at linebacker to help on special teams and defense and secondary will be the primary area they will focus on in the portal and also a pass rusher.
--A lot of wisdom when it comes to Mack Brown. What stands out to Brown was the success that he had at North Carolina the first time.
--Brown said they had a team meeting, and it was really positive. A lot of their families can drive to the game and they are excited about the matchup.
--The plan this week is the last for classes they are spending a lot of time with Mike Joseph and doing a little bit of football work. They will start practicing Saturday and Sunday but will pick back up next Friday due to finals. They will start North Carolina prep there Friday-Monday then give the guys some time off and get into their game week Dec. 22 before leaving Dec. 23 for Charlotte. The goal is to make this an enjoyable experience for the players and then try to get a ninth win.
--I plead the fifth on the first question on whether he likes Mayo, but Brown will gladly take the Mayo bath if they win their ninth game.
--Last week was an interesting week. Brown has done this long enough now that there are a lot of unknowns. The bowl season has changed quite a bit in the last few years and now the pendulum swung several different ways last week. Last Sunday afternoon Wren Baker called, and he said this is a little out of left field and asked him what they thought. They wanted to play a power five opponent in the bowl game, and they felt this was a tremendous opportunity. It’s a six-hour drive from Morgantown and he has done several events in Charlotte, so he knows there is a lot of fans there. There are regional rivalries or games the fans would be interested in, so it made sense for this game. North Carolina is a very talented team, and it will be an intriguing matchup for sure.
--Zach Frazier successfully had surgery and is well on the road to recovery. Brown was disappointed he wasn’t in line for the Rimington Award. Preston Fox it’s too early to tell if he’ll be available, he’s recovering and it’s going to be a process. They won’t know that until game week. As far as retention, it’s something they spent a lot of time on this week. The hope is they can hold onto their main players, you’re going to lose some that’s just normal, but they hope they can keep them all together. And he’s sure they will have activity after the bowl game, too.
--It will be on a case-by-case situation whether they would welcome players back that left, and a lot depends on how they exit the program and how they handled themselves on the way out. They would welcome some players back, but some not. Some guys left for reasons he understood, and they handled themselves in the right manner and they would welcome them back, but others wouldn’t.
--Anytime you play a game that is nationally televised and there’s nobody else in that window it will draw people into the game. It’s important for a recruiting from a branding.
--Offensively they will be really careful, the things you need to understand is immediate help and also where you go from a mindset standpoint it’s the same with high school recruiting with multiple years. They have a certain number of commits at receiver and will take two more, so they will count some of those young portal guys in those high school spots and they want to do that with offensive line as well. It’s not always going to be a developmental guy. One proven guy at wide receiver in that room, that’s a room that Bilal Marshall has done a great job. The young guys really got better as the year moved forward. Defensively they need numbers at linebacker to help on special teams and defense and secondary will be the primary area they will focus on in the portal and also a pass rusher.
--A lot of wisdom when it comes to Mack Brown. What stands out to Brown was the success that he had at North Carolina the first time.
--Brown said they had a team meeting, and it was really positive. A lot of their families can drive to the game and they are excited about the matchup.
