Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
WVU’s Brown Hits Reset Button This Week
October 21, 2019 02:32 PM | Football
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – I've never been real big on video games, except for an occasional Pac-Man or Asteroids back in the day, but my son, like most boys his age, is an avid video gamer.
When things are not going well for him he sometimes hits the reset button and starts over.
That's what Neal Brown plans to do this week with his youthful and banged up West Virginia University football team, coming off its third consecutive Big 12 loss last Saturday afternoon against fifth-ranked Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma.
West Virginia's murderous October has seen the Mountaineers face 5-2 Texas, 5-2 Iowa State and 7-0 Oklahoma in successive weeks.
Looming on Halloween night is another game against an undefeated football team in 7-0 Baylor, still celebrating its eye-opening 18-point victory last Saturday at Oklahoma State where the Bears have rarely been successful.
If you're not paying attention, those four have a combined 24-4 record and are clearly the four best teams in the Big 12 this year.
Brown said he plans to devote the early part of this week to simply improving as a football team.
"We've got five games left in our season, and we're going to reset it," Brown explained Monday morning during his weekly teleconference with Big 12 media. "We've got to get some things figured out on our end. We've got to make sure we've got our best personnel on the field at all times."
Issue No. 1 is a non-existent run game that has really affected everything else the Mountaineers are trying to do offensively. Against Oklahoma, West Virginia ran the football 30 times for a net of 51 yards – and this was without quarterbacks Austin Kendall and Trey Lowe III taking a sack.
That's less than 2 yards per rush, which is about what West Virginia is averaging per carry for the season. It's been 41 years since we've seen a WVU football team have this type of difficulty running the football. In 1978, the Mountaineers that year averaged just 2.9 yards per carry.
"We're going to try and put even more focus on trying to get our run game on track – try some different things and different personnel, some different schematics and some different presentations run game-wise," Brown said. "This team is not necessarily built to be a team that can throw the ball 50-plus times, so we've got to get ahead of the chains."
Brown mentioned, too, that he would also like to see his team improve its red-zone defense. Last weekend, Oklahoma was successful on five of its six red-zone scoring chances and opposing teams have had a 72-percent success rate scoring touchdowns this season when getting into the red zone.
"We've got to have some answers there," he said.
Brown said he will use his weekly Tuesday news conference to address all of the injuries that occurred during last Saturday's game against Oklahoma, including top tackler Josh Chandler.
In the first half against the Sooners, the Mountaineer defense was down to four healthy corners, and safety depth is also becoming a significant issue.
Brown is hopeful some of his walking wounded will be ready to go when the team travels to Waco, Texas, next Wednesday for its Oct. 31 meeting at 14th-ranked Baylor.
That game will be televised nationally on ESPN.
Players Mentioned
Rich Rodriguez | Dec. 3
Wednesday, December 03
Reid Carrico | Nov. 29
Saturday, November 29
Jeff Weimer | Nov. 29
Saturday, November 29
Rich Rodriguez | Nov. 29
Saturday, November 29
