MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Neal Brown is done using the F-word. No, not THAT F-word but rather the other four-letter word times two we've been hearing so much about these days – freshman.
 
Circumstances beyond Brown's control have forced us to use the F-word around here much more than we have at any time, really, in the last 40 years. 
 
Brown has 10 of them alone listed on his offensive two-deep roster for Thursday night's Baylor game, and the number on the defensive side of the football is seemingly growing each week as well.
 
It might be the reality right now, but it's not something Brown wishes to use as a crutch for his young football program.
 
"I think it's a built-in excuse for those kids, I think it's a built-in excuse for our staff, I think it's a built-in excuse for maybe myself, and listen, we're a no-excuse operation," he said Monday afternoon. "It is what it is. We play a lot of young people. Here's the deal. We've played seven games now, and we're not using that word anymore."
 
Which means the time is now for guys such as Bryce Wheaton, Ali Jennings, and, of course, Sam James.
 
All of them have shown glimpses – James with his nine-catch, 155-yard performance earlier this year against NC State and that pretty first-quarter sliding touchdown grab he made against Texas, Wheaton's late touchdown reception against Texas and Jennings' earhole catch that wasn't against Oklahoma.
 
Not to mention Winston Wright Jr., who is getting better and better in practice and also Temple transfer Sean Ryan, who represents the S-word in college sports - sophomore.
 
Brown expects to have Ryan back at some point this season and that gives him a pretty good nucleus of young playmakers around which to build.
 
"We've got a lot of hope on offense. People sometimes wonder why I come in here in a good mood because we've lost three games in a row and we got our tail kicked pretty good. Well, offensively, I think the future is really bright for us," Brown admitted.
 
"If you look, I think we've started as many as six … I'm not using that F-word – but we've got a lot of people that are playing for the first time and I think there is a lot of hope."
 
Start with James. His stat chart this year looks a lot like the stock market does each October, up one day and down the next. Sooner or later, it's going to even out.

"Sam James is a guy that I am excited about," Brown said. "He didn't play very well against Oklahoma, but I'm excited about his future. Bryce Wheaton … it's starting to come along for him. Ali Jennings is going to be a really good player. Winston Wright is going to be a really good player.
 
"The freshmen … I used the word again … we've got a couple that haven't played yet that have gotten some really good experience in Monday Night Football," Brown added.
 
One of them is Tony Mathis from Cedartown High in Cedartown, Georgia.
 
"If I had to pick one guy that really stood out last week it was him," Brown said. "He's a little bit behind. He had a little knee that kept him out for three weeks so he's coming back. The OU week was his first week practicing full speed and so last week he was back in Monday Night Football for the first time in probably four or five weeks and I thought he did a nice job.
 
"You will see him as we go. Will it be Thursday night? I'm not sure yet. He will make the trip but will he play? That's to be determined," Brown added.
 
He's got them on defense, too.
 
Jordan Jefferson and Tykee Smith have already played a bunch of snaps, and Tae Mayo and Nicktroy Fortune are catching up to them quickly.
 
Jared Bartlett, another one of those eight-letter players, is going to be on the airplane headed out to Waco, Texas, on Wednesday, and Brown said Bartlett will see his first significant action of the season on Thursday night. 
 
All of those eight-letter guys are really starting to blend in with the other guys.
 
"Defensively, the next two recruiting classes are going to be critical because we're playing some older guys and maybe it's the first time they're playing some meaningful football this year, but we've got some older guys there," Brown pointed out.
 
Which is why Brown is really focusing more on his football team than what 12^th-ranked and undefeated Baylor does well - which is a lot, by the way.
 
"Here is where we are at with this football team: I just want to get better. Period," Brown said. "I'm not spending a large amount of time on what Baylor's doing on offense, defense and special teams – not because I don't respect them because I do – and I'm not spending any time whatsoever looking at any other teams in the league because for our football team right now, we've just got to get better."
 
Brown continued.
 
"I really felt like we were making strides up through the first half of the OU game where we were getting better. Now some of it was hidden because Austin (Kendall) didn't play against Iowa State, but we really made some strides in that game that didn't necessarily show up in our production," he said. "As a football team, really since halftime at Missouri all the way to halftime at OU, we were making positive strides. The second half was just bad football."
 
So, did his football team full of eight-letter players get any better last week?
 
"That's the hope. We'll see how we play on Thursday night. We probably did more good-on-good work than we did (during the first open weekend) just because we're thin and our scout team is not as good as maybe we'd like them to be just from a talent perspective," Brown said. "We got a lot of work with the guys who are playing fewer snaps and are redshirting and I thought there were some guys making significant increases there."
 
And, could all of this add up to a five-day extension of what we saw last Saturday when Kansas State stunned Oklahoma, TCU upset Texas, Oklahoma State shocked Iowa State and Kansas pulled three bars on the slot machine against Texas Tech?
 
Who knows?
 
"Depending upon what Saturday or what Thursday you play, anybody is capable of beating anybody. It's college football, man. You're dealing with 17- to 23-year-olds. Y'all get that figured out let me know," Brown concluded.
 
Thursday's game will kick off at 8 p.m. and will be televised nationally by ESPN (Adam Amin, Matt Hasselbeck, Pat McAfee and Molly McGrath).
 
The Mountaineer Sports Network coverage will begin at 4:30 p.m. on affiliates throughout West Virginia leading into regular network coverage at 7 p.m. with Tony Caridi, Dwight Wallace and Jed Drenning.