Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Brown to Unveil First WVU Signing Class Wednesday
February 05, 2019 04:05 PM | Football
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Wednesday will give us a little better idea what the 2019 roster is going to look like for new West Virginia University football coach Neal Brown.
Brown and his coaches have been out on the road recruiting a handful of prospects to complement the 16-player class they inherited from Dana Holgorsen.
Brown's first recruiting success was keeping that group, which included three wide receivers, three offensive linemen, three cornerbacks, two safeties, two defensive linemen, a running back, a linebacker and a kicking specialist, intact.
Also listed among the players announced in December were linebacker VanDarius Cowan, an Alabama transfer, and junior college wide receiver Isaiah Esdale, both of whom participated in fall practices for the Mountaineers.
Then, in early January, Brown added Oklahoma quarterback Austin Kendall, who now gives West Virginia three scholarship quarterbacks and more competition at that position when spring practice gets underway.
"I've spent a lot of time with our players. I'm excited about who they are as people, and I'm looking forward to moving forward," Brown said when he was hired in January.
It will be interesting to see what Brown chooses to do with the remaining scholarships he has available.
Will he use them all tomorrow?
Or, will he bank a couple and see what opens up on the four-year transfer market later this spring?
Earlier this month, Brown offered some clues on how he will approach signing day.
"You always have to be open-minded about how you build your roster, and you have to be creative," he explained. "The way college football works – I'm not big into making rules and I really don't have an opinion about the rules – I want to know what the rules are and let's go play by them.
"You need to evaluate the grad transfer market," he continued. "We've got a lot of recruiting ties in some really good junior college areas in Mississippi and Kansas. I look forward to getting here in the Northeast because the Northeast junior colleges above us have gotten really competitive, and they've had some really good players here."
What Brown said his staff will do a little differently regarding junior college recruiting is it will recruit them a little longer than normal. Typically, junior college recruiting is accelerated because players only have a couple of years remaining and are eager to find places to play.
"We're going to recruit those players for a year-plus, almost like you would go about recruiting a high school student-athlete," Brown explained.
In addition to pursuing new players, Brown has also taken a considerable amount of time to recruit the current roster of players he inherited from Holgorsen.
With an exception or two, all of them are sticking around for spring practice.
"The learning process for me is you don't need to be stubborn," he said. "You need to accept the players that are here, make sure they feel welcome and use their abilities to put them into a position to be successful and not worry so much about schematics, whether it's mine or Vic (Koening's) schemes."
Brown believes the transition from Troy to West Virginia will continue to be seamless once on-field football activities begin.
"We were running our program at Troy just like a Power 5. Now we're balling on a budget. We've got a little better budget now, and we're going to continue to have success," he said.
Brown and some of his staff members will be available to review this year's class on our special signing day show airing on WVUsports.com, Facebook Live and Twitter.
Beginning at 1 p.m., Tony Caridi, Jed Drenning and Dale Wolfley will spend two hours breaking down this year's class and unveiling any additions leading into Brown's scheduled 3 p.m. press conference in the team room at the Milan Puskar Center.
Brown is also slated to appear at a special signing day event being put on by the Mountaineer Athletic Club at Kegler's Sports Bar and Lounge on Wednesday evening.
The Mountaineer Sports Network from IMG will also be there for an hour-long signing day show from 7 to 8 p.m. on affiliates throughout West Virginia and online via WVUsports.com and the popular mobile app WVU Gameday.
Brown and his coaches have been out on the road recruiting a handful of prospects to complement the 16-player class they inherited from Dana Holgorsen.
Brown's first recruiting success was keeping that group, which included three wide receivers, three offensive linemen, three cornerbacks, two safeties, two defensive linemen, a running back, a linebacker and a kicking specialist, intact.
Also listed among the players announced in December were linebacker VanDarius Cowan, an Alabama transfer, and junior college wide receiver Isaiah Esdale, both of whom participated in fall practices for the Mountaineers.
Then, in early January, Brown added Oklahoma quarterback Austin Kendall, who now gives West Virginia three scholarship quarterbacks and more competition at that position when spring practice gets underway.
"I've spent a lot of time with our players. I'm excited about who they are as people, and I'm looking forward to moving forward," Brown said when he was hired in January.
It will be interesting to see what Brown chooses to do with the remaining scholarships he has available.
Will he use them all tomorrow?
Or, will he bank a couple and see what opens up on the four-year transfer market later this spring?
Earlier this month, Brown offered some clues on how he will approach signing day.
"You always have to be open-minded about how you build your roster, and you have to be creative," he explained. "The way college football works – I'm not big into making rules and I really don't have an opinion about the rules – I want to know what the rules are and let's go play by them.
"You need to evaluate the grad transfer market," he continued. "We've got a lot of recruiting ties in some really good junior college areas in Mississippi and Kansas. I look forward to getting here in the Northeast because the Northeast junior colleges above us have gotten really competitive, and they've had some really good players here."
What Brown said his staff will do a little differently regarding junior college recruiting is it will recruit them a little longer than normal. Typically, junior college recruiting is accelerated because players only have a couple of years remaining and are eager to find places to play.
"We're going to recruit those players for a year-plus, almost like you would go about recruiting a high school student-athlete," Brown explained.
In addition to pursuing new players, Brown has also taken a considerable amount of time to recruit the current roster of players he inherited from Holgorsen.
With an exception or two, all of them are sticking around for spring practice.
"The learning process for me is you don't need to be stubborn," he said. "You need to accept the players that are here, make sure they feel welcome and use their abilities to put them into a position to be successful and not worry so much about schematics, whether it's mine or Vic (Koening's) schemes."
Brown believes the transition from Troy to West Virginia will continue to be seamless once on-field football activities begin.
"We were running our program at Troy just like a Power 5. Now we're balling on a budget. We've got a little better budget now, and we're going to continue to have success," he said.
Brown and some of his staff members will be available to review this year's class on our special signing day show airing on WVUsports.com, Facebook Live and Twitter.
Beginning at 1 p.m., Tony Caridi, Jed Drenning and Dale Wolfley will spend two hours breaking down this year's class and unveiling any additions leading into Brown's scheduled 3 p.m. press conference in the team room at the Milan Puskar Center.
Brown is also slated to appear at a special signing day event being put on by the Mountaineer Athletic Club at Kegler's Sports Bar and Lounge on Wednesday evening.
The Mountaineer Sports Network from IMG will also be there for an hour-long signing day show from 7 to 8 p.m. on affiliates throughout West Virginia and online via WVUsports.com and the popular mobile app WVU Gameday.
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