Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Coach Neal Brown Press Conference
February 06, 2019 06:42 PM | Football
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia University football coach Neal Brown addressed members of the media on Wednesday, Feb. 6, at the Milan Puskar Center Team Room.
Opening Statement
Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you for being here. It's an exciting day; it's not your normal signing day like in years past, but it's an exciting day. It's been a hectic first month, but we've accomplished a lot. Top priorities for us were really two fold. No. 1 was to develop relationships with our players that are currently on our roster. And the second thing was solidifying those guys that signed in December. Give a lot of credit to our staff, and when I say staff, I'm not just talking about our assistant coaches, but everybody that's involved in recruiting when a young person comes on our campus. We were able to hold onto all 18 guys that signed that were part of the December signing class, and we had little-to-no attrition on our current football team. So, give a lot of credit to all those individuals.
Our second priority was really to fill some slots that we felt were immediate needs on our roster. Relationships in recruiting are critical, and if you look at the guys we've added, not only today but our transfer quarterback, those are individuals we had long relationships with.
Today is about the signees, it's about this recruiting class. I know you all have a lot of questions about staffing, about current players and all those types of things, I promise you we're going to give you guys an opportunity to ask those. But today is going to be about recruiting. So, I appreciate you all being here, and with that, I'm going to open it up to questions about this recruiting class.
On how he approached the December signees
The way we approached it was to look at them as new recruits, without a doubt. We want people who want to be here. It's a unique situation, I think it has only happened one other time at the Power Five level. I think when Kevin Sumlin was hired at Arizona, he had a similar situation in the fact that a group of players signed in December under a previous coach, and then he took a job after that signing day. So, there's not a lot of precedent, so what we did was we went about re-recruiting those guys. Either myself, or someone with our staff, went and visited each one of those student-athletes, and we were able to host those guys through the NCAA rules on a second official visit for most of them. So, just by building a relationship, not only with them but with their families or the people that are really important to them, they felt comfortable with West Virginia, they felt comfortable with a lot of the pieces of why they chose West Virginia are still here and still common with our staff, and they just needed some reassurance and just to be around and spend time with our staff. That's how we approached it. And like I said, give a lot of credit to our staff. We were able to keep all those guys, and I'm excited about them. I thought the previous staff did a really good job of identifying talent, not only on the playing field but academically. And these are good kids.
On if signing three defensive players was coincidental or intentional
The way we started this, as you meet with your players and you watch a little bit of video – really, honestly, not a ton – I had some of our young coaches put together basically a highlight, lowlight tape on the guys that were currently on our team. So, we tried to get a vision on what some needs were. We signed a lot of receivers in the December signing date. We're in a little bit of an odd situation in our defensive backfield, where we only lost a couple but have a lot of guys that are going to be seniors. So, we felt like we needed to add some guys in the defensive secondary, and we did. And then defensive linemen are something you'll always (need); you can't have enough defensive linemen. I thought it was critical, too, and you all can do the math, we have three spots left open in this class. I think the mistake that a lot of people make is when you take a job, when you make a transition and you're trying to do your first recruiting class, you really reach, or you sign guys that you don't know about. The recruiting process is so long now, it's upward to two years. Part of that two-year process is there's usually in-person evaluations where you see a kid practice, or you see a kid play, or even you have him in camp and you see him in live evaluations, and you get to know him on multiple campus visits. Well, you don't have that opportunity when you take (a new job), especially in a different geographic region. So, we were careful; we do have three open spots. You guys are going to learn this about us: I'm always looking for ways to improve our roster. We have two signing days, but we're always looking to improve our roster, and I think it's important when you have some open spots where if something happens, you're able to add a critical piece.
On where the team still has needs
I'm careful with how I answer this because we've really only had one team workout with our team. We worked out yesterday morning, we're going to work out tomorrow morning, as well. We can't do any football-specific work with them, but we do get an opportunity to see how they follow directions, see what kind of leadership we have, how do they change directions, what kind of explosiveness do they have and some different agility drills. I do know this just as a scholarship-number standpoint, we have some depth issues on the offensive line and defensive line.
On how he recruited in-state
Well, we're going to do that. Whether it shows in this recruiting class or not is to be determined, honestly. We're excited about Kerry Martin (Jr.). I think he's a great kid from Capital, and I'm really looking forward to working with him. I'm glad he's a part – he's actually an early enrollee – so he's already here. A lot of it was just getting in schools in this state. If you look at it, and I think you can talk to high school coaches in the state, we were able to get into a ton of high schools in the state, develop relationships with those guys, and that's something we'll continue to do. Whatever happens later today, we've made a pretty valiant run.
On if there's a target on how many contributors come from each class
Well, we better be better than half. I think what you do is, you hear people throughout college football today, however many Division I coaches there are, they are having these press conferences, and you're going to hear, 'Hey, we're excited about them', 'best class', and all those superlatives. A lot of times, you feel like that is the correct answer, but the truth of the matter won't be known for three, four years down the road. I think what you do is you have to have critical evaluations. So, what we do is we have a staff retreat in the spring, and we go and that's one thing that we do. We evaluate the last three or four recruiting classes. We obviously only have one to evaluate, and we won't have a whole lot of data to do that on, but you have to constantly evaluate what went right, but also what went wrong. I think you look at the geographic fit, you look if you take any at-risk, did it work out? What went wrong? But I think you have to constantly evaluate that. There is a science to it, without a doubt.
On how difficult it is to evaluate a team he's never coached
Well, you get a good grasp of what they can do athletically, and that's the biggest thing. The schematic changes, and you'll have an opportunity to ask (defensive coordinator – safeties) Vic (Koenning) the same thing, offensively, defensively and special teams, we're going to put our kids in the best situation possible to be successful. So, whatever their strengths are, we're going to steer our schemes to where we're fitting their strengths. But really, that's why we have three open spots, quite frankly. We could have gone out and used those. There are probably players that we could have signed, but I think you have to be really careful because we want to give ourselves the best opportunity to win next fall, and we're better served by holding onto those spots until we see what our true product is in spring ball.
On his philosophy on transfers
You're always looking to improve your roster, which I already said. I think transfers are one way, I think junior-college recruiting done the correct way can really be fruitful. And what I mean by that, I think there are a couple different ways you can recruit junior college. One way is you realize you have a need in the fall, and you just go out, whether it's just a couple weeks in the December signing period or a couple weeks in January, and you try to just go find the best player and you don't really know a whole lot about them. Or, you go through it and you treat it like high-school recruiting, where you get to know them over the course of a year. A lot of times you track them in high school, and then you follow them to whatever junior college they're at, and you have a long relationship with them, and you understand why they are there. That's the way we choose to do it, quite frankly. I think if you look at our success rate at Troy with junior-college transfers, it was extremely high. Now, we have to figure out how this University works. But I think when you're recruiting junior college, you have to have a longer relationship than just a couple weeks. And I think it's the same when you're looking at any transfer. (Redshirt junior quarterback) Austin Kendall is a prime example. We're excited to have Austin. Austin is a guy who I had a previous relationship with his family, and we recruited Austin when I was at the University of Kentucky as the offensive coordinator. His brother, Ryan, played for me in my last year as a receiver at the University of Kentucky. I knew his mom and dad. So, when he became available, that made sense. I knew him, knew him personally, I knew his family, and I think there has to be a relationship with those transfers. You just don't take them because they are available.
On how important it was to bring in redshirt junior quarterback Austin Kendall
I think that was as big of a factor as anything. We only had two on scholarship. I have a lot of trust in (redshirt junior quarterback) Jack Allison, and I like (redshirt freshman quarterback) Trey (Lowe III). Trey is playing baseball, so his availability in the spring, depending on how baseball is going, could be limited, and we have to have more guys in that room. That's college football. The game is played so fast in this league and you play so many plays, you better have at least three quarterbacks in that room that are capable of playing. So, that was probably need No. 1 is we needed to add a quarterback, and I thought we were very fortunate to get a guy in Austin, who I feel like has been really well-schooled. He played in a couple of different high-school programs, where the level of coaching is at a high level, he was with Lincoln (Riley) the last couple years, and I have a lot of respect for him and his ability to teach, he sat in a room with two Heisman Trophy winners, I think that's important, he has a quick release, really strong arm, he can create plays with his feet – I wouldn't necessarily say he's a runner, but he's a good enough athlete that he creates plays with his feet – and I'm looking forward to it. I think it's going to be a great competition as we move into spring and fall camp.
On what he liked about the three February signees
Yeah, I'll just talk about all three of these guys individually. If you look at Jordan Jefferson, Jordan, J.J., is from Navarre, Florida – and so you know, geographically, Navarre is about two hours away from Troy. He's a kid that we've really known since he was a freshman, end of his freshman year going into his sophomore year in high school. He's a big, physical thing, and what I like about him, he has a calm demeanor. He's never too high, he's never too low. He has a great family; his dad, you'll see him, his dad looks like he could be playing some (defensive) line for us right now, too, he's a strong guy. But he has a great family, and he got better every year. If you look at his junior film, it's really good. If you look at his senior year, you'll understand why his recruiting really exploded like it did, especially in the last six weeks. So, we've had a long relationship, we've had him in camp, we've seen him multiple times live, our defensive line coach Jordan Lesley was his lead recruiter, and he's a guy that has an opportunity to be a plus player on the defensive line in this league. And he's versatile, he can play nose or the three technique.
If you look at Tavian, or Tay, Mayo, he's from Lee County, Georgia. At Troy, we had two Lee County guys on our team, two really good players from Lee County. Vic Koenning, our defensive coordinator, he recruited that school at Troy, and they've won back-to-back state championships, I'm pretty sure that's correct. Dean Fabrizio is the head coach, and they play at a high level. We've known about Tay for a long time; I think he actually watched a couple games of ours at Troy when he came to watch his friends. So, we knew about him and the logo switch was very effective. He had a relationship with the previous staff, he actually had taken an official visit here, so he liked West Virginia. So, we were able to close that late and that was an important pickup for us. And if you look, we're really junior, really, rising seniors now at that (cornerback) position. He's athletic, he can run, he's going to have an opportunity to come in and compete right away, and he has a chance to be a starter here for several years.
And then the last guy is a young man by the name of Rashean Lynn (Jr.). And Rashean is 6-4-plus, almost 6-5. He has a ton of skillset, and he has as much upside as anybody in this class. He played a lot of receiver and (defensive back) in high school, we're going to start him off in the secondary as a safety. And as you all know, you can't have too many (defensive backs) in the Big 12. He's a guy that has length, and we can try as hard as we want to coach it, but you either have length or you don't, and he's big, and he's long, and he has an opportunity to play that centerfield position on defense and really cover a lot of ground in the backend. So, we're excited about him.
On if he had any prior relationships with the recruits who signed during December
Yeah, they're guys in the southeast. At Troy, we only really recruited about a four-and-a-half-hour radius, so that's unique in college football. It's probably one of the most unique situations really, but we did. Most of these guys from the southeast, like Taijh Alston, who is already here, we knew about him at Co-Lin (Copiah-Lincoln Community College). He's a really productive player. Jared Bartlett is a kid that we identified a year ago in spring as a guy that can be a MIKE linebacker, edge rusher. We liked him, we saw him. I think (assistant coach – defense) Jordan Lesley watched him practice last spring. If you talk about going down to Tony Mathis, I laughed when I called Tony after getting this job. I said, 'Man, most of the time, players come to coaches.' You know what I mean? This coach had to go to the player, because Tony was our No. 1 running back guy at Troy forever. Of course, he got multiple Power Five offers, so we didn't have a whole lot of success getting him at Troy. But he's a guy that I love the way he ran, so we had a relationship with him. We obviously knew his game. Dreshun Miller, a corner that was from Kennesaw, that went to junior college, who's here now on campus, we'd known about him when he was in high school. Winston Wright was a guy that we saw multiple times live. I think he was at two different satellite camps that I was at over the summer. So, we knew about him and had a relationship with as well, so several of these guys. Nicktroy Fortune is another guy we knew about, being in the southeast. A lot of these guys, we did, we had relationships, either me personally or assistant coaches had a relationship with those guys. So, that was definitely a positive.
On assessing recruits that he didn't know
It wasn't as much about assessing. I felt like our role was they'd already made decisions, and I tried to put myself in their shoes, honestly. Here's a young man – I always talk about it in recruiting. Last night, I talked to all these guys that were going to sign today, and I told them, I said, 'Hey, tomorrow's a big day. It's a culmination of your high school, but also, it's just the start of your college career.' And you flip the page, you go into, 'What's next?' mode. What's in the past is in the past. It's what's next, and all these guys who signed in December had already flipped that page. You try to put yourself in their shoes and understand that their whole world just got shook up. A coaching change had happened, and they didn't ask for it. What we did was it wasn't about us making a decision, it was about us investing in that relationship, because they'd already made the decision. Athletically, I think all of them fit with what we want to do. It was about making sure that they felt comfortable with the situation here. We weren't going to hold any of them hostage. We wanted them all to be here, but we wanted to make sure that they wanted to be here, and we gave them that opportunity by not only coming to visit but also going into their territory as well.
On how hiring assistant coaches helps expand recruiting
Well, we are going to have to expand. I think, and we can talk about this here, we'll do something media-wise when we announce the assistant coaches as a group, but I think what you'll see from a recruiting philosophy here is going to be all the states that touch West Virginia. West Virginia and all the states that touch West Virginia. We want to have a really strong recruiting presence. Everybody on our staff is going to have a primary recruiting area within that geographic footprint, and then, we'll go into the southeast – Florida, Georgia, Alabama, probably into Mississippi junior college and some Kansas junior colleges, where we have really strong relationships and a good brand. West Virginia has a good brand, and we're obviously well-known from a coaching standpoint as well.
On recruiting in the Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C. area
I tried to do that in January, as we tried to be as efficient as possible as we moved through January. I think I was out every day, too, that I legally could be. Weather got us one day, but I got in several high schools here in West Virginia. I spent a day in Pittsburgh. I spent two in D.C. I didn't get into Ohio as much this time as I will when I have the next opportunity, but we did. We were in that footprint as much as we possibly could while trying to chase the signees and going to see the guys who signed in December as well. That's the thing, and people don't think about it, but probably the biggest disadvantage of getting into a situation late is, in January, what most of our competitors are doing is there probably going to sign two-to-five today, at the most. But they're 2020 and 2021 recruiting, okay? What we did is we tried to get in as many schools, chase as many 2020 and 2021 kids as we could, but our primary function was to make sure the December guys were in good shape and try to secure the signees that we did sign. So, we're a little bit, and as crazy as it sounds, we're sitting here in February, and we're probably a little bit behind, definitely, on the (2020) class and even a little on the 2021 class.
On transitioning from competing with Alabama and Auburn for recruits at Troy to recruiting in West Virginia
That's a really good question, I'll say that. It's not something that at Troy we really thought about a lot. It was what it was. We weren't necessarily going to go head-to-head and beat the Alabama's and Auburn's. What we were trying to do was those schools were recruiting nationally, so we were trying to really fit and make us have a really strong geographic footprint right there in Alabama. But I think being the in the state here and having a strong brand within this geographic footprint is critical. We feel like we can compete and win against anybody. If we do our job, are diligent and build relationships, then we should have as good of a chance as anybody in West Virginia and all the states that surround it.
On off-the-field recruiting personnel
Again, I'll do a better job of answering this later. I'm not trying to dodge your question by any means. I think what we're trying to do is be competitive with the people we are going against. Recruiting, and you know this, it's such a long process now. It's such an in-depth process that I think you need multiple people. You need a recruiting division almost within your staff, and that's what we're trying to establish here. We've made some hires, we have some additions to make and hopefully, we'll do that here in the near future.
On evaluating recruits with assistant coach (defensive coordinator/safeties) Vic Koenning
There's a lot of trust involved. Obviously, we've been together now going on five years. If you look at his history and the amount of NFL players he has produced, you'll see the production he's had across the board at all the positions within his defensive scheme at all his stops. So, there's a lot of trust there. I feel like, as a staff, that we've done a good job evaluating. Even before I was a head coach or a coordinator, I feel like we've done a good job of identifying talent. You can always talk about it. There are three things you have to do. No. 1 is you have to be good enough as a player, because when you're watching the tape, if the kid's not good enough, you don't ever get past that. It's either yes or no. So, yes, he is, then he goes into an academic evaluation. Can he be successful? Is he going to be a qualifier? Can he be successful at the college level? If the answer is no to that, you stop. If the answer is yes to that, then you go to the character question. Can he make it in our program? Is he the type of guy we want representing our program? If the answer to those three things is yes and it's a schematic fit, then that's the guy we go on. If Vic feels strongly, and we've had our disagreements, but as the head coach, I have the final say, but if he feels really good about a prospect and their evaluation, then he's definitely heard.
On what his process of approving a recruit looks like
It's a thinning out. What it does is you have the initial evaluation, and we're going to be an area recruiting staff. What I mean by that is, everybody is going to have geographic areas, and you're going to go through your area and find the top prospects within that area. You'll be the main recruiter, and then, the position coach will be involved as the secondary recruiter. And as the head coach, you're always involved. That's the way we go about it, and I'll have final say. Obviously, I want those position coaches to have a lot of input in their rooms. I always tell them, 'Don't complain about the people in your room. You chose them. Don't come complaining to me about not having players when you chose them.' But that's how we'll go about it.
On if he works with the recruiting numbers
Yeah, we do. We'll work with Brian Bennett, who you'll meet if you haven't, our director of player personnel. We'll work and figure out those numbers and what they look like.
On his philosophy on early official visits
It's probably too early to tell, honestly. We don't have a feel for them just yet. I want to get here in the spring and get a feel for what a spring game crowd looks like, because I think that can be a huge benefit if we're well-supported at the spring game, which is going to be April 13, at 1 p.m. There you go. In the summer, I think you'll see fewer of them in this initial recruiting cycle until I get a good feel for everything that's here in Morgantown.
On filling the final three scholarship spots
It's to be determined. We want to try and find the three best players. If we don't, then we'll push them over, and that means we can sign 28 in the next class.
On his relationship with 2019 signee Jordan Jefferson
It got interesting here late, even as late as last night. I think that's really what got us over the hump. I think there was a lot of trust level there between Coach (assistant coach – defense) (Jordan) Lesley and his family and myself, because we've known him for a long time. That was a definite benefit. The other thing is when you got through recruiting, so many decisions are made off junior tape, and what happens, especially late in the process, whether other schools lose people or things like that, they go back and evaluate the senior tape. In coaching transitions, they go back, and I think people went back and watched his senior tape and were like, 'Wow.' Here's a kid that's one of the best, if not the best, defensive linemen that's available.
On his philosophy on preferred walk-ons
I think if you look at our roster, and that's a great question first of all. I feel like, as a guy who went through that route at the University of Kentucky and earned a scholarship, those guys are really the glue of your football team, and there's a lot of passion in that, especially guys who are in-state that earn a preferred walk-on opportunity or just a walk-on in general. I think you can go through our roster right now, and you can see a lot of evidence of that – guys that have really worked their way up, whether that be in success on offense, defense or special teams. What we're doing is we're identifying those guys. There are some guys have committed to us as preferred walk-ons, and we're excited about that. I can't talk about them today. Our walk-ons here, if you look at the success of the walk-ons at West Virginia, that's a legacy we want to continue, for sure.
On hitting the ground running and how much time he's spent in Morgantown
That's funny. I've been here all Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. So, the first week, I was here the whole week. The good thing about this is, other than I'm speaking at a clinic in Columbus tomorrow, I'm here in Morgantown all week. I'm looking forward to getting in a routine. That's the thing, getting in a routine here. My family is moving this weekend, so I'm excited to get all us under one roof again.
On which members of his staff will recruit which areas
We're in process of doing that, and what we'll do is when we announce the staff that will be a part of the release. You all are going to have some opportunities to answer questions with those guys, too.
Opening Statement
Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you for being here. It's an exciting day; it's not your normal signing day like in years past, but it's an exciting day. It's been a hectic first month, but we've accomplished a lot. Top priorities for us were really two fold. No. 1 was to develop relationships with our players that are currently on our roster. And the second thing was solidifying those guys that signed in December. Give a lot of credit to our staff, and when I say staff, I'm not just talking about our assistant coaches, but everybody that's involved in recruiting when a young person comes on our campus. We were able to hold onto all 18 guys that signed that were part of the December signing class, and we had little-to-no attrition on our current football team. So, give a lot of credit to all those individuals.
Our second priority was really to fill some slots that we felt were immediate needs on our roster. Relationships in recruiting are critical, and if you look at the guys we've added, not only today but our transfer quarterback, those are individuals we had long relationships with.
Today is about the signees, it's about this recruiting class. I know you all have a lot of questions about staffing, about current players and all those types of things, I promise you we're going to give you guys an opportunity to ask those. But today is going to be about recruiting. So, I appreciate you all being here, and with that, I'm going to open it up to questions about this recruiting class.
On how he approached the December signees
The way we approached it was to look at them as new recruits, without a doubt. We want people who want to be here. It's a unique situation, I think it has only happened one other time at the Power Five level. I think when Kevin Sumlin was hired at Arizona, he had a similar situation in the fact that a group of players signed in December under a previous coach, and then he took a job after that signing day. So, there's not a lot of precedent, so what we did was we went about re-recruiting those guys. Either myself, or someone with our staff, went and visited each one of those student-athletes, and we were able to host those guys through the NCAA rules on a second official visit for most of them. So, just by building a relationship, not only with them but with their families or the people that are really important to them, they felt comfortable with West Virginia, they felt comfortable with a lot of the pieces of why they chose West Virginia are still here and still common with our staff, and they just needed some reassurance and just to be around and spend time with our staff. That's how we approached it. And like I said, give a lot of credit to our staff. We were able to keep all those guys, and I'm excited about them. I thought the previous staff did a really good job of identifying talent, not only on the playing field but academically. And these are good kids.
On if signing three defensive players was coincidental or intentional
The way we started this, as you meet with your players and you watch a little bit of video – really, honestly, not a ton – I had some of our young coaches put together basically a highlight, lowlight tape on the guys that were currently on our team. So, we tried to get a vision on what some needs were. We signed a lot of receivers in the December signing date. We're in a little bit of an odd situation in our defensive backfield, where we only lost a couple but have a lot of guys that are going to be seniors. So, we felt like we needed to add some guys in the defensive secondary, and we did. And then defensive linemen are something you'll always (need); you can't have enough defensive linemen. I thought it was critical, too, and you all can do the math, we have three spots left open in this class. I think the mistake that a lot of people make is when you take a job, when you make a transition and you're trying to do your first recruiting class, you really reach, or you sign guys that you don't know about. The recruiting process is so long now, it's upward to two years. Part of that two-year process is there's usually in-person evaluations where you see a kid practice, or you see a kid play, or even you have him in camp and you see him in live evaluations, and you get to know him on multiple campus visits. Well, you don't have that opportunity when you take (a new job), especially in a different geographic region. So, we were careful; we do have three open spots. You guys are going to learn this about us: I'm always looking for ways to improve our roster. We have two signing days, but we're always looking to improve our roster, and I think it's important when you have some open spots where if something happens, you're able to add a critical piece.
On where the team still has needs
I'm careful with how I answer this because we've really only had one team workout with our team. We worked out yesterday morning, we're going to work out tomorrow morning, as well. We can't do any football-specific work with them, but we do get an opportunity to see how they follow directions, see what kind of leadership we have, how do they change directions, what kind of explosiveness do they have and some different agility drills. I do know this just as a scholarship-number standpoint, we have some depth issues on the offensive line and defensive line.
On how he recruited in-state
Well, we're going to do that. Whether it shows in this recruiting class or not is to be determined, honestly. We're excited about Kerry Martin (Jr.). I think he's a great kid from Capital, and I'm really looking forward to working with him. I'm glad he's a part – he's actually an early enrollee – so he's already here. A lot of it was just getting in schools in this state. If you look at it, and I think you can talk to high school coaches in the state, we were able to get into a ton of high schools in the state, develop relationships with those guys, and that's something we'll continue to do. Whatever happens later today, we've made a pretty valiant run.
On if there's a target on how many contributors come from each class
Well, we better be better than half. I think what you do is, you hear people throughout college football today, however many Division I coaches there are, they are having these press conferences, and you're going to hear, 'Hey, we're excited about them', 'best class', and all those superlatives. A lot of times, you feel like that is the correct answer, but the truth of the matter won't be known for three, four years down the road. I think what you do is you have to have critical evaluations. So, what we do is we have a staff retreat in the spring, and we go and that's one thing that we do. We evaluate the last three or four recruiting classes. We obviously only have one to evaluate, and we won't have a whole lot of data to do that on, but you have to constantly evaluate what went right, but also what went wrong. I think you look at the geographic fit, you look if you take any at-risk, did it work out? What went wrong? But I think you have to constantly evaluate that. There is a science to it, without a doubt.
On how difficult it is to evaluate a team he's never coached
Well, you get a good grasp of what they can do athletically, and that's the biggest thing. The schematic changes, and you'll have an opportunity to ask (defensive coordinator – safeties) Vic (Koenning) the same thing, offensively, defensively and special teams, we're going to put our kids in the best situation possible to be successful. So, whatever their strengths are, we're going to steer our schemes to where we're fitting their strengths. But really, that's why we have three open spots, quite frankly. We could have gone out and used those. There are probably players that we could have signed, but I think you have to be really careful because we want to give ourselves the best opportunity to win next fall, and we're better served by holding onto those spots until we see what our true product is in spring ball.
On his philosophy on transfers
You're always looking to improve your roster, which I already said. I think transfers are one way, I think junior-college recruiting done the correct way can really be fruitful. And what I mean by that, I think there are a couple different ways you can recruit junior college. One way is you realize you have a need in the fall, and you just go out, whether it's just a couple weeks in the December signing period or a couple weeks in January, and you try to just go find the best player and you don't really know a whole lot about them. Or, you go through it and you treat it like high-school recruiting, where you get to know them over the course of a year. A lot of times you track them in high school, and then you follow them to whatever junior college they're at, and you have a long relationship with them, and you understand why they are there. That's the way we choose to do it, quite frankly. I think if you look at our success rate at Troy with junior-college transfers, it was extremely high. Now, we have to figure out how this University works. But I think when you're recruiting junior college, you have to have a longer relationship than just a couple weeks. And I think it's the same when you're looking at any transfer. (Redshirt junior quarterback) Austin Kendall is a prime example. We're excited to have Austin. Austin is a guy who I had a previous relationship with his family, and we recruited Austin when I was at the University of Kentucky as the offensive coordinator. His brother, Ryan, played for me in my last year as a receiver at the University of Kentucky. I knew his mom and dad. So, when he became available, that made sense. I knew him, knew him personally, I knew his family, and I think there has to be a relationship with those transfers. You just don't take them because they are available.
On how important it was to bring in redshirt junior quarterback Austin Kendall
I think that was as big of a factor as anything. We only had two on scholarship. I have a lot of trust in (redshirt junior quarterback) Jack Allison, and I like (redshirt freshman quarterback) Trey (Lowe III). Trey is playing baseball, so his availability in the spring, depending on how baseball is going, could be limited, and we have to have more guys in that room. That's college football. The game is played so fast in this league and you play so many plays, you better have at least three quarterbacks in that room that are capable of playing. So, that was probably need No. 1 is we needed to add a quarterback, and I thought we were very fortunate to get a guy in Austin, who I feel like has been really well-schooled. He played in a couple of different high-school programs, where the level of coaching is at a high level, he was with Lincoln (Riley) the last couple years, and I have a lot of respect for him and his ability to teach, he sat in a room with two Heisman Trophy winners, I think that's important, he has a quick release, really strong arm, he can create plays with his feet – I wouldn't necessarily say he's a runner, but he's a good enough athlete that he creates plays with his feet – and I'm looking forward to it. I think it's going to be a great competition as we move into spring and fall camp.
On what he liked about the three February signees
Yeah, I'll just talk about all three of these guys individually. If you look at Jordan Jefferson, Jordan, J.J., is from Navarre, Florida – and so you know, geographically, Navarre is about two hours away from Troy. He's a kid that we've really known since he was a freshman, end of his freshman year going into his sophomore year in high school. He's a big, physical thing, and what I like about him, he has a calm demeanor. He's never too high, he's never too low. He has a great family; his dad, you'll see him, his dad looks like he could be playing some (defensive) line for us right now, too, he's a strong guy. But he has a great family, and he got better every year. If you look at his junior film, it's really good. If you look at his senior year, you'll understand why his recruiting really exploded like it did, especially in the last six weeks. So, we've had a long relationship, we've had him in camp, we've seen him multiple times live, our defensive line coach Jordan Lesley was his lead recruiter, and he's a guy that has an opportunity to be a plus player on the defensive line in this league. And he's versatile, he can play nose or the three technique.
If you look at Tavian, or Tay, Mayo, he's from Lee County, Georgia. At Troy, we had two Lee County guys on our team, two really good players from Lee County. Vic Koenning, our defensive coordinator, he recruited that school at Troy, and they've won back-to-back state championships, I'm pretty sure that's correct. Dean Fabrizio is the head coach, and they play at a high level. We've known about Tay for a long time; I think he actually watched a couple games of ours at Troy when he came to watch his friends. So, we knew about him and the logo switch was very effective. He had a relationship with the previous staff, he actually had taken an official visit here, so he liked West Virginia. So, we were able to close that late and that was an important pickup for us. And if you look, we're really junior, really, rising seniors now at that (cornerback) position. He's athletic, he can run, he's going to have an opportunity to come in and compete right away, and he has a chance to be a starter here for several years.
And then the last guy is a young man by the name of Rashean Lynn (Jr.). And Rashean is 6-4-plus, almost 6-5. He has a ton of skillset, and he has as much upside as anybody in this class. He played a lot of receiver and (defensive back) in high school, we're going to start him off in the secondary as a safety. And as you all know, you can't have too many (defensive backs) in the Big 12. He's a guy that has length, and we can try as hard as we want to coach it, but you either have length or you don't, and he's big, and he's long, and he has an opportunity to play that centerfield position on defense and really cover a lot of ground in the backend. So, we're excited about him.
On if he had any prior relationships with the recruits who signed during December
Yeah, they're guys in the southeast. At Troy, we only really recruited about a four-and-a-half-hour radius, so that's unique in college football. It's probably one of the most unique situations really, but we did. Most of these guys from the southeast, like Taijh Alston, who is already here, we knew about him at Co-Lin (Copiah-Lincoln Community College). He's a really productive player. Jared Bartlett is a kid that we identified a year ago in spring as a guy that can be a MIKE linebacker, edge rusher. We liked him, we saw him. I think (assistant coach – defense) Jordan Lesley watched him practice last spring. If you talk about going down to Tony Mathis, I laughed when I called Tony after getting this job. I said, 'Man, most of the time, players come to coaches.' You know what I mean? This coach had to go to the player, because Tony was our No. 1 running back guy at Troy forever. Of course, he got multiple Power Five offers, so we didn't have a whole lot of success getting him at Troy. But he's a guy that I love the way he ran, so we had a relationship with him. We obviously knew his game. Dreshun Miller, a corner that was from Kennesaw, that went to junior college, who's here now on campus, we'd known about him when he was in high school. Winston Wright was a guy that we saw multiple times live. I think he was at two different satellite camps that I was at over the summer. So, we knew about him and had a relationship with as well, so several of these guys. Nicktroy Fortune is another guy we knew about, being in the southeast. A lot of these guys, we did, we had relationships, either me personally or assistant coaches had a relationship with those guys. So, that was definitely a positive.
On assessing recruits that he didn't know
It wasn't as much about assessing. I felt like our role was they'd already made decisions, and I tried to put myself in their shoes, honestly. Here's a young man – I always talk about it in recruiting. Last night, I talked to all these guys that were going to sign today, and I told them, I said, 'Hey, tomorrow's a big day. It's a culmination of your high school, but also, it's just the start of your college career.' And you flip the page, you go into, 'What's next?' mode. What's in the past is in the past. It's what's next, and all these guys who signed in December had already flipped that page. You try to put yourself in their shoes and understand that their whole world just got shook up. A coaching change had happened, and they didn't ask for it. What we did was it wasn't about us making a decision, it was about us investing in that relationship, because they'd already made the decision. Athletically, I think all of them fit with what we want to do. It was about making sure that they felt comfortable with the situation here. We weren't going to hold any of them hostage. We wanted them all to be here, but we wanted to make sure that they wanted to be here, and we gave them that opportunity by not only coming to visit but also going into their territory as well.
On how hiring assistant coaches helps expand recruiting
Well, we are going to have to expand. I think, and we can talk about this here, we'll do something media-wise when we announce the assistant coaches as a group, but I think what you'll see from a recruiting philosophy here is going to be all the states that touch West Virginia. West Virginia and all the states that touch West Virginia. We want to have a really strong recruiting presence. Everybody on our staff is going to have a primary recruiting area within that geographic footprint, and then, we'll go into the southeast – Florida, Georgia, Alabama, probably into Mississippi junior college and some Kansas junior colleges, where we have really strong relationships and a good brand. West Virginia has a good brand, and we're obviously well-known from a coaching standpoint as well.
On recruiting in the Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C. area
I tried to do that in January, as we tried to be as efficient as possible as we moved through January. I think I was out every day, too, that I legally could be. Weather got us one day, but I got in several high schools here in West Virginia. I spent a day in Pittsburgh. I spent two in D.C. I didn't get into Ohio as much this time as I will when I have the next opportunity, but we did. We were in that footprint as much as we possibly could while trying to chase the signees and going to see the guys who signed in December as well. That's the thing, and people don't think about it, but probably the biggest disadvantage of getting into a situation late is, in January, what most of our competitors are doing is there probably going to sign two-to-five today, at the most. But they're 2020 and 2021 recruiting, okay? What we did is we tried to get in as many schools, chase as many 2020 and 2021 kids as we could, but our primary function was to make sure the December guys were in good shape and try to secure the signees that we did sign. So, we're a little bit, and as crazy as it sounds, we're sitting here in February, and we're probably a little bit behind, definitely, on the (2020) class and even a little on the 2021 class.
On transitioning from competing with Alabama and Auburn for recruits at Troy to recruiting in West Virginia
That's a really good question, I'll say that. It's not something that at Troy we really thought about a lot. It was what it was. We weren't necessarily going to go head-to-head and beat the Alabama's and Auburn's. What we were trying to do was those schools were recruiting nationally, so we were trying to really fit and make us have a really strong geographic footprint right there in Alabama. But I think being the in the state here and having a strong brand within this geographic footprint is critical. We feel like we can compete and win against anybody. If we do our job, are diligent and build relationships, then we should have as good of a chance as anybody in West Virginia and all the states that surround it.
On off-the-field recruiting personnel
Again, I'll do a better job of answering this later. I'm not trying to dodge your question by any means. I think what we're trying to do is be competitive with the people we are going against. Recruiting, and you know this, it's such a long process now. It's such an in-depth process that I think you need multiple people. You need a recruiting division almost within your staff, and that's what we're trying to establish here. We've made some hires, we have some additions to make and hopefully, we'll do that here in the near future.
On evaluating recruits with assistant coach (defensive coordinator/safeties) Vic Koenning
There's a lot of trust involved. Obviously, we've been together now going on five years. If you look at his history and the amount of NFL players he has produced, you'll see the production he's had across the board at all the positions within his defensive scheme at all his stops. So, there's a lot of trust there. I feel like, as a staff, that we've done a good job evaluating. Even before I was a head coach or a coordinator, I feel like we've done a good job of identifying talent. You can always talk about it. There are three things you have to do. No. 1 is you have to be good enough as a player, because when you're watching the tape, if the kid's not good enough, you don't ever get past that. It's either yes or no. So, yes, he is, then he goes into an academic evaluation. Can he be successful? Is he going to be a qualifier? Can he be successful at the college level? If the answer is no to that, you stop. If the answer is yes to that, then you go to the character question. Can he make it in our program? Is he the type of guy we want representing our program? If the answer to those three things is yes and it's a schematic fit, then that's the guy we go on. If Vic feels strongly, and we've had our disagreements, but as the head coach, I have the final say, but if he feels really good about a prospect and their evaluation, then he's definitely heard.
On what his process of approving a recruit looks like
It's a thinning out. What it does is you have the initial evaluation, and we're going to be an area recruiting staff. What I mean by that is, everybody is going to have geographic areas, and you're going to go through your area and find the top prospects within that area. You'll be the main recruiter, and then, the position coach will be involved as the secondary recruiter. And as the head coach, you're always involved. That's the way we go about it, and I'll have final say. Obviously, I want those position coaches to have a lot of input in their rooms. I always tell them, 'Don't complain about the people in your room. You chose them. Don't come complaining to me about not having players when you chose them.' But that's how we'll go about it.
On if he works with the recruiting numbers
Yeah, we do. We'll work with Brian Bennett, who you'll meet if you haven't, our director of player personnel. We'll work and figure out those numbers and what they look like.
On his philosophy on early official visits
It's probably too early to tell, honestly. We don't have a feel for them just yet. I want to get here in the spring and get a feel for what a spring game crowd looks like, because I think that can be a huge benefit if we're well-supported at the spring game, which is going to be April 13, at 1 p.m. There you go. In the summer, I think you'll see fewer of them in this initial recruiting cycle until I get a good feel for everything that's here in Morgantown.
On filling the final three scholarship spots
It's to be determined. We want to try and find the three best players. If we don't, then we'll push them over, and that means we can sign 28 in the next class.
On his relationship with 2019 signee Jordan Jefferson
It got interesting here late, even as late as last night. I think that's really what got us over the hump. I think there was a lot of trust level there between Coach (assistant coach – defense) (Jordan) Lesley and his family and myself, because we've known him for a long time. That was a definite benefit. The other thing is when you got through recruiting, so many decisions are made off junior tape, and what happens, especially late in the process, whether other schools lose people or things like that, they go back and evaluate the senior tape. In coaching transitions, they go back, and I think people went back and watched his senior tape and were like, 'Wow.' Here's a kid that's one of the best, if not the best, defensive linemen that's available.
On his philosophy on preferred walk-ons
I think if you look at our roster, and that's a great question first of all. I feel like, as a guy who went through that route at the University of Kentucky and earned a scholarship, those guys are really the glue of your football team, and there's a lot of passion in that, especially guys who are in-state that earn a preferred walk-on opportunity or just a walk-on in general. I think you can go through our roster right now, and you can see a lot of evidence of that – guys that have really worked their way up, whether that be in success on offense, defense or special teams. What we're doing is we're identifying those guys. There are some guys have committed to us as preferred walk-ons, and we're excited about that. I can't talk about them today. Our walk-ons here, if you look at the success of the walk-ons at West Virginia, that's a legacy we want to continue, for sure.
On hitting the ground running and how much time he's spent in Morgantown
That's funny. I've been here all Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. So, the first week, I was here the whole week. The good thing about this is, other than I'm speaking at a clinic in Columbus tomorrow, I'm here in Morgantown all week. I'm looking forward to getting in a routine. That's the thing, getting in a routine here. My family is moving this weekend, so I'm excited to get all us under one roof again.
On which members of his staff will recruit which areas
We're in process of doing that, and what we'll do is when we announce the staff that will be a part of the release. You all are going to have some opportunities to answer questions with those guys, too.
Players Mentioned
Gold-Blue Spring Festival Fan Recap
Sunday, April 19
John Neider | April 18
Saturday, April 18
Coach Zac Alley | April 18
Saturday, April 18
Coach Rich Rodriguez | April 18
Saturday, April 18
