Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Spring Football Practice Underway
March 19, 2019 09:39 PM | Football
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Neal Brown said he liked the enthusiasm and the effort from his West Virginia football team on the first practice of the spring Tuesday afternoon.
"The weather was great," he said afterward. "What I appreciate about this group is we probably have 98, 99 percent of these guys that are really trying to do the right thing and they are bought in. We have very few people that aren't."
Brown noted today is merely a starting point for his young football team.
"There were times today when it wasn't pretty, which is to be expected, and there were periods that were really good," he said. "I thought there were some guys that redshirted last year that had some moments today."
Among the young players Brown singled out were wide receivers Bryce Wheaton and Sam James, and cornerback Keith Washington Jr., who intercepted a pass and returned it for a touchdown.
Brown said the three quarterbacks were rusty, which was to be expected.
"It takes a while, pass game wise, to get some timing down, but I thought all three did some good things," Brown said. "Jack (Allison), I think he has some confidence. He probably didn't play as well as he wanted in the bowl game but he got used to leading the offense.
"I thought Austin (Kendall) had command, which is difficult to do with a new team. He's less than three months being here, and I thought Trey Lowe (III) looked improved, just based on some of the practice stuff I saw last fall."
The team practiced today in shorts and helmets.
"We'll come back, watch the film, make corrections and come back on Thursday and do it again," Brown said.
According to the coach, his offensive installation will consume three full practices to get in the base runs, screens, protections, play-action concepts, quick game and deep passes. Then they will add motions followed by run and pass tags.
The fourth practice will be a repeat of day one and practice five will be a repeat of day two.
"Over 15 practices, we get five for each install," he explained.
Brown said his offensive system is fairly similar to what Dana Holgorsen ran at WVU with different terminology, of course, so there is some overlap.
"That's probably been on us as much as a staff to say, 'Hey, they used to call it this and we call it this. Let's use the terminology from a year ago because it will be easier for a couple of staff members to change than the whole team,'" Brown said.
Defensively, the scheme is totally different which means defensive coordinator Vic Koenning will have to spoon-feed his system to the players once used to playing Tony Gibson's 3-3 stack scheme.
To help things along, the staff put together some teach tapes for the players to watch on their tablets and phones when they have some spare time.
"It's mostly schematics," Brown said. "We're using some things that we did at Troy, and we were able to do that with the rules that allow you to watch video and meet. You basically have eight hours with the guys, so you're limited. What you do is post them and they can go and watch it on their phones or their iPad or whatever."
Earlier this month, Brown revealed the staff assignments with the exception of special teams. This evening he mapped those out.
Inside linebackers coach Blake Seiler will be coordinate the special teams including punt, but other assistants will take the lead on their special teams units.
Outside linebackers coach Al Pogue will handle punt return, secondary coach Jahmile Addae will be responsible for kickoff and running backs coach Chad Scott will take kickoff return.
Offensive line coach Matt Moore will lead the field goal team and defensive line coach Jordan Lesley will oversee field goal block.
"We invest a lot of time and energy (in special teams), from using our best players to all of our coaches being actively involved in special teams," Brown explained.
Brown said special teams will be worked "25 to 30 minutes" every single practice. All areas were covered during today's practice.
West Virginia's annual Pro Day will take place Thursday morning in the Caperton Indoor Practice Facility prior to Thursday afternoon's practice. Representatives from all 32 teams are expected to be in Morgantown to watch workouts organized by veteran strength and conditioning coach Mike Joseph. Pro Day is not open to the general public.
This Saturday, Brown said the team will have its Family Day where parents, guardians and immediate family members of the players will be invited to watch practice inside the stadium.
"The weather was great," he said afterward. "What I appreciate about this group is we probably have 98, 99 percent of these guys that are really trying to do the right thing and they are bought in. We have very few people that aren't."
Brown noted today is merely a starting point for his young football team.
"There were times today when it wasn't pretty, which is to be expected, and there were periods that were really good," he said. "I thought there were some guys that redshirted last year that had some moments today."
Among the young players Brown singled out were wide receivers Bryce Wheaton and Sam James, and cornerback Keith Washington Jr., who intercepted a pass and returned it for a touchdown.
Brown said the three quarterbacks were rusty, which was to be expected.
"It takes a while, pass game wise, to get some timing down, but I thought all three did some good things," Brown said. "Jack (Allison), I think he has some confidence. He probably didn't play as well as he wanted in the bowl game but he got used to leading the offense.
"I thought Austin (Kendall) had command, which is difficult to do with a new team. He's less than three months being here, and I thought Trey Lowe (III) looked improved, just based on some of the practice stuff I saw last fall."
The team practiced today in shorts and helmets.
"We'll come back, watch the film, make corrections and come back on Thursday and do it again," Brown said.
According to the coach, his offensive installation will consume three full practices to get in the base runs, screens, protections, play-action concepts, quick game and deep passes. Then they will add motions followed by run and pass tags.
Practice No. 1??#HailWV pic.twitter.com/oTm6lhbnGm
— West Virginia Football (@WVUfootball) March 20, 2019
The fourth practice will be a repeat of day one and practice five will be a repeat of day two.
"Over 15 practices, we get five for each install," he explained.
Brown said his offensive system is fairly similar to what Dana Holgorsen ran at WVU with different terminology, of course, so there is some overlap.
"That's probably been on us as much as a staff to say, 'Hey, they used to call it this and we call it this. Let's use the terminology from a year ago because it will be easier for a couple of staff members to change than the whole team,'" Brown said.
Defensively, the scheme is totally different which means defensive coordinator Vic Koenning will have to spoon-feed his system to the players once used to playing Tony Gibson's 3-3 stack scheme.
To help things along, the staff put together some teach tapes for the players to watch on their tablets and phones when they have some spare time.
"It's mostly schematics," Brown said. "We're using some things that we did at Troy, and we were able to do that with the rules that allow you to watch video and meet. You basically have eight hours with the guys, so you're limited. What you do is post them and they can go and watch it on their phones or their iPad or whatever."
Earlier this month, Brown revealed the staff assignments with the exception of special teams. This evening he mapped those out.Inside linebackers coach Blake Seiler will be coordinate the special teams including punt, but other assistants will take the lead on their special teams units.
Outside linebackers coach Al Pogue will handle punt return, secondary coach Jahmile Addae will be responsible for kickoff and running backs coach Chad Scott will take kickoff return.
Offensive line coach Matt Moore will lead the field goal team and defensive line coach Jordan Lesley will oversee field goal block.
"We invest a lot of time and energy (in special teams), from using our best players to all of our coaches being actively involved in special teams," Brown explained.
Brown said special teams will be worked "25 to 30 minutes" every single practice. All areas were covered during today's practice.
West Virginia's annual Pro Day will take place Thursday morning in the Caperton Indoor Practice Facility prior to Thursday afternoon's practice. Representatives from all 32 teams are expected to be in Morgantown to watch workouts organized by veteran strength and conditioning coach Mike Joseph. Pro Day is not open to the general public.
This Saturday, Brown said the team will have its Family Day where parents, guardians and immediate family members of the players will be invited to watch practice inside the stadium.
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
