Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Mountaineers Open Preseason Camp Friday
August 01, 2019 04:34 PM | Football
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – It's that time of year again!
Preseason West Virginia University football drills begin Friday morning and will continue Saturday when first-year coach Neal Brown will give the general public its first look at the 2019 Mountaineers as part of Fan Day.
Fans will get an opportunity to observe practice inside Milan Puskar Stadium following an autograph session that begins at 10 a.m. and concludes at 11:30 a.m.
The team has workouts scheduled for Sunday, Monday and Tuesday before taking a break from on-field activities next Wednesday.
Field work resumes on Thursday and will continue for seven consecutive days until the next break on Friday, Aug. 16, and Saturday, Aug. 17.
Preseason camp work concludes with practices on Sunday, Aug. 18, Monday, Aug. 19, and Tuesday, Aug. 20 before classes resume for the fall semester on Wednesday, Aug. 21.
Brown will have just four starters returning on offense and five on defense for his debut season leading the Mountaineer program, which actually got 24 votes in the Amway coaches' poll released earlier today.
"We're young and very inexperienced," he says. "What we're going to look like in the fall I'm not sure yet. We're going to be a group that really grows and improves as we go through our Big 12 Conference and what is a very challenging schedule."
It is a challenging schedule.
Three Big 12 opponents are in the preseason coaches' poll and four others received votes. A fifth, Missouri, would have gotten votes but the Tigers are on probation as a result of NCAA sanctions.
West Virginia is one of only four teams to play 11 Power 5 grid foes this year, and one of only two to have just six home games in 2019 (Boston College is the other), which is not really ideal for a new coach introducing a new system for the first time.
"First of all, I knew what the schedule was when I took the job," Brown said last month at Big 12 media day. "When you look at the schedule it is what it is. We don't talk to our players about it – kind of a one-game mindset – and that's cliché."
Brown is one of four first-year coaches in the Big 12 this year, joining Kansas veteran coach Les Miles, Texas Tech's Matt Wells and Kansas State's Chris Klieman.
All four have enjoyed considerable success at their prior jobs.
"I think there were quality hires across the league," Brown said. "This is a league of tremendous coaches and really innovative coaches – guys that have won at different levels. I grew up in a family of educators and I've really been around sports my whole life.
"What I really respect about the group of head coaches in this league is so many of them worked their way up from lower levels, lower positions, and worked their way up to really the highest level of Power 5 college football."
Speaking of first-year coaches, Brown will be matching wits with James Madison first-year coach Curt Cignetti, a familiar name to Mountaineer football fans. Curt's father Frank Cignetti Sr. coached four seasons at West Virginia from 1976-79 and Curt spent a portion of his career playing for his father before finishing it with Don Nehlen in 1981.
Cignetti is leading a James Madison program that returns nearly everyone from last year's team that won nine games and is expected to reach the FCS playoffs once again this year. The Dukes are returning a quarterback with Power 5 experience in former Pitt transfer Ben DiNucci.
West Virginia will begin camp on Friday working on West Virginia, but it will soon transition to preparation for James Madison when the Dukes come to Morgantown to open the season on Saturday, Aug. 31.
"I'm looking at fall camp to create a pecking order and see who is going to earn the opportunity to play the most snaps when we kick off against JMU," Brown concluded.
Preseason West Virginia University football drills begin Friday morning and will continue Saturday when first-year coach Neal Brown will give the general public its first look at the 2019 Mountaineers as part of Fan Day.
Fans will get an opportunity to observe practice inside Milan Puskar Stadium following an autograph session that begins at 10 a.m. and concludes at 11:30 a.m.
The team has workouts scheduled for Sunday, Monday and Tuesday before taking a break from on-field activities next Wednesday.
Field work resumes on Thursday and will continue for seven consecutive days until the next break on Friday, Aug. 16, and Saturday, Aug. 17.
Preseason camp work concludes with practices on Sunday, Aug. 18, Monday, Aug. 19, and Tuesday, Aug. 20 before classes resume for the fall semester on Wednesday, Aug. 21.
Brown will have just four starters returning on offense and five on defense for his debut season leading the Mountaineer program, which actually got 24 votes in the Amway coaches' poll released earlier today.
"We're young and very inexperienced," he says. "What we're going to look like in the fall I'm not sure yet. We're going to be a group that really grows and improves as we go through our Big 12 Conference and what is a very challenging schedule."
It is a challenging schedule.
Three Big 12 opponents are in the preseason coaches' poll and four others received votes. A fifth, Missouri, would have gotten votes but the Tigers are on probation as a result of NCAA sanctions.
West Virginia is one of only four teams to play 11 Power 5 grid foes this year, and one of only two to have just six home games in 2019 (Boston College is the other), which is not really ideal for a new coach introducing a new system for the first time.
"First of all, I knew what the schedule was when I took the job," Brown said last month at Big 12 media day. "When you look at the schedule it is what it is. We don't talk to our players about it – kind of a one-game mindset – and that's cliché."
Brown is one of four first-year coaches in the Big 12 this year, joining Kansas veteran coach Les Miles, Texas Tech's Matt Wells and Kansas State's Chris Klieman.
All four have enjoyed considerable success at their prior jobs.
"I think there were quality hires across the league," Brown said. "This is a league of tremendous coaches and really innovative coaches – guys that have won at different levels. I grew up in a family of educators and I've really been around sports my whole life.
"What I really respect about the group of head coaches in this league is so many of them worked their way up from lower levels, lower positions, and worked their way up to really the highest level of Power 5 college football."Speaking of first-year coaches, Brown will be matching wits with James Madison first-year coach Curt Cignetti, a familiar name to Mountaineer football fans. Curt's father Frank Cignetti Sr. coached four seasons at West Virginia from 1976-79 and Curt spent a portion of his career playing for his father before finishing it with Don Nehlen in 1981.
Cignetti is leading a James Madison program that returns nearly everyone from last year's team that won nine games and is expected to reach the FCS playoffs once again this year. The Dukes are returning a quarterback with Power 5 experience in former Pitt transfer Ben DiNucci.
West Virginia will begin camp on Friday working on West Virginia, but it will soon transition to preparation for James Madison when the Dukes come to Morgantown to open the season on Saturday, Aug. 31.
"I'm looking at fall camp to create a pecking order and see who is going to earn the opportunity to play the most snaps when we kick off against JMU," Brown concluded.
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