Photo by: WVU Athletic Communications
WVU’s Brown Disappointed But Not Discouraged
September 08, 2019 10:07 AM | Football, Blog
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Neal Brown made it a point following Saturday's 38-7 defeat at Missouri to say that he was disappointed in his team's performance, but was by no means discouraged.
He reminds everyone daily to "trust the climb." That's the hashtag everyone involved with West Virginia's football program uses each time something is posted on social media.
That simple message perfectly illustrates where this young football program is right now, but also where it is headed.
Scaling great heights is never easy and there are no secret sauces or shortcuts to getting there. It's going to take a lot of hard work. James Madison showed us that last week and Missouri reaffirmed it yesterday in Columbia.
Keep in mind, there are no Darryl Talleys, Oliver Lucks, Fulton Walkers, Robert Alexanders, Walter Easleys, Delbert Fowlers, Calvin Turners, Cedric Thomases or Todd Campbells running around out there like Don Nehlen had when he began his climb back in 1980.
All of those guys Nehlen inherited from Frank Cignetti were damned good college football players – and in some cases, really good professionals. They just didn't know it, but Nehlen made them believe it.
With the exception of Colton McKivitz and Reese Donahue, Brown is working with an extremely inexperienced football team in all phases.
Even his older guys are really inexperienced.
And all of them have played just two live games of Neal Brown football so far.
"We are a work in progress. I've been saying that, really, since I got here," Brown pointed out. "That's not a negative. That's what it is. That's where we are at. We have some deficiencies and I've been pretty open about those. They were exposed last week in certain spots, but this week we played against a team that has got several NFL players and they were fully taken advantage of."
West Virginia's offensive struggles on Saturday really boiled down to its inability to get positive yardage on first and second down. According to MSN analyst Dwight Wallace during yesterday's radio broadcast, nine of West Virginia's first 11 offensive drives had at least one negative yardage play.
Six of them started backwards. Not even the New England Patriots can win football games that way.
"We are a team right now that really struggles to run the ball and when you really struggle to run the ball then they can pin their ears back and come. When you get in a lot of long distance situations nobody is going to be any good on second and long and third and long when you play that way the whole game," Brown explained.
What Missouri did to West Virginia's offense on Saturday is no different than what James Madison did last week, or what NC State is going to do this Saturday or what Kansas is going to do in a couple of weeks.
They are going to put an extra guy in the box, play press-man coverage on West Virginia's young outside receivers and dare them to beat them downfield or dare West Virginia's running backs to break some tackles at the line of scrimmage.
Football is a game of strengths and weaknesses, and weaknesses will be exploited until they are no longer weaknesses.
"Here is the deal, and I don't think I'm saying anything that anybody playing us doesn't already know. Everybody that plays us is going to do this - they are going to get into some kind of front where they make us block one-on-one situations," Brown said. "They are going to put one more in the box, and they are going to play man coverage.
"So until we win one-on-one blocks, until we win in one-on-one coverage and until we break a tackle then we're going to struggle."
Brown continued.
"Football is a pretty easy numbers game. You've got one handing it off and one running it, so you've got nine on nine and you've got to win (those matchups)," Brown said. "That's what people are doing."
As for the five guys blocking up front, Brown said those are the best he's got until the ones behind them on the roster prove otherwise.
"Those five didn't necessarily play great, but nobody behind them has shown that they are ready to play," he admitted. "That's an issue we have. We've really been exposed two weeks on it so we've got to get those guys better. We've got to do a lot better from a detail standpoint.
"We don't do a very good job with our eyes. Pre-snap movement has killed us in both games so we've got to get better, but it's also an indicator that those guys behind them have not shown enough in practice that they are ready to play," he said.
Moving forward, Brown said he thought his players displayed more fight in the second half when they could have easily packed it in.
That's something to build on, perhaps a small first step on the journey upward.
"I was proud of how our guys competed in the second half. We had a nice discussion at halftime, and I thought they came out, especially defense and special teams," he said. "Offense was a mess until the fourth quarter when we finally started being physical for the first time in two games."
The climb continues this week in preparation for Saturday's game against 2-0 NC State, which is coming off blowout victories over East Carolina and Western Carolina.
He reminds everyone daily to "trust the climb." That's the hashtag everyone involved with West Virginia's football program uses each time something is posted on social media.
That simple message perfectly illustrates where this young football program is right now, but also where it is headed.
Scaling great heights is never easy and there are no secret sauces or shortcuts to getting there. It's going to take a lot of hard work. James Madison showed us that last week and Missouri reaffirmed it yesterday in Columbia.
Keep in mind, there are no Darryl Talleys, Oliver Lucks, Fulton Walkers, Robert Alexanders, Walter Easleys, Delbert Fowlers, Calvin Turners, Cedric Thomases or Todd Campbells running around out there like Don Nehlen had when he began his climb back in 1980.
All of those guys Nehlen inherited from Frank Cignetti were damned good college football players – and in some cases, really good professionals. They just didn't know it, but Nehlen made them believe it.
With the exception of Colton McKivitz and Reese Donahue, Brown is working with an extremely inexperienced football team in all phases.
Even his older guys are really inexperienced.
And all of them have played just two live games of Neal Brown football so far.
"We are a work in progress. I've been saying that, really, since I got here," Brown pointed out. "That's not a negative. That's what it is. That's where we are at. We have some deficiencies and I've been pretty open about those. They were exposed last week in certain spots, but this week we played against a team that has got several NFL players and they were fully taken advantage of."
West Virginia's offensive struggles on Saturday really boiled down to its inability to get positive yardage on first and second down. According to MSN analyst Dwight Wallace during yesterday's radio broadcast, nine of West Virginia's first 11 offensive drives had at least one negative yardage play.
Six of them started backwards. Not even the New England Patriots can win football games that way.
"We are a team right now that really struggles to run the ball and when you really struggle to run the ball then they can pin their ears back and come. When you get in a lot of long distance situations nobody is going to be any good on second and long and third and long when you play that way the whole game," Brown explained.
What Missouri did to West Virginia's offense on Saturday is no different than what James Madison did last week, or what NC State is going to do this Saturday or what Kansas is going to do in a couple of weeks.
They are going to put an extra guy in the box, play press-man coverage on West Virginia's young outside receivers and dare them to beat them downfield or dare West Virginia's running backs to break some tackles at the line of scrimmage. Football is a game of strengths and weaknesses, and weaknesses will be exploited until they are no longer weaknesses.
"Here is the deal, and I don't think I'm saying anything that anybody playing us doesn't already know. Everybody that plays us is going to do this - they are going to get into some kind of front where they make us block one-on-one situations," Brown said. "They are going to put one more in the box, and they are going to play man coverage.
"So until we win one-on-one blocks, until we win in one-on-one coverage and until we break a tackle then we're going to struggle."
Brown continued.
"Football is a pretty easy numbers game. You've got one handing it off and one running it, so you've got nine on nine and you've got to win (those matchups)," Brown said. "That's what people are doing."
As for the five guys blocking up front, Brown said those are the best he's got until the ones behind them on the roster prove otherwise.
"Those five didn't necessarily play great, but nobody behind them has shown that they are ready to play," he admitted. "That's an issue we have. We've really been exposed two weeks on it so we've got to get those guys better. We've got to do a lot better from a detail standpoint.
"We don't do a very good job with our eyes. Pre-snap movement has killed us in both games so we've got to get better, but it's also an indicator that those guys behind them have not shown enough in practice that they are ready to play," he said.
Moving forward, Brown said he thought his players displayed more fight in the second half when they could have easily packed it in.
That's something to build on, perhaps a small first step on the journey upward.
"I was proud of how our guys competed in the second half. We had a nice discussion at halftime, and I thought they came out, especially defense and special teams," he said. "Offense was a mess until the fourth quarter when we finally started being physical for the first time in two games."
The climb continues this week in preparation for Saturday's game against 2-0 NC State, which is coming off blowout victories over East Carolina and Western Carolina.
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