Photo by: Ken Inness/ZUMA Press
WVU’s Brown Hopeful Football Will Resume This Fall
April 29, 2020 02:48 PM | Football
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Neal Brown covered lots of topics during his 30-minute Zoom visit with media earlier today.
He began this morning by offering his condolences to Jim Galusky's family. The longtime football videographer died this past Sunday following a brief battle with esophageal cancer.
He also offered his congratulations to West Virginia's NFL Draft picks, Kenny Robinson Jr. and Colton McKivitz, as well as the four players who have signed free agent contracts so far.
"I've maintained contact with (Robinson) throughout, and I'm happy for him," Brown said this morning. "I thought he did a really good job with the article he wrote on The Player's Tribune. He took ownership, and I'm happy he's getting a second chance.
"I believe people deserve second chances; he paid his price, went to the XFL, and now he's got an opportunity to pursue his dreams, and we support him in that."
As for McKvitz, who went one pick later than Robinson in the fifth round to the San Francisco 49ers, Brown believes McKivitz is going into a great situation there.
"What they do offensively really matches his skill set," Brown noted. "He did a tremendous job for us, and I think he will have a long NFL career."
Brown said his focus right now continues to be on the health and wellness of his players. They have been in a routine for more than a month built around academics, nutrition, virtual meetings, individualized workouts and unmonitored football skill work.
The players are wrapping up virtual classes this week and will have their final exams next week.
"Brittney O'Dell and her staff have really done a great job throughout," Brown said. "We've maintained tutoring sessions, the academic advisors have been in daily contact with our players and I can't praise her and her staff enough."
Virtual player meetings have included some visits from former Mountaineer players Pacman Jones and Pat McAfee. Brown said he usually makes introductory remarks and then steps aside to let the former players talk more freely with his players.
"I feel that's kind of their sacred time and I found out the last one lasted a couple of hours, and I heard they had a really good time with that," he noted.
The coach said he's remaining hopeful and cautiously optimistic that football will resume this fall.
Briefly:
* Brown said recruiting has been going well since the shutdown, and he's added some commitments since then.
All of the players who have committed already visited campus before the COVID-19 virus forced shutdowns across the country.
"Right now, our coaches are virtually recruiting," he said. "You've seen the graphics going out (on social media) and what we're trying to do during this virtual spring recruiting is we're trying to cover our areas via phone and doing some virtual tours during this time."
Brown said the plan his staff has come up with is unfolding nicely.
Coaches have maintained relationships with the prospects they have already had on campus and are now bringing the WVU campus to other prospects virtually.
"We've done virtual tours and kind of infomercial videos of who we are," Brown explained. "We try and take each of our important aspects of our program to the student-athlete and their families, whether it's nutrition, strength and conditioning, academics, facilities and all those types of things."
His hope is once the dead period is over and campuses open up again that he can get more prospects on campus for visits.
The players committing right now without stepping foot on campus are making uninformed choices, and Brown believes some of them may change their minds on signing day.
"I think some people are making decisions based on momentum on social media," he admitted. "I kind of felt that all along, but this kind of reaffirms it.
"It will be interesting to me when signing day rolls around how many of these commitments stick. There is a high percentage of commits that stick, and they stick because most people make educated decisions," he continued. "They've been on campus multiple times and it will be interesting for those who haven't been around coaches, haven't been around the team and so forth …"
* Brown said he still has two, possibly three scholarships available to complete this year's recruiting class. He indicated earlier this year he wanted to use the spring to further evaluate his program's needs to gauge how to use those remaining scholarships, but that's obviously not feasible now because he only got two workouts in before practice was canceled.
Still, he has a pretty good idea what his needs are.
"The spots where we have needs are offensive line, potentially adding an interior defensive lineman and we're thin in the secondary," he said. 'Those are the three areas if we can find the right fit that we'd like to add to our roster whenever we do return."
* Brown indicated several of the injured players from last year such as defensive end Taijh Alston and VanDarius Cowan are recovering well.
"VanDarius has done tremendous in his rehab and Taijh has done well as well," he said. "VanDarius is much ahead of schedule right now and (athletic trainer) Vince Blankenship and his group have been able to do virtual rehab and other things to continue that progress."
* Finally, Brown was asked what he thought would be an adequate time to get his team prepared for a season if players are permitted to return to campus by August.
"We're taking a wait-and-see approach and not get too far out into the future," he explained. "Everybody going through this is kind of dealing with it, and I think mistakes are made when declarations are made really too far down the road.
"Everything we've done in our league is focus on May 31, and I think Shane (Lyons), who leads the Football Oversight Committee, they've been commissioned with figuring out what returning to play looks like and they're working on that."
Based on those initial meetings and conversations with others, Brown believes a six-week return model is the one being discussed the most.
That would give players adequate time for strength and conditioning before gradually transitioning into football work.
"We're cautiously optimistic about playing the season on time," he said. "I'm sure it won't be a normal fall. What we think about a normal fall Saturday, I'm not sure it will be that, but I'm hopeful that we are going to play.
"I think our league has done a nice job of not being reactive to what's going on," he concluded.
He began this morning by offering his condolences to Jim Galusky's family. The longtime football videographer died this past Sunday following a brief battle with esophageal cancer.
He also offered his congratulations to West Virginia's NFL Draft picks, Kenny Robinson Jr. and Colton McKivitz, as well as the four players who have signed free agent contracts so far."I've maintained contact with (Robinson) throughout, and I'm happy for him," Brown said this morning. "I thought he did a really good job with the article he wrote on The Player's Tribune. He took ownership, and I'm happy he's getting a second chance.
"I believe people deserve second chances; he paid his price, went to the XFL, and now he's got an opportunity to pursue his dreams, and we support him in that."
As for McKvitz, who went one pick later than Robinson in the fifth round to the San Francisco 49ers, Brown believes McKivitz is going into a great situation there.
"What they do offensively really matches his skill set," Brown noted. "He did a tremendous job for us, and I think he will have a long NFL career."
Brown said his focus right now continues to be on the health and wellness of his players. They have been in a routine for more than a month built around academics, nutrition, virtual meetings, individualized workouts and unmonitored football skill work.
The players are wrapping up virtual classes this week and will have their final exams next week.
"Brittney O'Dell and her staff have really done a great job throughout," Brown said. "We've maintained tutoring sessions, the academic advisors have been in daily contact with our players and I can't praise her and her staff enough."
Virtual player meetings have included some visits from former Mountaineer players Pacman Jones and Pat McAfee. Brown said he usually makes introductory remarks and then steps aside to let the former players talk more freely with his players.
"I feel that's kind of their sacred time and I found out the last one lasted a couple of hours, and I heard they had a really good time with that," he noted.
The coach said he's remaining hopeful and cautiously optimistic that football will resume this fall.
Briefly:
* Brown said recruiting has been going well since the shutdown, and he's added some commitments since then.
All of the players who have committed already visited campus before the COVID-19 virus forced shutdowns across the country.
"Right now, our coaches are virtually recruiting," he said. "You've seen the graphics going out (on social media) and what we're trying to do during this virtual spring recruiting is we're trying to cover our areas via phone and doing some virtual tours during this time."
Brown said the plan his staff has come up with is unfolding nicely.
Coaches have maintained relationships with the prospects they have already had on campus and are now bringing the WVU campus to other prospects virtually.
"We've done virtual tours and kind of infomercial videos of who we are," Brown explained. "We try and take each of our important aspects of our program to the student-athlete and their families, whether it's nutrition, strength and conditioning, academics, facilities and all those types of things."
His hope is once the dead period is over and campuses open up again that he can get more prospects on campus for visits.
The players committing right now without stepping foot on campus are making uninformed choices, and Brown believes some of them may change their minds on signing day.
"I think some people are making decisions based on momentum on social media," he admitted. "I kind of felt that all along, but this kind of reaffirms it.
"It will be interesting to me when signing day rolls around how many of these commitments stick. There is a high percentage of commits that stick, and they stick because most people make educated decisions," he continued. "They've been on campus multiple times and it will be interesting for those who haven't been around coaches, haven't been around the team and so forth …"
* Brown said he still has two, possibly three scholarships available to complete this year's recruiting class. He indicated earlier this year he wanted to use the spring to further evaluate his program's needs to gauge how to use those remaining scholarships, but that's obviously not feasible now because he only got two workouts in before practice was canceled.
Still, he has a pretty good idea what his needs are.
"The spots where we have needs are offensive line, potentially adding an interior defensive lineman and we're thin in the secondary," he said. 'Those are the three areas if we can find the right fit that we'd like to add to our roster whenever we do return."
* Brown indicated several of the injured players from last year such as defensive end Taijh Alston and VanDarius Cowan are recovering well."VanDarius has done tremendous in his rehab and Taijh has done well as well," he said. "VanDarius is much ahead of schedule right now and (athletic trainer) Vince Blankenship and his group have been able to do virtual rehab and other things to continue that progress."
* Finally, Brown was asked what he thought would be an adequate time to get his team prepared for a season if players are permitted to return to campus by August.
"We're taking a wait-and-see approach and not get too far out into the future," he explained. "Everybody going through this is kind of dealing with it, and I think mistakes are made when declarations are made really too far down the road.
"Everything we've done in our league is focus on May 31, and I think Shane (Lyons), who leads the Football Oversight Committee, they've been commissioned with figuring out what returning to play looks like and they're working on that."
Based on those initial meetings and conversations with others, Brown believes a six-week return model is the one being discussed the most.
That would give players adequate time for strength and conditioning before gradually transitioning into football work.
"We're cautiously optimistic about playing the season on time," he said. "I'm sure it won't be a normal fall. What we think about a normal fall Saturday, I'm not sure it will be that, but I'm hopeful that we are going to play.
"I think our league has done a nice job of not being reactive to what's going on," he concluded.
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
