Photo by: Caleb Saunders
Monday’s Mountaineer Football Notebook
September 14, 2020 03:31 PM | Football, Blog
MORGANTOWN, W.VA. – Neal Brown did something Monday morning he hasn't done since taking the West Virginia football job 20 months ago – compliment the Mountaineer ground game.
WVU ran the ball 51 times for 329 yards and five touchdowns in last Saturday's 56-10 victory over Eastern Kentucky.
That represents nearly one-third of West Virginia's total rushing output in 2019, and nearly matched the seven rushing touchdowns it generated in 12 games last year.
Leddie Brown and Alec Sinkfield each rushed for 123 yards – career highs for both, while Tony Mathis Jr. carried 18 times for 55 yards.
And blocking up front were a pair of first-time starters in true freshman center Zach Frazier and left tackle Brandon Yates as a result of the one-game suspensions Brown handed down to 11 players before last Saturday's game.
"Offensively, we ran the ball better than at any point last year so that was a positive for the O-line, tight ends, running backs," Brown said Monday during his weekly Big 12 teleconference. "All of those guys' play was much improved."
Brown also complimented his team's communication for the first game despite playing a lot of young guys in all three phases.
West Virginia also had a number of explosive plays in the running and passing games, which is something Brown believes is going to be necessary in order to be successful in Big 12 play this season.
On the other side of the ball, Brown praised his team's third down defense, which limited Eastern Kentucky to just a 1-for-11 success rate.
"We limited explosive plays, and I thought (safety) Alonzo Addae and (inside linebacker) Tony Fields, in their first games, played really well for us," he said.
Addae made the play of the game when he flattened out to make a diving, second-quarter interception at midfield that resulted in points for the offense, while Fields led all tacklers with 10 total stops coming off the bench. Addae added seven tackles and a pass breakup.
However, Brown noted special teams are still a work in progress. A good portion of West Virginia's eight penalties on Saturday occurred during punts and kickoffs. The Mountaineers also gave up a 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown that was negated by offsetting penalties.
"Special teams didn't perform as well as we would have liked - nothing glaring, just not up to our standards in that department," he said.
"Glad to get a game under our belt, but our discipline and our attention to detail must improve once we get into league play," Brown concluded.
Briefly:
* Brown said Monday that starting right guard Michael Brown, injured during the first offensive series of the third quarter, should "be fine."
* Brown said he called everything he planned to call heading into the game. Overall, the Mountaineer offense got 86 total snaps on Saturday.
"We were pretty simple and that's what we wanted to do," he explained. "A lot of that was due to first game and some of that was due to the youth that we were playing. Defensively, we did not call as much. I think we had 49 countable snaps. Purposely, we didn't show a whole lot on defense."
Brown admitted the Big 12 opener at Oklahoma State has been his team's target date all along.
"We set the 26th up to get ready football-wise, so that's kind of how we've gone about our preparation from a staff standpoint," he said. "It will be kind of a mix of a normal bye week and kind of a camp-style practice session (this week). We will practice at least four times, and we will do a lot of (good on good) versus each other."
* A significant number of true freshmen played during Saturday's game, including quarterback Garrett Greene. True freshman can play this season without losing eligibility because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Greene engineered a 96-yard touchdown drive in the fourth quarter while completing three of his four pass attempts for 24 yards and also rushing five times for 33 yards.
"I was glad we got to play him and that was the hope going into the game," Brown said. "He was up and down. I thought he really only had one bad decision and that was the time I got on him when he kind of danced on the sideline a little bit, which when you are up by that score you don't need to do that. But he played the game with great energy.
"He has extremely competitiveness, which is a positive," Brown added. "I thought he got the ball out of his hand. He ran the ball pretty effectively. His first play wasn't very good, and he got hit, so I think he learned from that."
* Brown said defensively things ran smoothly with defensive line coach Jordan Lesley and cornerbacks coach Jahmile Addae collaborating on play-calling duties.
"They have professionals about it the whole time," Brown said. "They've made the kids the No. 1 priority and that's what I've asked them to do. We've talked about being a player-first program and that's what they've done.
"I thought our communication was solid throughout. There were some things in the game we've got to do better; we've got to tackle better," Brown added. "We missed-fit some things, but as far as Jahmile and Jordan are concerned I thought the communication was good, and I thought they had our kids in good position to make plays."
* Oklahoma State's season opener against Tulsa was postponed seven days because of a rash of positive coronavirus cases within the Golden Hurricanes' program. The two will try and play this Saturday at noon.
According to Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy, the Cowboys are sitting at zero positive cases as of Monday morning.
WVU ran the ball 51 times for 329 yards and five touchdowns in last Saturday's 56-10 victory over Eastern Kentucky.
That represents nearly one-third of West Virginia's total rushing output in 2019, and nearly matched the seven rushing touchdowns it generated in 12 games last year.
Leddie Brown and Alec Sinkfield each rushed for 123 yards – career highs for both, while Tony Mathis Jr. carried 18 times for 55 yards.
And blocking up front were a pair of first-time starters in true freshman center Zach Frazier and left tackle Brandon Yates as a result of the one-game suspensions Brown handed down to 11 players before last Saturday's game.
"Offensively, we ran the ball better than at any point last year so that was a positive for the O-line, tight ends, running backs," Brown said Monday during his weekly Big 12 teleconference. "All of those guys' play was much improved."
Brown also complimented his team's communication for the first game despite playing a lot of young guys in all three phases.
West Virginia also had a number of explosive plays in the running and passing games, which is something Brown believes is going to be necessary in order to be successful in Big 12 play this season.
On the other side of the ball, Brown praised his team's third down defense, which limited Eastern Kentucky to just a 1-for-11 success rate.
"We limited explosive plays, and I thought (safety) Alonzo Addae and (inside linebacker) Tony Fields, in their first games, played really well for us," he said.
Addae made the play of the game when he flattened out to make a diving, second-quarter interception at midfield that resulted in points for the offense, while Fields led all tacklers with 10 total stops coming off the bench. Addae added seven tackles and a pass breakup.
However, Brown noted special teams are still a work in progress. A good portion of West Virginia's eight penalties on Saturday occurred during punts and kickoffs. The Mountaineers also gave up a 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown that was negated by offsetting penalties.
"Special teams didn't perform as well as we would have liked - nothing glaring, just not up to our standards in that department," he said.
"Glad to get a game under our belt, but our discipline and our attention to detail must improve once we get into league play," Brown concluded.
Briefly:
* Brown said Monday that starting right guard Michael Brown, injured during the first offensive series of the third quarter, should "be fine."
* Brown said he called everything he planned to call heading into the game. Overall, the Mountaineer offense got 86 total snaps on Saturday.
"We were pretty simple and that's what we wanted to do," he explained. "A lot of that was due to first game and some of that was due to the youth that we were playing. Defensively, we did not call as much. I think we had 49 countable snaps. Purposely, we didn't show a whole lot on defense."
Brown admitted the Big 12 opener at Oklahoma State has been his team's target date all along.
"We set the 26th up to get ready football-wise, so that's kind of how we've gone about our preparation from a staff standpoint," he said. "It will be kind of a mix of a normal bye week and kind of a camp-style practice session (this week). We will practice at least four times, and we will do a lot of (good on good) versus each other."
* A significant number of true freshmen played during Saturday's game, including quarterback Garrett Greene. True freshman can play this season without losing eligibility because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Greene engineered a 96-yard touchdown drive in the fourth quarter while completing three of his four pass attempts for 24 yards and also rushing five times for 33 yards.
"I was glad we got to play him and that was the hope going into the game," Brown said. "He was up and down. I thought he really only had one bad decision and that was the time I got on him when he kind of danced on the sideline a little bit, which when you are up by that score you don't need to do that. But he played the game with great energy.
"He has extremely competitiveness, which is a positive," Brown added. "I thought he got the ball out of his hand. He ran the ball pretty effectively. His first play wasn't very good, and he got hit, so I think he learned from that."
* Brown said defensively things ran smoothly with defensive line coach Jordan Lesley and cornerbacks coach Jahmile Addae collaborating on play-calling duties.
"They have professionals about it the whole time," Brown said. "They've made the kids the No. 1 priority and that's what I've asked them to do. We've talked about being a player-first program and that's what they've done.
"I thought our communication was solid throughout. There were some things in the game we've got to do better; we've got to tackle better," Brown added. "We missed-fit some things, but as far as Jahmile and Jordan are concerned I thought the communication was good, and I thought they had our kids in good position to make plays."
* Oklahoma State's season opener against Tulsa was postponed seven days because of a rash of positive coronavirus cases within the Golden Hurricanes' program. The two will try and play this Saturday at noon.
According to Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy, the Cowboys are sitting at zero positive cases as of Monday morning.
Players Mentioned
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