Photo by: Caleb Saunders
Mountaineers Continued Spring Football Work Monday Morning
March 29, 2021 02:47 PM | Football
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The flags are off and the pads are now on for the West Virginia University football team as it concluded day three of spring practice work on the Steve Antoline Family Football Practice Field Monday morning.
There are no flags in college football, of course, but that's how coach Neal Brown refers to the first two days of practice without pads.
Defensive coordinator Jordan Lesley, who met with media earlier today, says this is when football practice really begins.
"When you put pads on, the mentality changes and approach changes," he said. "You find out who is willing to be a physical as you want your whole group to be."
Lesley said today was another day of installation for his defense.
"As far as the install goes, now you're on day three so you are adding more pieces. It gets a little harder, not only physically, but mentally, so we wanted to expand on the install a little bit and really more situational than anything," he said. "We wanted to see how guys reacted to that, and it was about what I thought it would be.
"We had some older guys that didn't miss a beat and younger guys who struggled a bit. That's natural. That's okay," he added.
What Lesley is more concerned with is making sure his guys practice the things they are introduced correctly. He wants to make sure they know it and understand it before he moves on to something else.
"I think you should put in what you're trying to get in, practice it, let them make their mistakes and then correct it and then do the same thing again the next time you're out there because I think that's the best way to get your young guys better – and guys who are playing multiple positions, something we want to do also," he said.
Versatility has been the catchphrase for West Virginia's defense so far this spring. Brown has said versatility up front and in the safety positions is going to be important for the defense this fall.
Having players who are more versatile will help the defense absorb some of the losses it has experienced since the end of last year, and it will also allow it to have multiple answers when issues pop up.
Lesley also believes it will be helpful to those players with professional ability and aspirations.
"Versatility is always a word you hear on draft days so it's good for them, too," he said.
On the other side of the ball, offensive coordinator Gerad Parker said this morning's practice included lots of situational work.
"Today, we really pushed through and did some low red-zone work, two-minute drills and sudden change were kind of an emphasis for us," he said. "It's amazing what always happens when the field suddenly gets reduced; timing changes when everything on the field shrinks."
Parker said adding some different run-game schemes was an important part of this morning's work.
"To stay away from discussing total installs, but some of our run game is really growing so we put in some different run-game schemes that we think are really going to help us," he explained. "That was really good to see some growth in our run game, and then outside at receiver, we really did a good job pushing off the football and made some plays down the field on the outside.
"The energy was really good, and we took a step with some of our gap schemes in our run game," he added.
Parker admitted having shoulder pads on this morning really added to the intensity level of this morning's practice.
"It probably helped the pulse of practice because anytime you put those shoulder pads on everybody gets a little chipper, so we had good energy in practice, but we also took care of each other. It was good to actually be able to see guys use shoulders and hand placement and play ball."
West Virginia is scheduled to have two more practices this week on Wednesday and Thursday. Brown said they will take a brief pause after the fifth practice and give the players a couple of days off for Easter since they don't have a traditional spring break this year because of COVID-19.
After the brief pause, spring work will resume on Wednesday, April 7.
Brown said the staff will use that time to analyze the first five practices and plan for the remaining 10 practices leading up to the Gold-Blue Spring Game on Saturday, April 24.
There are no flags in college football, of course, but that's how coach Neal Brown refers to the first two days of practice without pads.
Defensive coordinator Jordan Lesley, who met with media earlier today, says this is when football practice really begins.
"When you put pads on, the mentality changes and approach changes," he said. "You find out who is willing to be a physical as you want your whole group to be."
Lesley said today was another day of installation for his defense.
"As far as the install goes, now you're on day three so you are adding more pieces. It gets a little harder, not only physically, but mentally, so we wanted to expand on the install a little bit and really more situational than anything," he said. "We wanted to see how guys reacted to that, and it was about what I thought it would be.
"We had some older guys that didn't miss a beat and younger guys who struggled a bit. That's natural. That's okay," he added.
What Lesley is more concerned with is making sure his guys practice the things they are introduced correctly. He wants to make sure they know it and understand it before he moves on to something else.
"I think you should put in what you're trying to get in, practice it, let them make their mistakes and then correct it and then do the same thing again the next time you're out there because I think that's the best way to get your young guys better – and guys who are playing multiple positions, something we want to do also," he said.
Versatility has been the catchphrase for West Virginia's defense so far this spring. Brown has said versatility up front and in the safety positions is going to be important for the defense this fall.
Having players who are more versatile will help the defense absorb some of the losses it has experienced since the end of last year, and it will also allow it to have multiple answers when issues pop up.
Lesley also believes it will be helpful to those players with professional ability and aspirations.
"Versatility is always a word you hear on draft days so it's good for them, too," he said.
On the other side of the ball, offensive coordinator Gerad Parker said this morning's practice included lots of situational work.
"Today, we really pushed through and did some low red-zone work, two-minute drills and sudden change were kind of an emphasis for us," he said. "It's amazing what always happens when the field suddenly gets reduced; timing changes when everything on the field shrinks."
Parker said adding some different run-game schemes was an important part of this morning's work.
"To stay away from discussing total installs, but some of our run game is really growing so we put in some different run-game schemes that we think are really going to help us," he explained. "That was really good to see some growth in our run game, and then outside at receiver, we really did a good job pushing off the football and made some plays down the field on the outside.
"The energy was really good, and we took a step with some of our gap schemes in our run game," he added.
Parker admitted having shoulder pads on this morning really added to the intensity level of this morning's practice.
"It probably helped the pulse of practice because anytime you put those shoulder pads on everybody gets a little chipper, so we had good energy in practice, but we also took care of each other. It was good to actually be able to see guys use shoulders and hand placement and play ball."
West Virginia is scheduled to have two more practices this week on Wednesday and Thursday. Brown said they will take a brief pause after the fifth practice and give the players a couple of days off for Easter since they don't have a traditional spring break this year because of COVID-19.
After the brief pause, spring work will resume on Wednesday, April 7.
Brown said the staff will use that time to analyze the first five practices and plan for the remaining 10 practices leading up to the Gold-Blue Spring Game on Saturday, April 24.
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