Photo by: Liz Parke
WVU’s Brown Likes What He’s Got Returning on Defense
July 19, 2022 05:30 PM | Football, Blog
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Neal Brown said last week at Big 12 Media Days in Arlington, Texas, that he believes this year's defense could be the best he's fielded since taking over the West Virginia head coaching reins in 2019.
He rates that unit's overall toughness among its best attributes.
"We're never going to lose what makes West Virginia special, and that's toughness," he explained. "We really try to mirror the mindset of our state. It's a blue-collar group that goes to work, and we're really proud of their heritage."
During the 35 games Brown has coached at WVU, there have really only been a handful of games when the defense performed poorly, and two of those happened during Brown's first season in 2019 when he inherited an empty cupboard.
Two years ago, the defense had a bad afternoon in the regular-season finale at Iowa State when Covid had almost completely overtaken the team. Last year, WVU surrendered 45 points in a 25-point defeat at Big 12 champion Baylor.
On the other hand, the defense came up with a late stop to hold off Virginia Tech. The D performed well in a 12-point upset victory at TCU, came up with some big plays to hold off Iowa State and then limited Texas to just 23 points in a late-season home victory.
The unit wasn't nearly as dominant as it was in 2020 when it limited half of the teams it played to 20 points or less and an average of 86 yards per game below their season average, but it was good enough to keep the Mountaineers hanging around.
The defensive line, despite losing Akheem Mesidor, still returns eight of its top 10 players from a year ago, including seniors Dante Stills and Taijh Alston. The linebacking corps features taller, leaner, more athletic players such as sophomore Lance Dixon, junior Lee Kpogba and senior Exree Loe.
And the secondary has lots of new parts to go with an exceptional old one, namely corner Charles Woods, whom Brown believes is primed for a breakout senior season. Woods made the trip down to Arlington with Stills and offensive players Zach Frazier and Bryce Ford-Wheaton for media day, which gives you an idea of what Brown thinks of the Dallas resident.
"I like our group," Brown said. "It's a group that has had unique paths. If you look at a guy like Lee Kpogba, who came in the spring and will be our starting (inside) linebacker, he did not have a traditional path, but here he is, and we think he's got a chance to be one of the better linebackers in our league.
"You look at Charles Woods, an FCS All-American that made the jump to Power 5 football and had the leading coverage numbers in our league last year, according to Pro Football Focus data. We're a group that's going to be tough and physical.
"I think the collection of players that we're going to have, our whole, is going to be maybe better than each individual," Brown added.
Brown and his staff really hit the transfer portal hard to help fortify their defensive back room. Colorado State transfer Rashad Ajayi, James Madison transfer Wesley McCormick, Murray State transfer Marcis Floyd and North Dakota State transfer Jasir Cox were all very productive at the levels they played and are anxious to prove themselves on the Power 5 level.
Brown also has worked the junior college ranks hard to find guys like Hershey McLaurin Jr. and Jaylon Shelton.
Then there are a handful of younger players in the program with lots of potential such as Davis Mallinger, Andrew Wilson-Lamp and Aubrey Burks, who give the Mountaineers a very nice blend of youth, experience and athleticism. There are others who could battle to get into the mix as well.
That area of the practice field is going to be a flurry of activity leading up to the season opener at Pitt on Thursday, Sept. 1.
"When we looked at what we had returning in our secondary, we liked the youth that we had. We've got some guys that can really run that are in the first or second year within our program," Brown pointed out. "The one thing that we were intentional about trying to improve defensively is we've been primarily a zone coverage team over the last two years, and we've had success.
"But, we haven't been able to create as much havoc up front because when you play zone coverage, you can only rush four or five guys at a time," he noted. "We wanted to get faster, more athletic in the back end so we could play more coverage and rush six and maybe seven sometimes."
Murray State transfer Floyd is probably the name most familiar to Mountaineer fans because he was with the team during spring practice. But Ajayi started 35 games for Colorado State and McCormick 21 games for James Madison over a three-year period before choosing to sit out last year to retain his final season of eligibility.
Then there is North Dakota State's Cox, who was a 14-game starting outside linebacker for the FCS national champions last year who has the size, athletic ability and instincts to play West Virginia's spear and nickel positions.
Jones County Junior College safety Hershey McLaurin and recently added Tyler Junior College defensive back Jaylon Shelton are both bigger body types, both standing 6-feet-1 or taller.
At each spot in the second and third levels of the defense, you are going to be looking at taller, leaner, more athletic football players this year. Those were some of the attributes Brown's staff was after on the recruiting trail and in the transfer portal this year.
"We wanted to be more athletic," Brown admitted. "We wanted guys that had experience starting, and we wanted guys that added versatility and would check themselves at the door, meaning do what we asked them to do within the concept of our team. I've been really pleased with those guys so far, and I think our secondary is going to be a real positive surprise to maybe some people that are in this room."
Overall, Brown said he really likes the cohesiveness his team has been building over the last several months while his coaching staff has managed to incorporate 33 new additions to the roster since last January.
"Our work ethic, our leadership and our team chemistry are much improved," Brown admitted.
The team has a couple of more weeks of summer workouts before fall camp officially begins on Monday, Aug. 1.
He rates that unit's overall toughness among its best attributes.
"We're never going to lose what makes West Virginia special, and that's toughness," he explained. "We really try to mirror the mindset of our state. It's a blue-collar group that goes to work, and we're really proud of their heritage."
During the 35 games Brown has coached at WVU, there have really only been a handful of games when the defense performed poorly, and two of those happened during Brown's first season in 2019 when he inherited an empty cupboard.
Two years ago, the defense had a bad afternoon in the regular-season finale at Iowa State when Covid had almost completely overtaken the team. Last year, WVU surrendered 45 points in a 25-point defeat at Big 12 champion Baylor.
On the other hand, the defense came up with a late stop to hold off Virginia Tech. The D performed well in a 12-point upset victory at TCU, came up with some big plays to hold off Iowa State and then limited Texas to just 23 points in a late-season home victory.
The unit wasn't nearly as dominant as it was in 2020 when it limited half of the teams it played to 20 points or less and an average of 86 yards per game below their season average, but it was good enough to keep the Mountaineers hanging around.
The defensive line, despite losing Akheem Mesidor, still returns eight of its top 10 players from a year ago, including seniors Dante Stills and Taijh Alston. The linebacking corps features taller, leaner, more athletic players such as sophomore Lance Dixon, junior Lee Kpogba and senior Exree Loe.
And the secondary has lots of new parts to go with an exceptional old one, namely corner Charles Woods, whom Brown believes is primed for a breakout senior season. Woods made the trip down to Arlington with Stills and offensive players Zach Frazier and Bryce Ford-Wheaton for media day, which gives you an idea of what Brown thinks of the Dallas resident."I like our group," Brown said. "It's a group that has had unique paths. If you look at a guy like Lee Kpogba, who came in the spring and will be our starting (inside) linebacker, he did not have a traditional path, but here he is, and we think he's got a chance to be one of the better linebackers in our league.
"You look at Charles Woods, an FCS All-American that made the jump to Power 5 football and had the leading coverage numbers in our league last year, according to Pro Football Focus data. We're a group that's going to be tough and physical.
"I think the collection of players that we're going to have, our whole, is going to be maybe better than each individual," Brown added.
Brown and his staff really hit the transfer portal hard to help fortify their defensive back room. Colorado State transfer Rashad Ajayi, James Madison transfer Wesley McCormick, Murray State transfer Marcis Floyd and North Dakota State transfer Jasir Cox were all very productive at the levels they played and are anxious to prove themselves on the Power 5 level.
Brown also has worked the junior college ranks hard to find guys like Hershey McLaurin Jr. and Jaylon Shelton.
Then there are a handful of younger players in the program with lots of potential such as Davis Mallinger, Andrew Wilson-Lamp and Aubrey Burks, who give the Mountaineers a very nice blend of youth, experience and athleticism. There are others who could battle to get into the mix as well.
That area of the practice field is going to be a flurry of activity leading up to the season opener at Pitt on Thursday, Sept. 1.
"When we looked at what we had returning in our secondary, we liked the youth that we had. We've got some guys that can really run that are in the first or second year within our program," Brown pointed out. "The one thing that we were intentional about trying to improve defensively is we've been primarily a zone coverage team over the last two years, and we've had success.
"But, we haven't been able to create as much havoc up front because when you play zone coverage, you can only rush four or five guys at a time," he noted. "We wanted to get faster, more athletic in the back end so we could play more coverage and rush six and maybe seven sometimes."
Murray State transfer Floyd is probably the name most familiar to Mountaineer fans because he was with the team during spring practice. But Ajayi started 35 games for Colorado State and McCormick 21 games for James Madison over a three-year period before choosing to sit out last year to retain his final season of eligibility.
Then there is North Dakota State's Cox, who was a 14-game starting outside linebacker for the FCS national champions last year who has the size, athletic ability and instincts to play West Virginia's spear and nickel positions.
Jones County Junior College safety Hershey McLaurin and recently added Tyler Junior College defensive back Jaylon Shelton are both bigger body types, both standing 6-feet-1 or taller.
At each spot in the second and third levels of the defense, you are going to be looking at taller, leaner, more athletic football players this year. Those were some of the attributes Brown's staff was after on the recruiting trail and in the transfer portal this year.
"We wanted to be more athletic," Brown admitted. "We wanted guys that had experience starting, and we wanted guys that added versatility and would check themselves at the door, meaning do what we asked them to do within the concept of our team. I've been really pleased with those guys so far, and I think our secondary is going to be a real positive surprise to maybe some people that are in this room."
Overall, Brown said he really likes the cohesiveness his team has been building over the last several months while his coaching staff has managed to incorporate 33 new additions to the roster since last January.
"Our work ethic, our leadership and our team chemistry are much improved," Brown admitted.
The team has a couple of more weeks of summer workouts before fall camp officially begins on Monday, Aug. 1.
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