MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia looks to crack the win column this Saturday against FCS opponent Towson at Milan Puskar Stadium.
 
The Tigers have a pair of early season victories over Morgan State and Bucknell and will be bringing a roster full of four-year transfers into Morgantown this weekend.
 
And while Neal Brown has considerable respect for coach Rob Ambrose and what his Towson program has accomplished since he took over in 2009, Brown's attention is laser-focused on his 0-2 football team that has fumbled away potential victories against Pitt and Kansas.
 
A dropped pass that turned into a pick-six interception return was the deciding score in West Virginia's 38-31 loss at Pitt, and last Saturday, a muffed punt, some untimely procedure penalties in the red zone and another pick-six in overtime led to the Mountaineers' disappointing 55-42 defeat to Kansas in their Big 12 opener.
 
Consequently, West Virginia is staring at its first 0-2 start to a season since 1979, a year before Don Nehlen took over the program.
 
Brown shared some of his frustrations Tuesday afternoon.
 
"Losing stinks," he said. "I don't think there is anything earth-shattering about that. When you invest time and energy into something and it doesn't go the way you want it to go, it's hard. I'm frustrated. I'm disappointed and you can probably sense that Saturday night and that same frustration is with the staff and players as well.
 
"I get the fans' frustrations," he continued. "We had season tickets in the upper deck to University of Kentucky games and Kentucky wasn't winning a whole lot then. I can remember a lot of rides home in an old, beat-up van with my uncle and some of their friends (complaining) about how they played, and being frustrated because they spent money on tickets and concessions and it didn't go the way they wanted it to go.
 
"I don't need to be explained that because I lived it," he said. "Nobody feels the frustration more than anyone inside this building. The thing that's got to be understood is there is only one way to get it fixed and there is only one group of people that are going to fix it. The only people that are going to fix it are inside this building, and the only way it gets fixed is through work."
 
Brown listed some of the reasons why his young football team is struggling.
 
"I think there are three primary reasons and some underlying things," he said. "The first one is it's 27-0 points off turnovers. The other team has 27, and we've got none. We've created one takeaway and turned the ball over four times. We've had inopportune penalties. and we've missed opportunities.

"When I say missed opportunities, there were three fumbles on the ground on Saturday night, and we didn't get them. We dropped passes in the Pitt game. We've got to learn from those failures. We've got to clean up the inopportune penalties, we've got to get some takeaways, we can't turn the football over, and we've got to take advantage of opportunities when they arise."
 
Brown addressed the two critical procedure penalties in the red zone that led to field goals instead of touchdowns when West Virginia was trying to keep up with Kansas' second-half touchdown barrage. 
 
Incidentally, WVU had five procedure penalties in the opener against Pitt. 
 
"We played the end of the game the way we had to play it, by kicking the field goal on fourth and 6," Brown said. "But it's a totally different game. We have an opportunity to win in regulation if we don't get a procedure penalty when it's on the 3-yard line. Then we get another one on fourth and goal at the 1. Both of those procedures were for no reason. They weren't trying to beat a guy to a point. They weren't even at the point of contact, so we've got to get that corrected."
 
This Saturday, Brown said his team has to sustain what it's done well because there are plenty of things the Mountaineers have done well so far. 
 
"We've run the ball well," he noted. "We've played pretty well offensively through two games. Our special teams, outside of kickoff return, have really been a strength of the football team so far."
 
Most of the major issues have been on the defensive side where West Virginia is giving up an alarming 46.5 points and 401.5 yards per game.
 
Kansas converted 11 of its 15 third-down attempts, was successful on its only fourth-down conversion and consistently won first down last Saturday. The Jayhawks averaged 5.6 yards per carry on the ground and 6.4 yards per play overall.
 
"We've got to tackle better," Brown said. "We've got to get lined up with more of a sense of urgency. We've got to do some things better defensively. I think that's very clear after Saturday night."
 
Brown said the defensive line did not do a good job of keeping blockers off the linebackers and the linebackers did a poor job of getting too close to the line of scrimmage and not being able to get to their responsibilities in the option game. He said also said the linebackers did "an extremely poor job" of getting aligned and adjusting to shifts and motions.
 
"If you go back and look, I think Kansas only used the same formation four times the entire game," Brown said. "Most of the time, they did some kind of shift and then a motion. It wasn't like we were leaving guys uncovered, but there is a big difference between playing inside leverage and outside leverage.
 
"It's a whole lot of little things that led to a bad defensive performance."
 
Brown indicated some changes will be made for Saturday's game against Towson, beginning with more playing time for sophomore defensive end Sean Martin. The Bluefield, West Virginia, native was one of the few bright spots on defense against the Jayhawks, and Brown said he has earned the right to see more action. 
 
Brown mentioned some changes could come at linebacker, and he noted some younger players could also get into the mix. He listed freshmen cornerbacks Jacolby Spells and Mumu Bin-Wahad as potential performers in the secondary. Spells was a senior last year at American Heritage High in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, while Bin-Wahad was a January enrollee after starring at Grayson High in Atlanta.
 
"We're going to get them ready," Brown noted. "Mumu is going to play more at safety than at corner and Jacolby is going to play corner. They're talented, and they've got to take care of preparation and doing a better job of earning trust in practice and things like that, but they need to play."
 
Injury-wise, Brown said the team's top cornerback, Charles Woods, will be out again this week as he continues to heal from a foot injury sustained in the first quarter of the Pitt game.
 
"We will have a better feel maybe later in the week kind of what he looks like long-term wise," Brown said. "Jalen (Thornton) will miss this game and hopefully we'll get him back next Thursday. Jordan White will be back, and we anticipate him being full go, and we think Tirek Austin-Cave will be able to play this week."
 
Saturday's game will kick off at 1 p.m. and will be available to watch on Big 12 Now on ESPN+ (Noah Reed and Adam Breneman).
 
Mountaineer Sports Network from Learfield radio coverage begins at 10 a.m. with the GoMart Mountaineer Tailgate Show leading into regular network coverage at noon with Tony Caridi, Dwight Wallace and Jed Drenning. The broadcast can be heard on stations throughout West Virginia and online via WVUsports.com and the Varsity Network app.
 
"It's about next and next is Towson," Brown said. "That's the mentality here. We're not dwelling on it. We're very aware of where we're at and it's about getting fixed. That's the mindset we have in here.
 
"It's up to us in the program right now to draw near and get better," he added. "There is plenty of ownership to go around, and I don't think anybody is going to be harder on themselves than the staff and the players that are sitting here 0-2."

Prior to the Towson game, West Virginia will officially induct its 32^nd Hall of Fame class consisting of eight outstanding former athletes and one coach. 
 
The 2022 class includes football standouts Tavon Austin, Stedman Bailey and Geno Smith from the 2012 Discover Orange Bowl champion team, women's basketball player Donna Abbott, rifle national champion coach Marsha Beasley and pioneering shooter Marilee Hohmann, track and cross country All-American Marie-Louise Asselin and men's basketball All-American Kevin Jones.
 
The induction ceremony will take place inside the Caperton Indoor Practice Facility and the public is invited to attend. The event is free of charge.
 
Because of the hall of fame ceremonies Saturday, there will be no Kids Zone inside the practice facility before the game.
 
Tickets are still available and can be purchased by logging on to WVUGAME.com.