MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Many of the assistant coaches on Neal Brown's West Virginia staff cut their teeth at lower-level football.
On the Division II or Group of 5 level, coaches oftentimes must be resourceful and figure out things on their own because they can't pick their rosters and need to come up with ways to cover up their weakest areas. As a result, a lot of the innovation we see in the game today comes from lower-level football and creeps up when those guys get power conference jobs. Neal Brown
Last week, Brown touched on the topic of hiring young, up-and-coming coaches.
"I like trajectory," he said. "It doesn't matter if I'm buying a stock or if I'm hiring people, I want people who are on a trajectory, and hunger is really important. What we've tried to do from a staff standpoint is we've got systems that we believe in, and we don't want those systems to change.
"You are going to have some personnel movement, player-wise and staff-wise, and I think the leadership in those positions is really important," he said. "You don't have infinite money, so in those leadership positions, they are going to get financially compensated a little higher."
He continued.
"But when you bring in guys from lower levels you want to bring in guys who are extremely hungry, they are extremely thankful for the opportunity, and they have a lot of growth in them," he said. "Whether we're hiring an assistant strength staff member, an off-the-field role or somebody in an on-the-field role, that's what we're looking for."
The recent hiring of outside linebackers coach Vic Cabral, from Appalachian State, is a perfect example of what Brown is looking for in an assistant coach.
"If you look at Vic, I think his trajectory is going up. He's been at G-5 programs, but he's been at highly successful G-5 programs, and he's hungry," Brown explained. "With Vic, one of the nice things we did hiring last year offensively with Bilal (Marshall) and Blaine (Stewart) is with younger guys, their day-to-day energy is consistent and that's who they are."
Brown said Marshall and Stewart were really helpful with the energy level in the football complex when he made the decision to switch to morning practices last year.
It takes a lot of positive energy to get up early in the morning and go to work with the excitement and the enthusiasm required to get through the day in a power conference football program.
"In the past when we practiced in the afternoons, there was a whole lot of stuff that went down before they got to their position meetings or our unit meetings," Brown pointed out. "Now, each of our players start their day in this building and having those positive, energetic people in those position rooms really positively affected our offense, and I wanted to add that to our defensive side."
"But it has to be authentic. It can't be fake," Brown added.
Cabral not only adds knowledge and expertise, but he brings an infectious attitude that permeates throughout the building.
"He has a natural energy about him," Brown said. "People are genuinely drawn to him, and he will not only be able to connect with the outside linebackers he's coaching, but with our entire defensive unit."
Brown said he likes coaches who have worked their way up the coaching ladder.
"That doesn't mean that everybody has to do that to become a successful coach," he said. "Trust me, I have plenty of flaws, and so I'm not trying to hire people that are exactly on the same path I took, but I do like hiring individuals that have not had the easiest path."
Brown's coaching career followed a similar course, navigating different G-5 jobs before Tommy Tuberville hired him to run Texas Tech's offense in 2010.
"When you have jobs at a D-II or FCS level, and you go up to a G-5, you learn how to do more with less," he admitted. "You have to do more things earlier in your career and the best training is on-the-job training.
"I'm so thankful because my first full-time job was at Sacred Heart, which at the time was non-scholarship FCS football, and I had to do a whole lot," he said. "I was messing up and nobody really knew – media, in-house or whatever. They didn't really know, and so I probably learned more in under a year there when I had that job than probably any job I've had.
"I like people who have learned on the job, progressed and moved up the levels," he concluded.
West Virginia got in a Good Friday practice this morning and assistant coaches Cabral and Tyler Allen were made available to media afterward.
The Mountaineers will hit the pause button on practice until next Tuesday when it resumes with practice No. 4.
