Photo by: WVU Athletic Communications
Brown’s Program Reset Beginning To Pay Dividends
April 17, 2024 04:39 PM | Football, Blog
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – It was 16 months ago when Neal Brown hit the reset button on his Mountaineer football program.
West Virginia was coming off a disappointing 5-7 record, and Brown thought his team had really underachieved in many areas. On the field, the Mountaineers opened the season losing winnable games to Pitt and Kansas, and then had a bad midseason stretch that included blowout losses to Texas, Texas Tech and Iowa State, and another subpar performance against Kansas State.
Consequently, in Brown's eyes, it necessitated a total rethinking of what he and his program were doing.
Although he is hesitant to say so today, his football program is in a much better place than it has been at any time since he's been at West Virginia.
WVU rebounded with a nine-win season last year (that easily could have been 10), including a 30-10 victory over North Carolina in the Duke's Mayo Bowl and a return to the top 25 in the coaches' poll.
There are more versatile football players in the football complex right now than in the last five years Brown has been here. West Virginia has more depth across the board at nearly every position, not to mention two experienced, athletic quarterbacks returning.
He's got the locker room right, which is frequently underappreciated and misunderstood by fans and outsiders. Plus, Brown is no longer fighting the negative narrative that he had to endure last offseason, which has significantly boosted West Virginia's recruiting, particularly regarding the '25 and '26 classes.
It's just a completely different mindset around here today than it was at the same time last year.
Bob Hertzel, who has seen a lot of football around here through the years, brought up this topic during Brown's session with the media following this morning's practice.
"The way I look at it is after the season in '22, when I felt like we underachieved, I just hit the reset button on a lot of it," Brown admitted. "I probably didn't have a six-year plan when I got here, as far as what I'd think about what we'd look like going into year six in the spring, but what I can say is after '22 when things didn't go the way I thought they should, or we didn't play as well in any phase as I thought we were capable, we just changed a lot of what we were doing."
He continued.
"There was just a big reset in our program, so now what I think of is, 'Alright, we are in month 16 of the reboot, and we're making progress.' I can't sit here and tell you in the spring, but I will be able to tell you after three or four games in the fall. We are kind of into the second year of our reboot," he said.
What that reboot entailed was a commitment to improve in four general areas – discipline, effort, toughness and intelligence – all traits that require no physical talent.
Brown figured those were things that could get better within his program before they jumped into the transfer portal or added more dollars to the Country Roads Trust.
"We have things we do in our winter program through spring ball, summer, fall camp and into the season that we are working on Tuesdays and Thursdays of who we have to be to be successful," he explained. "That's being disciplined. It's straining. It's being tough, and it's being smart.
"We've taken this 12-month approach of who we are from a football identity standpoint, and I think we are beginning to see some of the fruits of our labors," he added, bringing up his team's approach to tackling.
Two years ago, West Virginia's tackling was not adequate, to put it politely, and proved costly in many of the games it lost. Last year it was better.
This spring, it is continuing to improve.
"We are tackling much better in the spring. Well, we are in month 16 of a total revamp of how we've taught tackling, how we've worked it and it's been a year-round approach from even going back into the winter of how Mike (Joseph) and the strength and conditioning staff have worked angles, deceleration and things like that.
"So, we are showing signs that we are becoming a much better tackling team, which goes under physical toughness," he said. "We work it. We talk a lot about striking with your hands. That's a part of physical toughness. Well, we've worked that in the weight room on these strike pads that we have. We do grip training. We are still a work in progress of the identity that we need to be.
"I'm pleased with where we are at 16 months into it, but we have not arrived," he added.
From an overall talent and depth perspective, Brown believes his team is getting there, too, provided they don't take a big hit in the transfer portal, which is now open for business, incidentally.
He said he openly talks to his guys all the time about the portal, and he's hopeful all of them will remain, but he also understands that's probably not realistic today for a variety of reasons that go beyond just a simple matter of loyalty.
Nevertheless, as of today, based on just sheer numbers, it's clear to the naked eye that there are more quality football players running around out there. Brown said the plan is to have even more here by the time fall camp arrives.
"We're still missing some pieces right now, whether it's the portal or the signees that haven't gotten here, as long as everyone shows up," he cautioned.
"Where it really shows up is on special teams. We do what we call a four-on-four drill, and it's really a competitive drill in punt and punt return. As we watched it as a staff and the comment, I think it came from Jeff (Koonz), was 'by far the most competitive and a lot of good-on-good players,' which I think is a credit to our overall depth, and the guys just understanding the techniques that we're teaching in those areas."
West Virginia wrapped up practice No. 11 earlier today on the Steve Antoline Family Practice Field. West Virginia is scheduled to do some heavy team work on Friday morning to conclude this week.
The final week of spring drills will consist of practices on Tuesday and Thursday leading into Saturday's Gold-Blue Game inside Milan Puskar Stadium at 1 p.m. Brown said the game format and activities surrounding it will be announced next week.
West Virginia was coming off a disappointing 5-7 record, and Brown thought his team had really underachieved in many areas. On the field, the Mountaineers opened the season losing winnable games to Pitt and Kansas, and then had a bad midseason stretch that included blowout losses to Texas, Texas Tech and Iowa State, and another subpar performance against Kansas State.
Consequently, in Brown's eyes, it necessitated a total rethinking of what he and his program were doing.
Although he is hesitant to say so today, his football program is in a much better place than it has been at any time since he's been at West Virginia.
WVU rebounded with a nine-win season last year (that easily could have been 10), including a 30-10 victory over North Carolina in the Duke's Mayo Bowl and a return to the top 25 in the coaches' poll.
There are more versatile football players in the football complex right now than in the last five years Brown has been here. West Virginia has more depth across the board at nearly every position, not to mention two experienced, athletic quarterbacks returning.
He's got the locker room right, which is frequently underappreciated and misunderstood by fans and outsiders. Plus, Brown is no longer fighting the negative narrative that he had to endure last offseason, which has significantly boosted West Virginia's recruiting, particularly regarding the '25 and '26 classes.
It's just a completely different mindset around here today than it was at the same time last year.
Bob Hertzel, who has seen a lot of football around here through the years, brought up this topic during Brown's session with the media following this morning's practice.
"The way I look at it is after the season in '22, when I felt like we underachieved, I just hit the reset button on a lot of it," Brown admitted. "I probably didn't have a six-year plan when I got here, as far as what I'd think about what we'd look like going into year six in the spring, but what I can say is after '22 when things didn't go the way I thought they should, or we didn't play as well in any phase as I thought we were capable, we just changed a lot of what we were doing."
He continued.
"There was just a big reset in our program, so now what I think of is, 'Alright, we are in month 16 of the reboot, and we're making progress.' I can't sit here and tell you in the spring, but I will be able to tell you after three or four games in the fall. We are kind of into the second year of our reboot," he said.
What that reboot entailed was a commitment to improve in four general areas – discipline, effort, toughness and intelligence – all traits that require no physical talent.
Brown figured those were things that could get better within his program before they jumped into the transfer portal or added more dollars to the Country Roads Trust.
"We have things we do in our winter program through spring ball, summer, fall camp and into the season that we are working on Tuesdays and Thursdays of who we have to be to be successful," he explained. "That's being disciplined. It's straining. It's being tough, and it's being smart.
"We've taken this 12-month approach of who we are from a football identity standpoint, and I think we are beginning to see some of the fruits of our labors," he added, bringing up his team's approach to tackling.
Two years ago, West Virginia's tackling was not adequate, to put it politely, and proved costly in many of the games it lost. Last year it was better.
This spring, it is continuing to improve.
"We are tackling much better in the spring. Well, we are in month 16 of a total revamp of how we've taught tackling, how we've worked it and it's been a year-round approach from even going back into the winter of how Mike (Joseph) and the strength and conditioning staff have worked angles, deceleration and things like that.
"So, we are showing signs that we are becoming a much better tackling team, which goes under physical toughness," he said. "We work it. We talk a lot about striking with your hands. That's a part of physical toughness. Well, we've worked that in the weight room on these strike pads that we have. We do grip training. We are still a work in progress of the identity that we need to be.
"I'm pleased with where we are at 16 months into it, but we have not arrived," he added.
From an overall talent and depth perspective, Brown believes his team is getting there, too, provided they don't take a big hit in the transfer portal, which is now open for business, incidentally.
He said he openly talks to his guys all the time about the portal, and he's hopeful all of them will remain, but he also understands that's probably not realistic today for a variety of reasons that go beyond just a simple matter of loyalty.
Nevertheless, as of today, based on just sheer numbers, it's clear to the naked eye that there are more quality football players running around out there. Brown said the plan is to have even more here by the time fall camp arrives.
"We're still missing some pieces right now, whether it's the portal or the signees that haven't gotten here, as long as everyone shows up," he cautioned.
"Where it really shows up is on special teams. We do what we call a four-on-four drill, and it's really a competitive drill in punt and punt return. As we watched it as a staff and the comment, I think it came from Jeff (Koonz), was 'by far the most competitive and a lot of good-on-good players,' which I think is a credit to our overall depth, and the guys just understanding the techniques that we're teaching in those areas."
West Virginia wrapped up practice No. 11 earlier today on the Steve Antoline Family Practice Field. West Virginia is scheduled to do some heavy team work on Friday morning to conclude this week.
The final week of spring drills will consist of practices on Tuesday and Thursday leading into Saturday's Gold-Blue Game inside Milan Puskar Stadium at 1 p.m. Brown said the game format and activities surrounding it will be announced next week.
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