Newcomer Cabral Brings High Energy to Mountaineer Football Program
April 09, 2024 02:13 PM | Football, Blog
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By: John Antonik
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Neal Brown has been mindful these days of whom he's bringing into his Mountaineer football family, and outside linebackers coach Vic Cabral is among his most recent additions.
As far as Brown is concerned, Cabral checks all the required boxes – good coach, good teacher, good motivator and good family man. Brown has frequently stated his desire to have more positive energy givers in his program, and Cabral can deliver enough electricity to light up a room.
Last Friday, Cabral met with media for the first time since making the move from Appalachian State, where he helped those other Mountaineers to a nine-win season and an East Division championship in the Sun Belt Conference last season.
He began his 20-minute visit by helping everyone learn how to correctly pronounce his last name.
"It's Cah-Brawl, like the Backyard Brawl," he said, his reference to the biggest college football game around here duly noted. Cabral explained his reasoning for making the move to Morgantown, West Virginia, at this point in his career.
"This is not a directional school," he explained. "It's one of those deals where there is an incredible amount of pride that revolves around this area, and it really shows with the guys on the team. I've really tried to get inundated with the culture around here because I think that's what really separates us more than just tradition. Nowadays, with NIL and all of that, you've got to have some kind of foundation, and this place has it.
"It's awesome."
Cabral's journey to power conference football has included stops at such places as Statesboro and Milledgeville, Georgia, Homewood, Alabama, and, of course, Boone, North Carolina.
Over the last 17 seasons, he's coached all-conference-type and NFL-caliber players and been involved with lots of winning teams. He said he considers coaching the greatest profession in the world, no matter the level.
"It's an unbelievable blessing to be a part of coach Brown's staff and the vision that he has been able to establish over the last few years," he said. Outside linebackers coach Vic Cabral at practice earlier this spring (WVU Athletic Communications photo).
"I've known these guys for a long time, since their days at Troy," Cabral said. "When I was at Samford, we used to go down there and visit with them. We used to work camps together, and I've always respected coach (Jordan) Lesley, coach Brown and coach (Matt) Moore. I just thought the world of them, and we played against each other when I was at Georgia Southern. I'd rather not say the record of that, but we did get one of them, so that was good."
The first thing Cabral did when he was hired here was get the cell numbers of all his new players and reach out to them individually.
"I want them to be great. That's all I want for them. I don't believe in tough love. I think love is love and time is love and you've got to love them up," he said. "In this profession, it's a people business, and we still have to be servant-minded for these players. We have to give them everything we've got, so that was really the first thing I did.
"The kids are all the same," he continued. "It gets kind of crazy at times in the world of college athletics, but at the end of the day, these guys just want to help us win, and they want to make West Virginia proud. For us as coaches, we've got to continue to make sure we raise that bar for them."
Cabral was a high school teammate of former WVU defensive lineman Pat Liebig while growing up in Naples, Florida, which sort of started his knowledge of West Virginia football.
Now, he's in the middle of learning Lesley's Mountaineer defense.
"I come from a 3-4 system for the last six or seven years, and there are some nuances," he said. "It's not exactly learning Chinese, but it's learning a new dialect. There are some new terms and some new things we're asking our spurs to do that I hadn't done in the past as much, but the leadership of Tyrin Bradley has been awesome, and kind-of-newcomer Ty French has been great.
"Brayden Dudley has been right there, and we've even got a mid-year freshman in (Obinna Onwuka) and he's drinking out of a firehose like I am right now, but he's doing a great job," Cabral said.
West Virginia's defense now includes spurs and spears instead of spears and bandits, the spurs lining up to the boundary side with the spears manning the field side. These are the players Cabral is now coaching.
"We are primarily edge rushers, front stoppers and pass droppers. A three-headed monster," he said.
"The great thing about this defense, and how coach Lesley has molded it, is it's really a hybrid of a lot of different concepts and being able to get the best 11 guys on the field," Cabral explained. "The terminology does carry over from call to call. There are times when you can put a certain player who is used to playing spur to the field, and the responsibilities are still the same."
Cabral said Lesley's scheme is also fluid.
"It really helps when you've got some guys out there like big Hammond (Russell), who has been making some plays, and (Josiah) Trotter, who is flying around," he said. "The ball is the issue, and it doesn't matter what scheme you are running, if you can tackle well and get the ball back to the offense and let them go do their thing, life will be good up here."
In Cabral's mind, simple is always better.
"We try to make it as simple as possible, and that's what I really respect about the coaches up here, and the great coaches do this," he admitted. "They take the tough and the difficult and they make it as simple as possible so they can come in and play fast. There are always going to be wires crossed up, and it won't be played perfectly, but when it does click, and you see the lightbulb go off, it's great."
How the defense performs this year is likely going to determine the next step this program takes. There are lots of new faces to blend in with the old, Cabral among them. "I'm in a unique position because I'm the new guy," he pointed out.
New here, perhaps, but old to the profession. He said he was up here once before to observe one of Mike Joseph's infamous offseason workouts.
"I was like, 'Holy smokes, this is what you call an offseason workout!' They asked me if I wanted some and I said, 'No, I'm going to stick to this treadmill,'" he laughed.
The next big event for Cabral will be moving his wife Erin, a former Georgia Southern swimmer, and their two children, Zac and Lucy, to Morgantown.
"I'm looking forward to getting my family up here," he concluded.
West Virginia will pass the midway point of spring work on Wednesday morning when it conducts practice No. 8. Afterward, coach Neal Brown will be made available to the media.
The week concludes with another morning practice on Friday.
