Photo by: WVU Athletic Communications
United Bank Playbook – Mountaineers Hit Pause Button on Game Action
September 25, 2024 12:15 PM | Football
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia hits the pause button on game action this weekend, but there is plenty of work going on over at the Milan Puskar Center this week.
Coach Neal Brown said on his weekly United Bank Playbook visit with Tony Caridi today that his 2-2 football team will have light practices through Thursday with an emphasis on getting injured players healthy and younger players some additional work.
"We'll practice three days this week, and we'll practice for about an hour with our group that's been playing and then we'll get a lot of reps with our guys that haven't been playing as much, redshirting, or in that freshman class to get a hard look at who's ready?" he said. "Who can help us as we move down toward the end of the season?"
Brown listed several areas that he would like to see improved before facing the three-game gauntlet of nationally ranked conference teams beginning with 20th-ranked Oklahoma State on Saturday, Oct. 5, and continuing with 18th-ranked Iowa State on Oct. 12 and 23rd-ranked Kansas State on Oct. 19.
"On offense, we've got to do a better job of valuing the football," he explained. "We've turned the ball over way too much. The second thing is we've got to complete balls at a higher percentage, the third thing is we've got to be better on third down and just end-of-possession downs, and we've got to eliminate the negative plays. There have been too many sacks and too many TFLs on offense."
On the other side of the ball, Brown wants to see his unit continue to build off last Saturday's performance against Kansas, particularly a secondary that was giving up an alarming 280 yards per game through the air entering the contest.
The back end roughly halved that against the Jayhawks, allowing quarterback Jalon Daniels to throw for 184 yards in a 32-28 come-from-behind victory.
"What we've got to continue to do is hone-in, schematically, what we're going to do from a coverage standpoint. We've got to get our two-deep personnel locked in, and we've got to get some other guys some opportunities," he said. "We've got to play with better gap integrity and then we've got to be able to win some one-on-one situations with the ball in the air."
Brown's special teams points of emphasis include getting his kickoff return unit going and continuing to cover punts and kickoffs at a high level.
In sum, this week's break in action comes at a good time for his football team.
"We played three really good football teams in our first four weeks, and they've been physical contests and highly emotional," he said.
"Then, immediately after the break, we don't ease into it with Oklahoma State, Iowa State and Kansas State – three top-25 teams – so we've got to take this week, get rested, recover and get our guys well, but also prepare for the gauntlet coming up," he concluded.
Coach Neal Brown said on his weekly United Bank Playbook visit with Tony Caridi today that his 2-2 football team will have light practices through Thursday with an emphasis on getting injured players healthy and younger players some additional work.
"We'll practice three days this week, and we'll practice for about an hour with our group that's been playing and then we'll get a lot of reps with our guys that haven't been playing as much, redshirting, or in that freshman class to get a hard look at who's ready?" he said. "Who can help us as we move down toward the end of the season?"
Brown listed several areas that he would like to see improved before facing the three-game gauntlet of nationally ranked conference teams beginning with 20th-ranked Oklahoma State on Saturday, Oct. 5, and continuing with 18th-ranked Iowa State on Oct. 12 and 23rd-ranked Kansas State on Oct. 19.
"On offense, we've got to do a better job of valuing the football," he explained. "We've turned the ball over way too much. The second thing is we've got to complete balls at a higher percentage, the third thing is we've got to be better on third down and just end-of-possession downs, and we've got to eliminate the negative plays. There have been too many sacks and too many TFLs on offense."
On the other side of the ball, Brown wants to see his unit continue to build off last Saturday's performance against Kansas, particularly a secondary that was giving up an alarming 280 yards per game through the air entering the contest.
The back end roughly halved that against the Jayhawks, allowing quarterback Jalon Daniels to throw for 184 yards in a 32-28 come-from-behind victory.
"What we've got to continue to do is hone-in, schematically, what we're going to do from a coverage standpoint. We've got to get our two-deep personnel locked in, and we've got to get some other guys some opportunities," he said. "We've got to play with better gap integrity and then we've got to be able to win some one-on-one situations with the ball in the air."
Brown's special teams points of emphasis include getting his kickoff return unit going and continuing to cover punts and kickoffs at a high level.
In sum, this week's break in action comes at a good time for his football team.
"We played three really good football teams in our first four weeks, and they've been physical contests and highly emotional," he said.
"Then, immediately after the break, we don't ease into it with Oklahoma State, Iowa State and Kansas State – three top-25 teams – so we've got to take this week, get rested, recover and get our guys well, but also prepare for the gauntlet coming up," he concluded.
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