Big 12, Year Two: Neal Brown sees plenty of things at West Virginia 'that we gotta be better at'

Not making a bowl game in 2019 may actually produce results in 2020

The Big 12 Conference had four new head football coaches in 2019 — a 40 percent turnover. SI Sooners publisher John E. Hoover caught up with all four before they began spring practice to ask how they expect their programs to look different in their second offseason. With the Coronavirus shutdown all but ending spring practice for all Big 12 teams, their plans must certainly adapt. But the offseason words of Neil Brown, Chris Klieman, Les Miles and Matt Wells are now more relevant than ever as they try to evolve in Year Two.

But for a three-point loss to Baylor or a seven-point loss to Oklahoma State, West Virginia would have been a bowl team in 2019.

What happened instead might have been just as important to the Mountaineers’ growth in 2020.

“We didn’t go to a bowl game, so we had a break over the holidays and used that as a good time to really reflect on the year that passed — and it was fast and furious,” said head coach Neal Brown. “And then this is the time to kind of reflect and then put some change in order that's what we're doing right now.”

Before spring football practice got going, before the Coronavirus shut everything down, Brown expressed in a telephone interview his appreciation for the down time that bowl teams don’t get.

BIG 12: YEAR TWO

• Monday: Brown, Klieman, Miles & Wells just more comfortable
• Tuesday: WVU: Brown sees ‘stronger, more mature’ team
• Wednesday: KSU: More consistency is Klieman’s goal
• Thursday: KU: Miles wants physical, mental toughness
• Friday: Tech: Red Raiders ’way ahead’ of 2019 to Wells

“You know, we're really focused on furthering our relationships with our players and developing our players,” Brown said. “But also, we’re not only developing our players but we put more time and energy into developing our staff as well.”

To that end, Brown hired three new assistant coaches: Gerad Parker takes over the wide receivers, Jeff Koonz gets inside linebackers and special teams, and Dontae Wright is the new outside linebackers coach. Blake Seiler (Old Dominion DC), Al Pogue (Auburn) and Xavier Dye (South Florida) all moved on. Brown also moved offensive line coach Matt Moore from co-offensive coordinator to assistant head coach.

“We gotta allow ‘em to grow,” Brown said. “We gotta give them opportunities as assistant coaches. You know, you got to pour into them just like they're pouring into the program, and (provide) opportunities to grow — everybody’s got different career goals — and allow them to do things so they feel like they’re continuing to grow to get where they want to be in this profession.”

Of course, campfire songs and self-reflection and group therapy is one thing. Improving a 5-7 football team takes a lot more than that.

Brown long ago identified the areas where WVU needs to be drastically better. Everyone knows WVU needs to improve at running the football (129th nationally last year), defensive takeaways (107th) and being clutch in the red zone (114th on defense, 118th on offense).

But there’s more.

“Gotta score more touchdowns in the red zone. We got to be better on third medium, gotta to create more explosive pass plays and throw fewer interceptions,” Brown said. “I think defensively, we’ve got to improve our takeaways. Our red zone defense has got to be better. And we got to get better getting off the field in third-and-medium, and third-and-long situations. Special teams-wise, our punt return was not good enough. And we got to make more field goals and make those a point of emphasis.”

FACING OKLAHOMA

• 2019: OU 52, WVU 14
• 2020: Nov. 7 in Morgantown

That was all supposed to be on the Mountaineers’ spring to-do list. Now, no one knows when these areas can be addressed. That’s not usually what training camp is for, but it may have to be this year.

“You always go into evaluation, whether it’s Year One, Year Two, post-Year One, post-Year Two,” Brown said. “You’re always evaluating what you’re doing. Yeah, I think that we’ve got some things here at West Virginia that we gotta be better at.”

Brown expects more takeaways in 2020 just because the amount of work and thought that’s going into getting them. That and, well, better recruiting.

“You know, some of it is you gotta be able to run better,” Brown said. “You gotta go get the ball faster and a lot of turnovers happen on blind hits, a lot of interceptions happen … where the running or back receiver don't see the guys making the contact. A lot of interceptions are caused because your safety can run and they’re getting into throwing lanes. Same thing with your droppers; they're athletic enough to get into throwing lanes, so some of it’s that.

“As you continue to recruit better you can continue to develop the guys on campus where they’re able to run faster and be quicker. That’s part of it. Second thing is you got to continue to drill — and we drill it every day.”

WVU fans should hope for better quarterback play, too. Oklahoma transfer Austin Kendall was up and down before Jarret Doege took over in November and sparked the offense.

Not that Brown is all that eager to discuss the QB situation.

“I'm so sick of talking about quarterbacks, to be honest with you,” Brown said. “They're just gonna go. They're gonna go play, and I'm not saying that to be short with you. It’s just, they’re gonna go play. I’ve got a plan, reps-wise, and how those reps go depending on who gets the most reps. And we got plan for how we're going to do that. I’m not gonna spend a whole lot of time talking about them, leading into the spring. And I’ll talk more about it post. But both of will get reps.

“I think both did some really good things last fall. I think both of ‘em got a ways to improve. I think we’ve got to do a better job catching the football. We had one of the highest drop percentages in the entire country. And, and we’ve got to do a better job running the football to help them. So I think as we improve around them, they’ll get better. But I think both of them are good enough to win games in our league.”

Brown also expects the Mountaineers might win more close games this year because the team will be older (bigger and stronger thanks to a demanding offseason weight program), and they’ll be more experienced.

“The thing with our football team is, we got so many of your guys back,” he said. “You know, offensively, we lose our left tackle (Colton McKivitz). We lose Kennedy McKoy; he played a lot of running back. And George Campbell caught some touchdown passes. But everybody else is back — and most people are back for multiple years, not just next year.

“Defensively, we lose our starting two corners (Hakeem Bailey and Keith Washington), we lose (defensive tackle) Reese Donohue, and (safety) Josh Norwood. We lose four guys that are significant contributors, but we've got everybody else back. We lose our long snapper (Rex Sunahara) and a punter (Josh Growden), but we just don’t we don't lose a whole lot from last year.

“And so I think… you’ll see a more mature football team. You’re gonna see a team that’s stronger.”

All things being equal, that should mean a bowl game in 2020. WVU was blown out in losses to Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas Tech (“those are the three that, just, we played really bad football,” Brown said), but the Mountaineers were in the middle of things against Iowa State and Texas before those games got away late, and the Baylor and OSU games were winnable.

“So we’re right, right there,” Brown said. “But you win those games when you’re supposed to win ‘em, too, and we didn’t do enough things in a positive manner, in any phase, to be able to win those close games. And that’s something that we got to put an emphasis on this spring, and summer and late in the fall.”

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