Neal Brown Responds to the Preseason Big 12 Media Poll

West Virginia head coach Neal Brown is "looking forward to proving everybody wrong."

Last week, the Big 12 Conference media voted the West Virginia University Mountaineers to finish last in the preseason poll. 

When Head coach Neal Brown took the stage at Big 12 media days on Thursday, he opened his press conference in disagreement with the preseason prediction.

"Upset about the media poll - definitely do not agree with that," said Brown. "The positive is, the media, as far as predicting the Big 12, has not been very successful in recent years, so I think that bodes well for us."

"First of all, it starts with the belief in our staff and belief in our players and how we finish is the next thing. We beat Oklahoma and we beat Oklahoma State on the road, winning two of our last three games.

"Offensively, this is going to be our best group. And then we have 132 starts returning on the offensive line. If that’s not most in the country, its got to be close, and within that group, we’ve got four former freshman All-Americans. We’ve got three for sure all-conference type players – two of them are here today with us. Zach Frazier, who is a two time All-American and Doug Nester.

"We have a budding super star at running back in CJ Donaldson.

"Defensively, we’ll be one of the most improved units in the Big 12 if not the country and we have all-league type players at each level and those guys are here today. Sean Martin at defensive end, Lee Kpogba who will be one of the leading tacklers in the conference this year at Mike linebacker and then Aubrey Burkes at safety. And, we added talented experience in the secondary through the transfer portal.

"Looking forward to proving everybody wrong - we won't finish there. 

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