Sunday Morning Thoughts: WVU is Far & Away the Most Improved Team in the Country

The Mountaineers are headed in the right direction under Neal Brown

Neal Brown warned us ahead of the 2019 season that things will be a little rough out of the gate, and he was right. He knew that he had inherited a roster that just lost a ton of production on both sides of the ball and had little returning experience, therefore having very little depth.

Anyone that watched the 2018 bowl game vs. Syracuse saw this coming as you got a small glimpse of what life after Will Grier, David Sills V, and Gary Jennings was going to be like. It was going to take some time to recover after the previous coaching regime left several spots thin on the roster, including quarterback. 

A year ago, West Virginia got off to a 3-1 start but lost 6 of its last 8 games to finish with a 5-7 record under Brown's first season. Many thought this was underachieving, but to be quite honest, it may be a win or two better than what they should have been. The roster was not in very good shape. Brown and his staff did an excellent job down the stretch, winning two of the last three games, both on the road.

Fast forward to this season and eight games into the season, and West Virginia sits at 5-3 overall in 4-3 in Big 12 conference play. Sure, it's not where this team wants to be, but it is a major step toward where they were just a year ago. When you look at the remaining schedule, the team has Oklahoma at home and Iowa State on the road. Although there's a very good chance the Mountaineers finish 5-5, it would still be considered a successful season in turning the program around. Real growth and improvement are taking place in all three phases, and Brown knows that the team's record isn't a true indicator of how big of a step this team has taken. How do I know that? Here's a quote from the head coach following yesterday's game:

“It matters how you play. When end results aren’t always what you want, we can find solace in understanding that what’s really important is the effort and physicality that you play with. I thought what we put on tape today was West Virginia football. Individually and collectively, I thought our guys laid it on the line. I thought the coaches put them in a really good position to be successful.”

Since the onset of fall camp, Brown repeatedly said that he wanted to be the most improved team in the entire landscape of college football. When you look around the Power Five, it's honestly hard to find another team that has made the strides West Virginia has made. The only team I think you could make a legitimate case for is Arkansas. 

In 2019, West Virginia was 128th out of 130 FBS teams rushing the football, averaging well under 100 yards per game. This season, they are averaging well over 150 yards per game and have the nation's third-leading rusher in Leddie Brown. Much of that big jump can be credited to the offensive line, which is playing a whole heck of a lot better, and that's with two freshmen starting upfront - the future is bright on the line. 

The receivers struggled at the beginning of the season, but now you're starting to see them make more and more plays, fight for the football, and are winning one on one matchups more often than not. Drops were a big issue early on, but they have cleaned that up quite a bit over the past few games. 

Quarterback Jarret Doege has played extremely well and has taken really good care of the football. He's only thrown three interceptions on the year and has not thrown an interception since the Kansas game nearly a month ago. Although Doege isn't lighting teams up, he's doing his job and keeping his team in every game, and really that's all you can ask for when you have a top-five defense in the country.

You can nitpick and say they should have won this game (Texas Tech) or should have won that game (Texas), and although you may be right, this is still a very young team that is learning how to win. Again, it won't always show up in the win-loss column. This team is getting better with each game they play, and the effort is there. If this were a 3-5 team that didn't play hard each week and got the snot beat out of them every game, you would have every reason to question where the program's future is headed and whether or not improvement had been made, but that's not the case. In each of West Virginia's three losses, they had a chance to win the game with four minutes to go in the fourth quarter, meaning they were competitive in every game. Once this roster matures inexperience, some of those losses will eventually turn into wins. Just be patient - the future is bright in Morgantown.

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