What Neal Brown Said Following the Win Over UCF

West Virginia University head coach Neal Brown gives his initial thoughts on the win against the Knights

West Virginia University head coach Neal Brown. / Christopher Hall - West Virginia on SI

The West Virginia Mountaineers (6-5, 5-3) knocked off the UCF Knights (4-7, 2-6) Saturday evening 31-21. Following the game, head coach Neal Brown spoke with the media to discuss the win.

Opening Statement

"Appreciate the fans that were here, and they were loud. It seems like we have only bad weather games, whether it was second half of Kansas after the lightning delay, the people that are here, are really loud, and so I appreciate them. I thought they were a factor in the game several different times, so appreciate that.

"Really good team win. When you talk about it, two team stats stick out. We won the turnover battle one to nothing, and we scored on that turnover. So, points off turnover, which is probably the most important stat was seven to nothing, and then the middle eight, last four minutes of the first half, first four minutes of the second half, we dominated that, and it was 14 to nothing. I really felt like that was where the game was won. Did a really nice job of, I think about this a lot, like in NBA basketball, tight finish halves. I thought we did a really good job of finishing both halves today."

How the offense performed

"Just kind of slow and methodical. We controlled the game. Twelve of 18 on end of possession downs. We were four of four on fourth down, five and five in the red zone. I don't really count that taking a knee, you know. So, every time we were in the red zone, we scored. We had zero turnovers, and not ideal conditions, and more so, I thought our guys competed. And that's one thing, it hadn't always gone our way, but our guys always show up and they compete. You don't ever have to worry about them fighting."

How the defense played

"We bounced back. Really proud of those guys, proud of the staff. We thought we tackled well. We contained a run game. I didn't have any preconceived notions that we were going to stop it, but I thought we contained it and really, other than they hit us on a double move, which credit to them, we were really close to sacking, they hit us on a double move. They had one explosive pass play that really hurt us, and then we played soft cover there that last drive tried to get them to eat some clock, and they moved the ball a little bit. But other than that drive, those two drives pretty pleased with how we played. They had one takeaway, which was huge."

Thoughts on the special teams unit

Really hard on those guys last week. I thought Michael Hayes and Ollie both bounced back in a big way. Michael made a big field goal, but his kickoffs were huge. They had Harvey back there returning kicks. The one he brought back - we were able to tackle. And our coverage units, kickoff coverage, it’s been really good all year. We’re one of the top kickoff coverage teams in the country. They showed up today. And then Ollie Straw, other than penalty, had a big day. His penalty negated his big moment. He planted one inside the two, and he got a penalty. But man, he was he was really good. He was really good. I know what kind of people those guys are, Michael and Ollie, so zero surprised that those guys bounced back and had big games. And then Preston Fox is really growing into that role. He did a nice job on kickoff returns, today he continues. I think the hardest thing to do, especially in the rain, is catch punts, and he's become great at that.

CJ Donaldson on his first start of the season and rushing for 96 yards and two touchdowns

"He started the game, and so I think this might have been his first start of the year, and he earned the right to do that, and he's a tough tackle. We had some short-yardage gains there that he wasn't going to be denied. And so, when he runs like that, and I think he's starting to figure it out. Got to remember, he hadn't always played this position. He's 240 pounds, and when he gets behind his pass, he's a really tough tackle and I was really pleased while he played today. He got injured in the first half and came back and battled through that. He's going to be fine. He's sore. Those are tough yards."

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