Quick Hits: 1-0 Mentality, Next Man Up, Injury Update + More

WVU head coach Neal Brown spoke to the media about this week's game.

Schuyler Callihan | Oct 9, 2024

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West Virginia Mountaineers

Monday afternoon, West Virginia head football coach Neal Brown a half hour or so with the media to talk about the win over Oklahoma State and to preview this week's game against Iowa State.

Coal rush vs. Iowa State

“This one is a special one just because we’re wearing the Coal Rush uniforms and paying homage to the West Virginia mining industry. It’s an important game for our state and I know our guys are looking forward to wearing that and all the stuff that goes with it.”

Iowa State’s offense

“Offensively, they’re balanced. Very multiple. They’ve ran the ball extremely well the last three weeks. They shift, they motion. A lot of different tight ends play. I think it starts with Rocco (Becht), he’s playing at a high level. And I pull for him every game, but this will be the first time I don’t pull for him when he rolls in here. Great kid and we’ll also be honoring his dad (Anthony) who is in the Hall of Fame. But Rocco’s playing at a high level, he’s keeping plays alive. Very efficient with the football and running that offense at a really efficient level right now. They’ve got two receivers that are playing really well in Higgins and Noel. They move them around. They do a nice job of getting them the ball in a bunch of different ways. They’re running back by committee but all three of the guys they’re playing are playing well right now.”

Iowa State’s defense

“Coach Heacock, he’s done a great job there. They’ve got a system that’s in place. They’ve been doing that now for a number of years. He’s got answers. He’s done a really good job countering within a game. Statistically, you can look at it, it speaks for themselves. They mix up coverages. Their defensive line, they’ve done a good job recruiting big bodies that are long and that makes the defense go because they eat up gaps.”

Key to the big day on the ground

“We were much better fundamentally and our receivers really helped. We started talking in this bye week and I was trying to paint them a picture so they really understood that our run game is really an all-11 approach. Because we do so many things on the perimeter, we do so many things in the read game, so it’s an all-11 approach. The guys bought into that and we blocked better on the perimiter and versus man coverage we did a better job of running them off and getting them out of there.”

Why the team covered up the schedule on the wall with a 1-0 sign

“We were getting a bunch of questions of how many ranked teams we played, what the rest of the schedule looks like and I’m like, why even show it to them? It’s next up and I think that’s the way you got to approach our league now. The good thing about this league is you got a chance to win every week. The bad thing about this league is you got a chance to lose every week. There’s pretty good coaching, the talent is pretty evenly distributed, and so for us, I think it’s better to keep our eyes on exactly what’s in front whether than worrying about anything in the future.”

Injury update

“(Wide receiver) Justin Robinson was close last week. He practiced today and I think he’ll be back. The rest of the guys that got injured in the game, I’ll know more probably through Wednesday. I don’t know if all of them will practice maybe to Wednesday, but I’m hopeful. There’s nobody that’s definitely out as of right now.”

How Jordan Lesley moving up to the press box has gone

“I think it’s helped. I think it’s been good for him because you can see better up there, it’s obvious. Anytime you’re up high, you can definitely see better than you can on the field. I think what it does when you’re in the press box, it takes the emotions out of the game because you’re so far away. It’s much calmer there. It’s more peaceful. You can do some more thinking. You can be more organized in between series because you’re sitting at a table. I think there’s some benefits to that.”

Landen Livingston coming in for Brandon Yates

“He did a nice job. We talk a lot about this, next man up. You better be ready so you don’t have to get ready. There’s a lot of examples of that. You think about it, Landen goes in and we go down on a touchdown drive. It wasn’t just a one play, it was six, seven, eight plays. He played and executed and did a nice job. We have confidence in him. Nicco (Marchiol) comes in and threw a touchdown and then we went on a touchdown drive. He didn’t have to get ready, he was already ready. (Israel) Boyce on defense. He only had to play 21 snaps on defense and made one critical error, but other than that he played pretty solid.”