--West Virginia head coach Neal Brown is glad to be at the media day. Brown said he is upset with the media poll and definitely does not agree with it. He said the media has not been very successful predicting media polls in recent years. He said his vacation was over after reading a text from Mike Montoro. He said he has belief in his staff and his players and how they finished last year. Offensively this will be their best group with 132 starts on the offensive line. They have four former freshmen all-Americans, two all-conference type players, budding super star at running back in CJ Donaldson and they will be one of the most improved defenses in the Big 12. They’ve added talented experience in the secondary through the portal and they have their punter and long snapper returning. They look forward to proving everybody wrong and they won’t finish last.
--Brown said running the football will be the strength on offense, but they have to be more explosive in the passing game. The tempo is they want to present themselves being fast all the time and let the game dictate the tempo. They practice fast but the game will dictate that.
--Brown said they are past being able to ignore anything and the best opportunity is to confront it. They had a team meeting where they addressed it in colorful terms. He has a strong belief, and they have a clear vision on what they need to improve on. Offensively they need to be more efficient and eliminate errors. Defensively they have to cut those down and create turnovers. The chip was there on the shoulder, but this will just increase the size of that.
--Brown said that each year is different. Being fortunate enough to be in the league for nine years as a coordinator or head coach, he has seen the evolution. The defensive coaching has gotten better and as that has changed the style of football has changed. You have to be able to defend the pass. We played good defense for three years and what they did a good job of is they kept the ball in front of them and tackled without giving up the home run shots. You have to eliminate the deep balls and tackle at a high level, so they went out and got some veterans in the secondary.
--Brown said running the football will be the strength on offense, but they have to be more explosive in the passing game. The tempo is they want to present themselves being fast all the time and let the game dictate the tempo. They practice fast but the game will dictate that.
--Brown said they are past being able to ignore anything and the best opportunity is to confront it. They had a team meeting where they addressed it in colorful terms. He has a strong belief, and they have a clear vision on what they need to improve on. Offensively they need to be more efficient and eliminate errors. Defensively they have to cut those down and create turnovers. The chip was there on the shoulder, but this will just increase the size of that.
--Brown said that each year is different. Being fortunate enough to be in the league for nine years as a coordinator or head coach, he has seen the evolution. The defensive coaching has gotten better and as that has changed the style of football has changed. You have to be able to defend the pass. We played good defense for three years and what they did a good job of is they kept the ball in front of them and tackled without giving up the home run shots. You have to eliminate the deep balls and tackle at a high level, so they went out and got some veterans in the secondary.