Neal Brown discusses West Virginia's 'concerning' secondary issues

West Virginia head coach Neal Brown didn’t hesitate to express his true thoughts on how his secondary played this past weekend against Duquesne during his post-game press conference. When one reporter mentioned the secondary gave up six passes of 15-plus yards, Brown was simple in his response.

“That’s concerning,” he said.

That’s not to say it wasn’t a good day for the Mountaineers overall. The team defeated the Dukes by a whopping 56-17 scoreline with both the passing game and running game totaling over 300 yards each.

But the Duquesne offense had their moments during the game, including a 39-yard touchdown pass in the first quarter that gave the Dukes a 7-0 lead at the start of the game.

“We got to be better in the secondary,” Brown said. “Our hope was ride some veterans and we were gonna fix that. And quite frankly, we haven’t done that through two games. We’ve got to go back to the drawing board. Now, we worked on some things last week that we didn’t show in this game because of who we got coming up. We gotta get those things corrected.”

Duquesne quarterback Darius Perrantes was 14 of 31 passing the football for 220 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions. Beanie Bishop and Avery Wilcox each had an interception for the Mountaineers.

West Virginia will face more potent passing attacks in the Big 12 this season than Duquesne. The secondary will need to figure out some answers quickly to neutralize their opponents, especially with the schedule ahead of them. The Mountaineers face Pitt this weekend at home before starting conference play versus Texas Tech and TCU.

“Some of it’s just a little bit of when it’s time to go play, we got to make plays,” Brown said. “We had guys falling down the first quarter. Just falling down. We’ve got to play better. I thought the rest of the second quarter, beginning of third, they got in the spots they’re supposed to be.

“Some of those down and later in the third, into the fourth where we had our threes and fours in, not as concerned with those. Not that it’s okay. But some of them early. Now the one kid can run late. He’s legit fast. Keshawn Brown like he can really run, run,. But still like we got to be better. To say I’m frustrated with that would be an understatement.”

If Neal Brown wants to see his team continue to improve in 2023, the secondary will have to meet his expectations.