MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Some handle prosperity by going to the bank. Others handle it by splurging on a 64-inch plasma TV.
Neal Brown was a bit concerned that his team looked like the latter group at Kansas, though the Mountaineers ultimately made enough plays to avoid a trip to the proverbial pawn shop.
“We didn’t have a good week of practice last week, and it showed,” Brown said. “We didn’t handle prosperity well, and it showed. Which isn’t unusual for a young team.”
Coming off an emphatic 44-27 win over North Carolina State, West Virginia was taken to the limit in its 29-24 win at Kansas.
“We go out and beat a North Carolina State program that’s got the second-most wins in the ACC the past two years. That’s a good program win, especially taken how we played the week previously at Missouri,” Brown said. “So all these guys are like ‘Yeah, maybe we are pretty good.’ A veteran will say ‘That’s what we have to continue to do.’ Natural human tendency if you haven’t experienced that success is to just say, ‘Now we’re back.’”
The most concerning element of the Kansas win was the inconsistency of West Virginia’s defense, which allowed 7.4 yards per play. And though the WVU offense moved the ball for 394 yards, Brown was displeased that a pair of red-zone trips resulted in field goals.
“We won the game and I’m proud of winning it, but we also didn’t play our best,” Brown said. “If we continue at this rate, we’re not going to be successful the rest of our season. We got away with these mistakes in this game, but we won’t be able to continue to do that.”
Big plays wanted
Brown has repeatedly made it clear that his offense isn’t getting the job done when it comes to executing explosive plays.
“We’re not going to be able to grind out wins. I’m not naïve,” Brown said. “I understand what we’ve got coming [on the schedule]. We’ll have to hit on some big plays rather than counting on nine-, 10-, 11-play drives.”
West Virginia has 14 plays of 20 yards or longer, which ranks 95th in the country.
Much of that is on the shoulders of quarterback Austin Kendall, but perhaps even more is on Brown, the wide receivers and Kendall’s protection up front.
“We’ve got to get the ball downfield,” Brown said. “That’s something Austin has to improve on. We’ve got to improve on protection on downfield throws. We have to improve on schematically setting up those downfield opportunities. There’s bits and pieces of everything, but he’s definitely part of that equation.”
Freshmen to stay on field
Barring any changes, true freshman wide receivers Ali Jennings and Winston Wright will both play the rest of the season. Brown previously said that the Mountaineers would try to redshirt Wright, but his play is making that decision impossible to follow through with.
Wright played 41 snaps as a slot receiver at Kansas, catching three passes for 27 yards.
Angry Neal Brown
Brown was asked about his first visible public show of anger as West Virginia’s head coach, which took place when the Mountaineers burned a timeout prior to attempting a two-point conversion after a 5-yard Martell Pettaway touchdown run.
When asked about the incident, Brown interjected “You mean when I got pissed?”
Brown had plenty of not-for-print things to say in that moment, though he attempted covering his month with his play sheet because “I knew my mom was watching.”
“We knew we were going to go for two from the start of the drive. Everybody knows we’re going for two,” Brown said of his frustration. “We hit a third-and-5 and Pettaway scores. Coaches get excited. Players get excited. We don’t have the right personnel on the field, so we have to use a timeout.
“My opinion is if we don’t use that timeout, we get the two-point play. They were able to coach up their kids once we used our timeout. That was more from excitement rather than from preparation.”
The trick play dialed up for wide receiver Isaiah Esdale as a run-pass option was snuffed out immediately by the Jayhawks.
Bye week plans
Without a game to prepare for, recruitment will be the primary function for the coaching staff this weekend.
“This week we’ll be out Thursday, Friday and Saturday,” Brown said. “A few coaches will be out all three days, but others will be out one or two days during that period. We’ll see the [2020] recruits who are already committed or we’re involved with. And then we’ll also get some live evaluations of ’21 recruits as well.”