MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — For the second time in Neal Brown’s four seasons as head coach at West Virginia, the Mountaineers will play this weekend with no possibility of qualifying for a bowl game.
The only other instance came during Brown’s first season as head coach. Back in 2019, the Mountaineers were 4-7 and closed the season with a 20-17 win at TCU.
Three years later, West Virginia is again 4-7 ahead of its season finale at Oklahoma State, which will be played at noon Saturday.
Considering the disappointment in losing four of the last five games, the turmoil throughout the athletic department with an opening for athletic director and the uncertainty of Brown’s future as head coach beyond Saturday, it’s only fair to wonder if the Mountaineers’ minds could wander leading up to the contest with the Cowboys.
There’s other variables: The game’s proximity to Thanksgiving, WVU students being away from campus for the week and players that aren’t from somewhat nearby Morgantown being unable to go home the last few months as a result of there not being two full weeks between games this season.
“It’s all how you look at it,” Brown said. “I get our guys to think back to when you’re a young kid and if somebody said, ‘Hey, you’re going to go play in front of 55, 60 thousand on ESPN2 and you’re going to play Power 5 football at the highest level.’ You’d be pretty excited. So what’s changed? Just because it’s Thanksgiving week and late in the year, does that make it change? It is what you make out of it. That’s my approach.”
For some players, Saturday will be the final game in a West Virginia uniform, whether that means moving on from college football altogether or transferring to another school. For others, it’ll mark the final competitive football game of their careers.
Brown views the matchup with the Cowboys (7-4) as a chance to leave somewhat of a lasting impression.
“It’s an opportunity and every time you have an opportunity to put video out there and increase your value as a player, then you need to do it,” he said. “And finishing says a lot about who you are and how you proceed. You don’t care anything about me waxing on poetically about football and its value, but there is some value in learning finishing what you start.”
Defensive coordinator Jordan Lesley shared a similar sentiment.
“Every one of these kids and coaches want to have some type of postseason opportunity, but you have 12 games to get that done and we didn’t,” Lesley said. “The No. 1 thing to me and the message to the guys is anybody that’s trying to start the next page of their career and the next part of their life, when they start something, they want to end it on a positive note.
“For the young guys coming back, any win at the end of season is momentum you carry into next year. There’s a lot to play for. Our guys are competitive and they want to win no matter what the situation is. It’s not like somebody is not trying to win or not trying to play well. Our guys had a little bounce to them Sunday when they came in. Get three good days of prep, finish it off Friday and get on a plane and go play.”
Reflecting back on 2019, Brown recalled the road win over the Horned Frogs as his fondest moment of Thanksgiving week as a coach, though he was noncommittal as to how much, if any, it would be brought up before the trip to Stillwater.
“They lost a really tough game and came back and went on the road and won,” Brown said. “A lot of those guys are [still] on the team. I haven’t really thought about it. I may use it toward the end of the week.”
Even with a losing season assured, Brown remains confident his team’s effort won’t come into question against the Cowboys, who have hit a rough patch of their own by losing four of their last six games since a 5-0 start.
“I don’t think we’ll have a problem with our guys playing,” Brown said. “I fully expect them to practice well [Tuesday]. We’ve shortened practices over the last week couple of weeks and they’re not overly physical because of our depth issues. I fully expect our guys to run around and we’ll have a good product out there Saturday.”
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For the second consecutive week, Garrett Greene will start at quarterback for West Virginia.
After opting to not announce a starter ahead of last Saturday’s 48-31 loss to Kansas State but ultimately settling on Greene, Brown named the sophomore from Tallahassee, Fla., the No. 1 signal-caller for the season finale.
In the loss to the Wildcats, Greene completed 15-of-27 passes for 204 yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions, the first of which was returned for a touchdown and the latter of which directly led to a KSU offensive touchdown.
“Garrett’s going to start,” Brown said. “There were some really good things he did and some stuff he has to get better. You don’t want to turn the ball over, but as a quarterback, you know you’re going to have that some. On both of them, he has to be better with his eyes and get his eyes in windows better.
“The biggest improvement from last week to this week is he has to take the layups. He’s always looking for the big play and you have to take the easy ones. We didn’t do as good a job as giving some of the easy things that KS was giving us last week.”
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Brown also confirmed he expects wideout Kaden Prather to return to the lineup Saturday after Prather missed his first game this season last week.
“He’ll be full practice tomorrow as long as everything checks out,” Brown said. “He has a protocol he has to follow, but he’s going to do a little bit of work today and tomorrow and he’s on track to play Saturday.”