One month from today, West Virginia will head north to play their first game of the 2022 season. On Monday, West Virginia head coach Neal Brown opened the season, giving updates about the summer, talking about several key returners and talked about where his team is at overall.
Summer Recap
This summer was a good one for Brown and his staff. The Mountaineers have 33 additions to their roster and Brown said he is very happy where is team is after this summer. This summer Brown was able to have OTA’s (organized team activity) and he said those extra sessions are paying off.
“This summer was the first summer we could have OTA’s. And we were able to hold a number of those and they paid off,” Brown said. “Talking to Mike (Joseph), he really feels strongly that this has been a successful summer… This is the first time in my four years that he’s came to me and said mentally and physically I feel really good about where our guys are. He talks about our front on offense and defense — our o-line and d-line leading the way in the summer.”
Roster Updates
Brown gave a few key roster and injury updates on Monday. Tight end Will Dixon is on campus and practiced according to Brown. Another tight end Mike O’ Laughlin is progressing from a lower body injury he sustained last season. Brown also said linebacker Exree Loe practiced and is also progressing.
“Roster wise, Will Dixon is here, he practiced today,” Brown said. “As far as injuries, Exree Loe practiced, I wouldn’t say he’s full speed yet, but he’s getting really close. And Mike O’Laughlin, he’ll be limited early on, but we’re cautiously optimistic about how he’s proceeding.”
Quarterbacks
WVU will have a new quarterback this year and last month at Big 12 Media Days, Brown said it is an open competition. Whether that is true or not, given the addition of former five-star and Georgia quarterback JT Daniels, Brown gave an update on how his quarterbacks looked.
‘Will Crowder was not out there today. He was a little bit under the weather today, so he did not practice,” Brown said. “[The quarterbacks] throw on their own during the summer. The good thing is they get repetitions. The bad thing is they are not sometimes the same repetitions they would get with the staff out there. Overall, they knew what to do. Our timing wasn’t what we needed it to be.”
Evolving as a complete team
Despite the quarterback being the most important position on the field, Brown stressed that West Virginia will have to be complete on defense as well as with their run game if they want to have success.
“Your quarterback’s going to have some off days. Hopefully they are few and far between, but there is going to be an off day at some point and we’ve got to be good enough around him — running the football, defensively, to be able to still win those games. The run game is going be a big piece of what we’re going to try and do this year and Graham will tell you that as well,” Brown said.
Brown and his team are set to practice tomorrow morning, as they continue to get ready for the 2022 season as well as the Backyard Brawl on Sept. 1.
