After losing to Pitt last Thursday in their opening game of the season, the Mountaineers are now turning their attention to another opener.
On Saturday, West Virginia opens their conference slate as well as their home schedule in 2022, playing host to Kansas. West Virginia head football coach Neal Brown spoke on Monday about his thoughts on the loss to Pitt, and how his team is preparing for Kansas.
Pitt Thoughts
In his postgame remarks following the Backyard Brawl, Brown made a point to call out the officiating. Directly following the Pitt game, Brown said he was confused by the lack of consistency with some of the calls and today he backed that same sentiment up.
Brown said he talked to the league office and talked with Greg Burks who is the director of officiating.
“Greg Burk’s handles the officials in our conference,” Brown said. “Greg does a really good job. I think the game is really hard to officiate.”
“As far as the last catch or non-catch goes; there’s two plays that went to replay. On their last scoring drive when they were on offense, they threw the ball to the tight end across the middle and they let it stand. To me the ball hit the ground,” Brown said. “The ball that Reese caught, was ruled a catch on the field as well. It goes to replay, you can see it hit the ground, just like the other hit the ball hit the ground. My argument is, either both of them are catches or neither of them are catches.”
As for the on the field play of his team, Brown said he thought it was a great atmosphere, but knows his team has to clean up some things, especially on offense.
“We dropped six balls in the game,” Brown said. “We got to clean up some protection issues up front.”
As far as Brown’s defense goes against Pitt, he said he was happy with how they stopped the run and how they were able to control the line of scrimmage.
“Defensively, I though the positives were we stopped the run. I thought we controlled the line of scrimmage and that was versus a group that was playing six or seven offensive linemen,” Brown said.
For the negatives on defense, the main focus for Brown was tackling better. The Mountaineers allowed multiple big plays to Pitt due to their inability to tackle in space.
“Things we have to improve on — we have to tackle better. That’s something we’ve done really well here over the past three years. That’s the standard, is we tackle well,” Brown said. “We got to do a better job of that, especially late we didn’t tackle well.”
Injuries and Secondary Depth
West Virginia could be without a pair of corners on Saturday. Charles Woods left the Pitt game and did not return. Brown said he is uncertain of Woods’ status.
“Obviously Charles Woods got hurt in the game. I don’t really have an update on him right now,” Brown said.
As far as other injuries, Brown talked about offensive lineman Jordan White, who he said is moving around and is questionable for Saturday. Jalen Thornton and Tirek Austin-Cave were both inactive last Thursday and Brown.
“He has not practiced since our second scrimmage full speed,” Brown said of Austin-Cave.
“Thornton, he was out. He’s been limited. I think he’s probably another week away,” Brown said of Thornton.
The Mountaineers will for sure be without Wesley McCormick who was ejected for targeting in the 4th quarter on Thursday. McCormick will be forced to miss the first half this week and Brown said playing time will come down to who practices the best.
“We do feel like we have more athleticism in that room,” Brown said. “Malachi Ruffin has played corner. Andrew Wilson-Lamp is at a point where he’s ready to play. Jacoby Spells is a really highly regarded freshman. Mumu (Bin-Wahad) came in the other night, played a few snaps,” Brown said. “We’ve got options and those guys are going to have to be ready to play if Charles can’t go.”
Kansas Prep
Brown talked on Tuesday about facing the Jayhawks this week — a team Brown’s squad beat late last year. Brown talked about how Kansas is playing well and he has a lot of respect for the Kansas coaching staff.
“They’re playing with a lot of confidence right now and they should,” Brown said. “If you think about their last four games, they go on the road and win at Texas. Lose in the last possession on the road at TCU. Our 2021 team, it’s a one possession game they lose at home… and then they win big,” Brown said.
“I think at the end of the year, you’re going to look back and say this is one of the most improved teams in the entire country,” Brown said.
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