West Virginia head coach Neal Brown had a clear message on Monday: “This is the most important week you have in the development of your football team.”
This week comes after WVU’s first scrimmage of the fall on Saturday in which Brown saw some good and some bad.
Defense
“Defensively overall we did a good job of getting lined up. My biggest things have been alignment, physicality, and getting to the ball,” Brown said of his defense.
As for position groups on defense, Brown said the defensive line will be a group that plays by committee. He expects WVU to rotate about 10 guys on the defensive line and play them for the most part in spurts.
“I think our d-line is doing better. We’re a group that’s going to be by committee,” Brown said. “We’re deeper than we have been but it’s going to be by committee. We’re going to play 9-11 guys up there, and we’re going to roll them.”
Offense
On the offensive side of the ball there is obviously the quarterback battle and Brown said he saw highs and lows from Nicco Marchiol compared to more consistent play from Garrett Greene.
“The quarterbacks, we did some situational work. Nicco had a really good two-minute drive at the end of the scrimmage. Struggled with some decision making early. I thought Garrett was pretty solid. He ran around, made a couple of scramble plays, but really just solid in his decision making on Saturday.”
As for the running back room Brown said they had different workloads, including “taking it easy” on CJ Donaldson. Brown said he thinks Justin Johnson has been the most consistent in the running back room, and that freshman Jahiem White is continuing to develop.
“Jaylen Anderson had a really good day. He was productive. he’s a guy we need, we just got to get him in shape.He’s got to be able to play continuous plays but he’s talented. Jahiem White was good. He was better without the ball and that’s what you worry about with running backs early in their career is can they play away from the ball.
“Justin Johnson was really consistent… Justin’s probably been our most consistent player at that position during fall camp.”
Brown was high on true freshman Traylon Ray who was WVU’s leading receiver in Saturday’s scrimmage.
“Traylon Ray the true freshman receiver was our leading receiver in the scrimmage,” Brown said. “From a freshman standpoint he’s doing some good things and I think he’ll be in the mix for us.”
The Week Ahead
Brown did not shy away from WVU being in their most important week of camp. School begins on Wednesday and this is a week Brown expects guys to separate themselves.
“I’m pissed, the kids are pissed, the whole coaches are pissed just because you’re doing the same thing over and over again,” Brown said. “We had a hard practice today in shells, we’re going to have a hard practice tomorrow where we’re going to tackle some on Tuesday. We’re going to start school on Wednesday which they’re excited about and then we’re going to have a hard practice on Thursday, a little bit lighter on Friday, and then we’re going to go 50-60 plays on Saturday.
“This is the toughest week as far as physicality, mental toughness, all those type of things. This will be the toughest week we have. It’s really about finding out where we’re at.”
