West Virginia head coach Neal Brown gave his thoughts on different aspects of WVU’s 38-15 loss to Penn State.
Greene Getting The Start
It was not much of a surprise when Garrett Greene got the start under center for the Mountaineers on Saturday. Greene was in a battle during fall camp and beat out Nicco Marchiol. Greene and the offense struggled early on Saturday night, but they began to figure things out as the second quarter progressed.
Greene threw for 162 yards and rushed for 71 yards and a touchdown.
“We wanted to throw the ball some there later in the game because we need to get better at it,” Brown said. “The kid can throw. TO say that he can’t throw the ball would be an absolute fallacy, because he can.”
As far as his decision making when keeping the ball and scrambling compared to passing the ball downfield, Brown said there are areas of it where Greene has to improve.
“My deal with him is I think about guys that play like him, is like an artist. When you have an artist, anybody can paint by numbers… when you have an artist, you want them to create art. For him, I do not want to take his playmaking skills away. He’s an athletic quarterback that I thought he took care of the football, that’s your one concern.
“Was he perfect with every run or pass decision, probably not. I thought he did run around and make some plays, I thought he extended some plays. What we’ve got to do a better job of is when he extends is looking down the field. The one disappointing thing is we really needed to be more explosive in the pass game.”
Trick Play
West Virginia had a trick play in the second half involving both quarterbacks Greene and Nicco Marchiol. It went nowhere as the Mountaineers were down two scores, but Brown knew he was going to be aggressive, the play simply just didn’t work.
“Nicco, he needs to play. We didn’t get the motion far enough out,” Brown said. “I knew they were going to play zero. When you play zero coverage, nobody accounts for the quarterback. We motion the quarterback out, if he got wider we would’ve had a chance. It’s one of those things if it works, you’re a genius, if it doesn’t, everybody wants to know why.”
Taking a Knee?
Late in the game, Penn State had the ball and had multiple chances to take a knee instead of continuing to play. The Nittany Lions scored a late touchdown, but Brown said he isn’t too upset with their decision.
“Nah, who cares,” Brown said on if he was surprised on them not taking a knee.
“I wouldn’t have done it. I wouldn’t have done it, but it doesn’t bother me,” Brown said. “I think stuff like that comes around, goes around. At some point it will come back around. When, I don’t know but It doesn’t bother me. I’m not upset about it.”
