Scheduling has always been a hot topic for head coach Neal Brown and West Virginia.
The Mountaineers face FCS opponent Duquesne on Saturday, having just opened on the road for the third season in a row against a regional opponent.
“I think there’s pros and cons to both,” Brown said of playing Penn State week one instead of a more traditional matchup against an FCS school.
“I think the thing where it helps you when you play FCS first is you get some momentum, you’re able to establish some momentum and I think that’s important. We’ve opened up on national [television] two years in a row too because we’ve played a premiere opponent, a rivalry game. So I think there’s some advantages to that.”
The problem for Brown is how many power five opponents the Mountaineers play. WVU has two non-conference games against power five opponents, which means 11 of the 12 opponents WVU faces this year are in the power five.
“My issue with our schedule is we’ve opened up on the road three years in a row which that’s not smart scheduling. The other thing is we’re playing 11 power fives and that does not put us on a level playing field with the people in our conference,” Brown said. “That’s my two issues with scheduling; it’s not when we play that game. It’s opening on the road and playing 11 power fives.”
West Virginia plays Duquesne this weekend and he says that game is important for WVU, but also for football in general.
“I think we should play an FCS game,” Brown said. “I finished my career playing FCS, I started my coaching career, coaching FCS football. So, I think the more schools playing football the better. I think it’s really important that we continue to play, whether it’s D-3, D-2, FCS, group of five, so on.
“Why I think these FCS games are so important because this game for Duquesne, it’s very important for FCS programs to play power five and get payouts so they can continue to finance their program.”
Brown’s hope for games like these is he gets to see live action from guys who are redshirting, or just don’t see a ton of playing time. It also helps the smaller school with athletic department funding when they come play these games.
“The other thing is and I think it’s really important is you give yourself an opportunity to play some people if the game goes in a direction,” Brown said.
“Guys need opportunities to go out and play and they provide these opportunities as well. I think they’re important. If we’re going to lay these games I think it makes a lot of sense to play them regionally. Duquesne’s going to take a lot more home out of this one because it’s a bus tour. They don’t have to worry about flight or anything like that. They’ve been to Hawaii, they’ve been to Florida State. Those are good money games I’m sure, but at the same time, there’s a lot of cost associated.”
