West Virginia has played their way to a 5-3 mark at the two-thirds mark of the season.
One more win would tie Neal Brown’s personal best during his tenure at West Virginia.
Part of the success has been keeping the penalties down. West Virginia currently has 35 penalties for an average of 42.6 yards.
The latter stat would be the lowest under Neal Brown if the season ended today. The 35 penalties are also far away the lowest through eight games in a season under Neal Brown, with the next closest mark being 50 in 2022.
“We talked about being a discipline team this year and what does that look like? Penalties is definitely one of them,” Brown said.
“We’ve spent a lot of time playing lower, playing with our elbows tight and getting our hands inside where you don’t expose yourself. That’s on the perimeter on offense and in the interior on both sides of the ball and it’s out in the space in the secondary. We’re doing a better job playing with our eyes in the secondary and not necessarily playing the receiver.”
On the flip side, opposing teams have more penalties than West Virginia at 49 with an average of 53.88 yards per game. Only once during Brown’s tenure have opposing teams had fewer penalties against West Virginia through eight games.
The 53.88 yards for opposing teams would the highest mark since 2019 if the season were to end today.
West Virginia’s 35 penalties are a top five mark in the Big 12 as well as a top 20 mark in the nation.
West Virginia closes out their season with matchups against BYU, Oklahoma, Cincinnati, and Baylor. Oklahoma is the most penalized team in the conference with 56 penalties, while Baylor is the least penalized team with 32 penalties.
