West Virginia held their fifth practice of the spring on Thursday, and after practice, head coach Neal Brown spoke about where his team is at, specifically about their physicality but also their preparation as they are a third of the way through spring ball.
There was some ebb and flow to practice today and really that’s the way the last two days have been. First day in pads on Friday, defense really won the day soundly and there’s been some give and take the last two days, and that’s what you want,” Brown said.
Physicality
This was WVU’s third practice since putting pads on and Brown said there have been ups and downs since they did so last Friday.
With that, there has been a battle of physicality between WVU’s offensive and defensive lines. Obviously, WVU is without Zach Frazier and Doug Nester on the offensive line, something that was seen last week and that Brown said was a wake up call to the o-lineman in the room.
“You’re always starting from scratch every time. January, we’re starting new on the 2024 team and life without Zach Frazier, and we’re going to miss Doug Nester too, because Doug Nester was really the vocal leader in that room,” Brown said. “Zach Frazier was a great player. Not a good player, but a great player. We’re going to miss both of those guys. Sometimes the assumption is from a player standpoint, you just lose people and keep rolling. That’s the expectation, but there’s a lot that goes into that.”
Brown added without Frazier for the first time in four seasons at practice, the defensive line was able to have lots of success early on.
“On Friday, really our d-line handed it to our offensive line, really got after them. I think part of the reason behind that, in the interior part of our defensive line… those guys had great days and part of that is, they’ve been going against Zach Frazier day in and day out and they lost more than one. So, this was the first day post him in a full day of pads and they were ready to return the favor,” Brown said.
Tyrin Bradley and Jack Sammarco compete in a drill at WVU’s practice on Apr. 4, 2024. Photo by Aaron Parker
Despite getting beat last week, Brown said it was good for the offensive line to see and feel that. Brown added that the expectation of being great up front hasn’t changed just because the personnel has.
“I think that was a great wake up call for our offensive line — even though our expectation is we’re going to continue to do this, we fully expect to be one of the top rushing offenses in the country, we fully expect to have few tackles for loss and be one of the leaders in sacks allowed, but there’s a lot of work that goes into that,” Brown said. That was a good wake up call and offensive line wise have competed and performed at a much higher level on Tuesday’s practice and today.”
Preparation
Brown said through five practices he has been able to see increased preparation from this group compared to last year.
“I think just from an overall practice standpoint, I think our preparation from spring a year ago — I’m not saying it’s as good as it was during the season last year — but our preparation, just getting ready for practice mentally and physically is much improved from where it was last spring,” Brown said.
Brown also pointed out that the energy level at practice this spring is greater than it was a year ago.
“The other thing too is I think the energy level at practice is much higher. I think that’s a byproduct we’ve got some new coaches, but we’ve been real intentional about recruiting guys that have energy, that smile a lot and people like being around them and they’re just kind of upbeat, positive people. I think from our energy in practice, it’s much improved,” Brown said.
Photos by Aaron Parker, Blue Gold Sports
