Coach Brown opened up the press conference by talking about the turnout for West Virginia’s Fan Day. “I commend our people, thought they did a really nice job with that. Good turnout, appreciate the fans. I think it’s really important for our players to get exposure. We get a lot of people out in the state that come, it’s important that we don’t charge and our players, especially our newcomers, get a chance for the first time to see what it means to people.” Brown also mentioned that a lot of the players’ families were in attendance and emphasized the importance of players, families and fans alike “intermingling” with each other.
Brown’s first question was about how the team was working on their passing offense and defense. “A work in progress on both,” Brown answered. “I’ll start on defense, we have more able bodies… I’ve been really impressed with our two corners that are running with the ones right now. That’s Ayden Garnes – just a really high level football player. He’s a little thin, but man he’s competitive. He’s strong for his size, he can run, really smart. He makes a lot of really good football plays. And then Garnett Hollis is… one of the bigger kids we’ve had playing outside for us and he’s got really good length.” Brown continued by mentioning that Aubrey Burks has been playing as a spear (a hybrid position of safety, linebacker and slot cornerback) and as a high safety.
When talking about the offensive side of passing, Brown says he likes his receiver core. “I think that all those guys that were here with us last year and played a lot of football have made a definitive step. Preston Fox is a lot stronger, that’s a credit to what he’s done, winter and summer. Traylon Ray and Rodney Gallagher and Hudson Clement are just following the… natural progression. Jaden Bray, he and Justin Robinson are going to add an element for us, and they just got to learn what to do and how we play and what our expectations are, but they’re going to play a role. (Ric’Darious) DayDay Farmer, he’s elite with the ball in his hands so we got to figure out ways how to use him.”
That answer was followed up by an immediate inquiry into Farmer because he’s gotten many quality reps. When asked how good Farmer can be, Brown sung his praises. “He looks thin, but he plays really strong. Mike (Joseph, Assistant Athletics Director and Head Coach for Strength and Conditioning) was really impressed this summer. He’s in the mid-160s, he’ll probably play at 170 by the time we get to the season, but he’s got twitch and he’s got some explosiveness, and he’s a lot stronger than maybe his body type looks, which is going to give him the ability to play and not just be a guy who goes in there when we’re going to get him the ball or be a decoy. He can block on the perimeter and those type of things. He’s made several competitive plays, he was good yesterday in our 11 on 11 work, so yeah, excited about him.”
When asked why Aubrey Burks will be playing at the spear position along with the safety position in his final season, Brown explained his decision. “He’s still going to play both. He’s still going to play what I call ‘hash’ safety and he’s going to play, we call it spear, it’s really a nickel position. Some of it will be personnel based, what the offense is doing. Some of it will be who we want to get on the field. If we want to play with three linebackers, he’ll probably go back to safety. If we want to play with five DBs, then he’ll probably be in at spear. That’ll be game by game, and he’s splitting his reps there, he’s going to continue to split his reps. The thing that he’s shown… he’s shown the ability to play man coverage, he’s shown the ability to be a difficult block on the perimeter, and then he will tackle. He’s a willing tackler and he’s a plus blitzer.”
Brown was later inquired on what he has learned about his team through a week of fall camp. “They’re a group that really wants to do well,” Brown responded. “We’ve got to consistently challenge them. Y’all asked about (the) schedule the other day, it’s formidable, right?… It is really really important that we have a physical camp and we do more 11 on 11, good on good than we maybe have ever done, and the reason is because, man we’ve got to be significantly better than we were on the first game a year ago to give ourselves a chance. Then, we’ve got to be ready when we enter conference play and we play the Backyard Brawl, and then we get into conference play because we are playing an extremely physical schedule,” Brown emphasized to the media. “Fall camp’s about preparing for the season, and so we’ve got to continue to consistently challenge this group.”
Back on the schedule, Brown was asked if he thinks Penn State is a great first test for the team or if he would prefer if the match up took place later on in the season. “It is what it is at this point,” Brown replied. “I think it’s a great showcase game. I think if you asked any coach, you know we’d love to ease into it, right? We’ve played a couple FCS first games and those are positive, you learn a little bit more about your team before you play maybe a rivalry game, but that’s not what we have so it’s like, eh, it is what it is, Brown replied with a shrug.
“We play Penn State, they’re a Top 10 team in the country. I was looking at a bunch of draft boards, I went over this with our team the other day. There’s a whole lot of Penn State guys listed… we better be ready, and it doesn’t matter what I’d like for it to be or who I’d like for it to be against, it doesn’t matter. We play Penn State and the FOX crew is going to be here, and we got to perform, and the expectation is that we will and we’ll perform at a high level.”
You can watch the full conference here:
