After dropping a heartbreaker to Pitt Saturday, West Virginia head coach Neal Brown acknowledged that the Mountaineers have had reoccurring struggles.
Specifically on the defensive side of the ball, covering the pass deep. While he refuses to ever throw his players under the bus, he mentioned that there will be changes in the personnel.
“Well, I think some guys they’re going to get some opportunities as long as they stay healthy this week. TJ Crandall is going to play more. Jacolby Spells, who feels we feel like he’s close to being 100% he’s going to play he’s going to get in the mix. As far as anybody else it’s to be determined this week. But, I think those are the two main guys at corner that deserve to play and deserved some opportunities,” Brown said.
Crandall is a sophomore who transferred to WVU after playing at Colorado State as a true freshman. Spells is a junior who’s been with West Virginia his entire collegiate career but has recently been dealing with some injuries.
Brown was also keen on putting his players in the right position to make plays, but also said that he could not continue to award players who aren’t making plays with playing time.
“We’ve also got to do a better job of putting our guys in position to make plays. And we also can’t continue to reward guys who aren’t playing well by continuing to play them; you know, it’s a business,” Brown said. “We’re 0 for three in those opportunities from a pass coverage standpoint.”
Brown went into greater depth when speaking about personnel and adjustments that need to be made.
“From a personnel standpoint like we’ve got some guys that just are not performing as well as they need to and really as well as they’re capable of. It’s not an effort deal like they’re playing with good effort; there’s some technique (problems), there’s some lack of discipline. It’s not like they’re trying not to do what they’re asked to do,” Brown said. “They’re just not playing well. And so when that happens, you got to give guys opportunities. You can’t continue to reward guys for not being productive; that just doesn’t work.
When explaining how to put his players in the best position, Brown explained the gamesmanship behind it and why that comes into play.
“We played some man coverage and situations where it’s probably not the best situation for that player. If we had somebody else in maybe so,” Brown said. “We’ve had some checks that probably we don’t need to have with certain individuals in the game. And that’s probably about as deep as I’m going to get it on because y’all have been around me long enough, I’m not going to sit here and I’m never going to be throwing any of our guys under the bus. I’m just not doing that but there’s better calls for the personnel we have, we’re going to rotate.”
Looking to make those adjustments and recoup after a tough loss, WVU hosts Kansas for the Big 12 play opener Saturday. The game will be televised on ESPN2 with kickoff set for noon EST.
