The Big 12 Conference had four new head football coaches in 2019 a 40 percent turnover. SI Sooners publisher John E. Hoover caught up with all four before they began spring practice to ask how they expect their programs to look different in their second offseason. With the Coronavirus shutdown all but ending spring practice for all Big 12 teams, their plans must certainly adapt. But the offseason words of Neil Brown, Chris Klieman, Les Miles and Matt Wells are now more relevant than ever as they try to evolve in Year Two.
But for a three-point loss to Baylor or a seven-point loss to Oklahoma State, West Virginia would have been a bowl team in 2019.
What happened instead might have been just as important to the Mountaineers growth in 2020.
We didnt go to a bowl game, so we had a break over the holidays and used that as a good time to really reflect on the year that passed and it was fast and furious, said head coach Neal Brown. And then this is the time to kind of reflect and then put some change in order that's what we're doing right now.
Before spring football practice got going, before the Coronavirus shut everything down, Brown expressed in a telephone interview his appreciation for the down time that bowl teams dont get.
BIG 12: YEAR TWO
You know, we're really focused on furthering our relationships with our players and developing our players, Brown said. But also, were not only developing our players but we put more time and energy into developing our staff as well.
To that end, Brown hired three new assistant coaches: Gerad Parker takes over the wide receivers, Jeff Koonz gets inside linebackers and special teams, and Dontae Wright is the new outside linebackers coach. Blake Seiler (Old Dominion DC), Al Pogue (Auburn) and Xavier Dye (South Florida) all moved on. Brown also moved offensive line coach Matt Moore from co-offensive coordinator to assistant head coach.
We gotta allow em to grow, Brown said. We gotta give them opportunities as assistant coaches. You know, you got to pour into them just like they're pouring into the program, and (provide) opportunities to grow everybodys got different career goals and allow them to do things so they feel like theyre continuing to grow to get where they want to be in this profession.
Of course, campfire songs and self-reflection and group therapy is one thing. Improving a 5-7 football team takes a lot more than that.
Brown long ago identified the areas where WVU needs to be drastically better. Everyone knows WVU needs to improve at running the football (129th nationally last year), defensive takeaways (107th) and being clutch in the red zone (114th on defense, 118th on offense).
But theres more.
Gotta score more touchdowns in the red zone. We got to be better on third medium, gotta to create more explosive pass plays and throw fewer interceptions, Brown said. I think defensively, weve got to improve our takeaways. Our red zone defense has got to be better. And we got to get better getting off the field in third-and-medium, and third-and-long situations. Special teams-wise, our punt return was not good enough. And we got to make more field goals and make those a point of emphasis.
FACING OKLAHOMA
That was all supposed to be on the Mountaineers spring to-do list. Now, no one knows when these areas can be addressed. Thats not usually what training camp is for, but it may have to be this year.
You always go into evaluation, whether its Year One, Year Two, post-Year One, post-Year Two, Brown said. Youre always evaluating what youre doing. Yeah, I think that weve got some things here at West Virginia that we gotta be better at.
Brown expects more takeaways in 2020 just because the amount of work and thought thats going into getting them. That and, well, better recruiting.
You know, some of it is you gotta be able to run better, Brown said. You gotta go get the ball faster and a lot of turnovers happen on blind hits, a lot of interceptions happen where the running or back receiver don't see the guys making the contact. A lot of interceptions are caused because your safety can run and theyre getting into throwing lanes. Same thing with your droppers; they're athletic enough to get into throwing lanes, so some of its that.
As you continue to recruit better you can continue to develop the guys on campus where theyre able to run faster and be quicker. Thats part of it. Second thing is you got to continue to drill and we drill it every day.
WVU fans should hope for better quarterback play, too. Oklahoma transfer Austin Kendall was up and down before Jarret Doege took over in November and sparked the offense.
Not that Brown is all that eager to discuss the QB situation.
I'm so sick of talking about quarterbacks, to be honest with you, Brown said. They're just gonna go. They're gonna go play, and I'm not saying that to be short with you. Its just, theyre gonna go play. Ive got a plan, reps-wise, and how those reps go depending on who gets the most reps. And we got plan for how we're going to do that. Im not gonna spend a whole lot of time talking about them, leading into the spring. And Ill talk more about it post. But both of will get reps.
I think both did some really good things last fall. I think both of em got a ways to improve. I think weve got to do a better job catching the football. We had one of the highest drop percentages in the entire country. And, and weve got to do a better job running the football to help them. So I think as we improve around them, theyll get better. But I think both of them are good enough to win games in our league.
Brown also expects the Mountaineers might win more close games this year because the team will be older (bigger and stronger thanks to a demanding offseason weight program), and theyll be more experienced.
The thing with our football team is, we got so many of your guys back, he said. You know, offensively, we lose our left tackle (Colton McKivitz). We lose Kennedy McKoy; he played a lot of running back. And George Campbell caught some touchdown passes. But everybody else is back and most people are back for multiple years, not just next year.
Defensively, we lose our starting two corners (Hakeem Bailey and Keith Washington), we lose (defensive tackle) Reese Donohue, and (safety) Josh Norwood. We lose four guys that are significant contributors, but we've got everybody else back. We lose our long snapper (Rex Sunahara) and a punter (Josh Growden), but we just dont we don't lose a whole lot from last year.
And so I think youll see a more mature football team. Youre gonna see a team thats stronger.
All things being equal, that should mean a bowl game in 2020. WVU was blown out in losses to Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas Tech (those are the three that, just, we played really bad football, Brown said), but the Mountaineers were in the middle of things against Iowa State and Texas before those games got away late, and the Baylor and OSU games were winnable.
So were right, right there, Brown said. But you win those games when youre supposed to win em, too, and we didnt do enough things in a positive manner, in any phase, to be able to win those close games. And thats something that we got to put an emphasis on this spring, and summer and late in the fall.
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