Neal Brown Press Conference Ahead of OSU - “Bit of a Guessing Game Who Plays QB”

Productive week. Stayed in camp mode. Spent a lot of time on recruiting and improving as a football team. Open Big 12 play this week. What coach gundy has done with his alma mater is outstanding. Stillwater is a tough place to play.

Explosive, starts with Chuba Hubbard and his ability to break explosive plays any time. Gets a lot of pub for his rushing but he beat us with his receiving skills. Tylan Wallace almost went for 100 yards last week. Play with a lot of tempo.

Defense they’ve created turnovers. Tulsa 0-11 on third down. 10 of 11 starters back [on defense]. They give you a bunch of different looks with their ability to mix and match. Secondary wise, they’ve got four NFL players.

Special teams they’ve been solid, they’ve always had good special teams and this year is no different. Stoner is a quality punter. Great opportunity for our program, ABC program.

September 26 is Mountaineer Nation Day and wear their gold and blue and be proud Mountaineers.

Film Study - True Freshman with no film

Anytime you come in and throw a touch fade, the toughest throw in football and he made it. Moment won’t be too big for him. But yes you go back and watch high school film to see how good he is.

Coach Leslie and Coach Addae - Dual DC

Well we played well in that game (EKU). I dont know if thats an indicator on how we’ll play the rest of the year. Our staff has a lot of experience. That’s how we have approached it. Jordan controls the front end and Jahmile controls the back-end and that’s how we’ll continue to move forward.

I’m happy he’s health, this is most healthy he’s been in 20 months with us. He was good or really good against EKU but he still had too many negative plays. He has the ability to play standing up or down on the line of scrimmage.

Last couple weeks - specific areas targeted?

The hope is you get better. We attacked our bye week with specific goals in mind. We worked on our rushing attack. We worked on the red zone. That’s where games are won and lost in the Big 12. We underperformed on special teams in all phases.

Josh Sills - Playing against former players

Im sure I do. nothing that sticks out. We’re gonna line up and he’s gonna play offense and we’re gonna play defense. I wish him best of luck, not in this game but moving forward.

Digital whistle -guys going full speed on dead plays

I did notice that, watching it on TV and coaches copy. I don’t know what the answer is. At practice I wear a whistle under a gator. I haven’t spoken to Greg Burke about it. It was evident. There were several plays that played through the whistle. They said it happened in the NFL in week 1.

OSU - Measuring Stick Game?

I think without a doubt it is. I think its important to see if we’re ready to play against the top teams in our conference. I’d argue OSU is right there with any body. I think that’s a fair assessment.

New to WV. How do you view WV and Big 12 relationship? Geography still an issue?

I haven’t really put a whole lot of time thinking about it. They came in the league when I was a coordinator at TTU. In my mind, we’re a member of the Big 12. A happy member. Difficult away trips for our fans. That’s the only time I think about it is when our fans talk about trips. Great college towns around the Big 12.

OLines different than game 1 - comfortable?

That’s fair. There’s some anticipation. Junior hasn’t played in a game. Chase hasn’t played in a game. I’m comfortable going 7, 8 deep. 7 will play. But I’m confident. I’m confident in how those guys are going to play and rise to the occasion but it is different when they didn’t play in a game.

Testing protocol

There’s trepidation every time we test. We tested last Friday and we’re all clear. All testing negative. Tested Sunday. All tested negative. I’m going to feel the same trepidation when we test tomorrow. We’re gonna try to do the best vest we came as a fb program to follow every protocol. We understand unfortunate circumstances and we’re gonna try to roll with the punch and go with it. If someone test positive Friday then we have to move on. were prolly more flex as a prog since there have been so many changes in the last 6 months.

Preparing for 2 different style of QB

What you do is you prepare for the guy who started the year Spencer Sanders. If he’s well my assumption is he’ll play. if another guy plays then we’ll adjust. But you plan for what he does well (dual threat)

2 stats, 6 sacks but 0/11 on 3rd down

6 sacks - offensively when i look at that game, when your starting Qb gets hurts in early in the game. You plan but you only have a certain time to practice. Its not just the players but the coaches around them. It takes you a bit to recover. I think that’s part of it. My belief is we’ll see a completely different unit. Top 10 in the country in most phases. Chubba Hubbard - Heisman. Tylan Wallace. They had some injuries on the O-line. The O-line piece people don’t talk enough about it. but i think they’ll be much more in sync this week. And you’ll make more improvement week 1 to week 2.

That defense made a lot of improvement from midway on. I was less surprised they were so good on third down.

Defensive Line Play?

I thought our young guys played well. Our vets can play better. Dante Stills, Darius Stills, Jeffrey Pooler. Important matchup our DL vs their OL

Watching Film - Specific Players vs Scheme

When we watch high school film, we’re watching the player. Schematically they have a new play caller this year. Its a bit of a guessing game no matter who plays QB.

NCAA - Prepared for latest ruling?

I assumed it would happen. I think its unfortunate for student athlete. Most are playing reduce senior season or not getting to play at all. Don’t get to go thru a normal cycle with official visits and not taking them. As far as we are concerned, we have been planning for this. Can’t get live evaluationss but trying to get as much as we can. One side effect is you’ll see less flips, guys can’t take official visit you’ll see less flips. I thought in April, we had a record number of commits, I thought we would have a record number of flips but without official visits I dont think that will happen.