Neal Brown and Staff Shaking Things Up

Morgantown, WV – West Virginia head coach Neal Brown addressed the media in his weekly presser Tuesday afternoon. You could tell from the outset that Brown was frustrated from his team’s past week performance stating, “I can handle losing, I don’t like it, but I can handle it. What I’m disappointed about in that game is a couple things. Our inability to do what we were coached to do and our lack of physicality.”

With the lack of productivity on offense, especially the run game that has only produced 64 yards on the season. They rank last in the country in yards per rush (1.14) and second to last in rushing yards per game (32.0). If you take away the loss yards on the three sacks, they’re up to 90 yards on the season.

Putting up a total of 27 points in two games is just another reason the competition has reopened.

“What we're going to do is, we're just going to give a bunch of guys opportunities on Tuesday and Wednesday and we're going to make those jobs competitive.,” said Brown. “We've got to figure out who the best five are upfront. Outside of Colton McKivitz I'm not real fired up about how any of them are playing. So, we're going to give some other guys some opportunities.”

Briason Mays, John Hughes, James Gmiter, those guys are going to get some opportunities up front, continued Brown. “At running back, we're going to go and give those other guys (an opportunity) - I think Sinkfield - I thought he ran ball the best of any of them played on Saturday. And then we get Leddie (Brown) back, who's a physical guy. That's one thing I don't have to worry about him is he is physical.”

“We're going to let the young wide receivers have a chance. Winston Wright and Ali Jennings, they'll play for the first time this week. And then on defense, Jordan Jefferson will be a guy that we're going to get more involved in what we're doing.”

As a freshman Leddie Brown showed his physicality last year, running downhill and barreling over defenders. It’s no surprise they’re anxious to get him onto the field after sitting the first two games out due to an ankle injury.

“I think he’s a tough guy,” stated Brown. “We lack some toughness right now. That’s one of the things, I think I talked about being disappointed with what we were on Saturday I think that Missouri was way more physical than us and so, he’s a tough guy I like that about him. He’s rusty. He hasn’t done much football in about four weeks, but he’s slowly getting back to it. Today will be his first full-speed practice reps.”

After Tuesday's practice, there was a little bit of shakeup to the depth chart. Freshman Winston Wright Jr is in starting in the place of Tevin Bush at the H. Briason Mays is at the top of the chart at center, although the “or” in front of Chase Behrndt’s name says the competition is still open and receiver Ali Jennings has made the two-deep at the X. Then there isn’t a clear-cut starter at running back.

Looking at the defensive side of the ball, Jordan Jefferson has moved in front of Brenon Thrift at nose tackle.

Offense

Defense

Special Teams