WVU’s Brown Upbeat Following Conclusion of Spring Drills Last Saturday
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia coach Neal Brown is hoping to put a hungry football team on the field on Saturday, Aug. 31, when West Virginia meets Penn State at Milan Puskar Stadium.
The Mountaineers wrapped up their spring work last Saturday afternoon with the annual Gold-Blue game before an announced crowd of 18,540 at Milan Puskar Stadium.
“I think we are a hungry team that likes to compete,” Brown said afterward. “That was evident in how we went about our business in practices one through 14. It showed that this is a group that likes to practice.
“I’ve been stressing to our coaching staff that I want the best people that love football,” he added. “I’m not saying that everybody on the roster is there, but a lot of our better players really love football and love to compete. That was evident as we went through the spring.”
Positive momentum began toward the end of last season when West Virginia ended the year with victories over Cincinnati, Baylor, and North Carolina in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl in Charlotte.
West Virginia’s nine victories were its most since posting a 10-win season in 2016. The Mountaineers also returned to the season-ending USA Today Coaches’ Poll at No. 25 for the first time in six years.
Brown believes his team’s momentum continued with a successful winter conditioning program under longtime strength coach Mike Joseph and his staff.
“The winter program was really good for us,” Brown pointed out. “We did a couple of different things, and I thought we were stronger, especially on both lines of scrimmage. Our mids (linebackers and safeties), we’ve got to continue to work over the summer, but I was pleased with that.
“We’ve continued to be a team that’s physical,” Brown said. “We’ve worked tackling bunch, and we’re better. I think we are going to be better on our coverage units on special teams. That was a point of emphasis.”
Brown continued.
“I think we developed some depth on the offensive and defensive lines. We’ve got more guys we feel good about,” he said. “There is great competition in our linebacker room. Our receivers are making the step that we thought they would from year one to year two. We need CJ (Donaldson) to get healthy in our running back room. I think Jahiem (White) has a chance to be an elite player, and he’s had a nice spring.”
West Virginia also has its top two quarterbacks returning, including senior Garrett Greene, who passed and ran for 29 touchdowns in 2023.
Defensively, Brown believes the secondary is still a work in progress but is certain the pieces are in place to have an improved unit this fall.
“(Northwestern transfer) Garnett (Hollis) is going to help us, and I think some of those freshmen, too. We have some guys that have played some snaps at safety, and we continue to move those guys around,” he said. “There are some new faces back there that are going to make an impact.”
One of those new faces is Duquesne transfer Ayden Garnes, who had an interception in the spring game and had several practices with interceptions this spring.
Garnes played against West Virginia last year in Morgantown and finished last season with 11 pass breaks and two interceptions for the Dukes. He is a strong candidate to nab one of the starting cornerback spots this fall.
“He shows up,” Brown said of Garnes. “He’s of those new guys in the secondary, and he loves to play. He’s very competitive. He can run and play multiple positions. He’s flashed all spring.”
Following the midway point of spring practice, Brown said the team got in a lot of 11-on-11 work by design.
He explained.
“Right up until our first scrimmage is a ton of fundamentals, alignment, assignment and playing in kind of some controlled situations. It might be a team run period and then seven-on-seven and those types of things,” Brown said. “After practice nine, it’s really playing 11-on-11 football and making guys go out and play and compete.”
Which is what the veteran coach is expecting in August when the Nittany Lions come to town. It will be Penn State’s first appearance in Morgantown since 1992 when the long-running series ended when it joined the Big Ten Conference.
The final three games of the Penn State series in 1988, 1990 and 1992 drew at least 66,000 fans in the games played in Morgantown.
Last year’s game in State College drew 110,747 – the most fans to ever watch a West Virginia-Penn State football game.
Another capacity crowd is anticipated for the opener against the Lions in Milan Puskar Stadium, which saw its capacity reduced to 60,000 in 2004.
