MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — WVU football coach Neal Brown was eager to talk about game week prep heading into Saturday’s season opener against Eastern Kentucky at Milan Puskar Stadium. There were questions all offseason about whether a season would even be played due to COVID-19, as well as the obstacles that needed to be hurdled in order to make it happen.
But now that the conversation has finally moved toward football, Brown was a man of many words during Tuesday’s news conference — except with one answer.
When asked about if the running game will be better this year compared to last, Brown’s answer was short and emphatic, “It better be.”
The story has been told over and over since last season ended in late November. The Mountaineers’ running game was dreadful in most aspects, ranking near the bottom nationally in almost every category — 73.25 yards per game (128th out of 130), seven rushing touchdowns (129th) and 2.63 yards per carry (129th).
Gerad Parker, who was not a part of the coaching staff last season, has had to adapt into the running game, now serving as not only the wide receivers coach but also WVU’s offensive coordinator since coming over from Penn State. Getting familiar with what went wrong a year ago — even if it isn’t in his wheel house — was one of the keys Parker had to figure out.
“It’s been really cool to grow up through this profession as a wide receiver and passing game guy, and really over the last few years, made myself professional dive into the running game — how things fit and how it works,” he said. “It’s been really cool to get ahold of this new situation, get with a great staff and work with coach (Matt) Moore, coach (Travis) Trickett, coach (Chad) Scott and coach Brown, and just dive into the run game, and then in the [run-pass option] with coach (Sean) Reagan.
“We know we have to improve together in order to get where we want to go offensively, and as a football team, we have to run it better. It’s been a fun challenge for all of us to find what works together for us and find improvement.”
Parker complimented the players in the running game, believing they’ve come up with a scheme and fit that the “state of West Virginia will be proud of.”
One of major players to make that happen is left guard James Gmiter, who was part of the porous running game last season as a redshirt-freshman. Gmiter bounced around from right guard to left guard, but is soundly planted in the left guard spot now as a redshirt-sophomore.
Like most of the offensive lineman, especially those returning from the interior — Chase Behrndt, Michael Brown and Briason Mays — Gmiter is tired of hearing about last season’s woes.
It’s time to put up or shut up.
“I really believe this offseason that our buy-in was a lot better,” Gmiter said. “This year, we have no egos and a really good group. Our footwork has been a lot better. This quarantine has been good for us. Our goal is to be the most improved offensive line in the country and I think we will be.”
Injury update
According to Brown, defensive lineman Taijh Alston is the only player out with injury for Saturday’s game. Alston missed most of last season with a knee injury, and Brown announced earlier in camp that he will likely miss about half the season again.
Brown, though, wanted to wait on possible positive COVID-19 tests before declaring more announcements for who could miss. Big 12 rules state players will be tested three times per week — Sunday, Wednesday and Friday — and as of Tuesday, last Sunday’s test results were still trickling in.
Tweet @SeanManning_1
