MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia head coach Neal Brown spoke during the Big 12 coaches teleconference Monday morning, heading into WVU’s (4-2, 3-2 Big 12) road game Saturday against No. 22 Texas (4-2, 3-2):
- On working around the practice schedule without being able to work today due to Election Day: “It’s a little bit unique. I don’t remember if it’s a Big 12 rule or NCAA rule, but we’re abiding by it and I get it. Voting is extremely important. Most of our guys have already voted due to their mail-ins and they claim their legal residence away from here. Most have voted in their home states already.
“What we’ve done is instead of Sunday be our off day, we had a walk-through [Sunday] night and Tuesday will be our off day this week.”
- On linebacker Dylan Tonkery’s pick-6 against Kansas State: “Nobody deserves that pick-6 more than Dylan Tonkery. He’s as good a teammate as we have in our football program, completely unselfish, team guy, coachable, his teammates love him. I was super fired up for Tonk to get that pick-6. He played well on defense, that was the best he’s played on defense all year and he’s been solid on special teams. Very deserving, and if you saw the reaction on the sideline, that tells you everything you need to know.”
- On what the defense did differently leading into the K-State game than it did into the Texas Tech game: “Preparation was much improved. We practiced better throughout the week leading into the Kansas State game than we did the Texas Tech game. We embraced who we have to play not only well on defense, but as a football team, and that’s a great thing. We’re not at the point very often where we’re the most talented team in our conference. We have to line up and play, and we can win, but we’ve got to play with mental and physical toughness. We’ve got to overcome adversity and play at an extremely high level.
“That has to be our identity if we’re going to be successful and I thought they embraced that not only defensively, but as a team. We have to continue to do that if we want to have success.”
Kicker Staley out for the season
Senior kicker Evan Staley announced on his Twitter account Sunday that he will miss the rest of the season after suffering an injury on a kickoff last week against Kansas State.
“Unfortunately, I will be out the rest of the year and will be getting surgery next week but I am ready to start the recovery process and already am counting down the days until I’m back on the field,” he tweeted.
A Romney native, Staley has appeared in 40 games in his career, and in 2020, has made 6 of 9 field goal attempts with a long of 45 yards, and made all 19 of his extra point attempts.
“First of all, we all hurt for Evan,” Brown said. “Kind of a freak deal. We misfit on a kickoff and it got to him, which you never want your kickoff to get to your kicker, but it did and his leg gave out. It’s really unfortunate and I hate it for him. He’s got a great mentality about it, and he’ll have surgery and bounce back. We don’t have any doubt about that.
Another West Virginia native, Casey Legg of Charleston, is the next man up. It’s been noted Legg did not play high school football but rather soccer, and did not have a kick in a game until last year’s Baylor game, where he made a 51-yarder on his first try.
“Casey played in all but four games last year, so he’s got experience,” Brown said. “He never gets too high or too low. He’s not a guy who succumbs to pressure. He’s got a great personality to be a specialist and he’s well liked on our team. He’s respected not only as a football player but for the kind of person he is.”
Legg is 4 of 6 in field goal attempts the last two years and has made all 12 of his extra points.
Texas kickoff time, network announced
The Big 12 announced WVU’s Saturday game against Texas at Darrell K Royal — Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin, will be televised on ABC at noon.
The Longhorns are coming off an overtime win last Saturday against Oklahoma State and are now No. 22 in the AP poll.
Tickets are available for the TCU (Nov. 14) and Oklahoma (Nov. 28) home games online at wvugame.com or by calling 1-800-WVU GAME.
With the 25% capacity limit at Milan Puskar Stadium, seats available in the socially distanced, reduced capacity manifest are displayed on the “Pick Your Own Seat” map on wvugame.com in seat blocks ranging from one to six seats.
Tickets are priced by seat locations in each zone (Blue/Red Zone, Orange/Gold Zone, or Green Zone) and will be reflected on the wvugame.com map.
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