MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia head coach Neal Brown spoke during the Big 12 coaches teleconference Monday morning, heading into WVU’s (5-4, 4-4 Big 12) showdown with No. 11 Oklahoma (7-2, 6-2) at noon Saturday on ABC.
- On the defensive line struggles last weekend in the 42-6 loss at Iowa State: “If you go back and look at our losses, the bigger teams like Texas were able to rush the football, Iowa State was able to rush the football, Oklahoma State was able to rush the football on us. The three things those games had in common were we had difficulty tearing off blocks. I don’t think we played with the same aggression up front. I don’t think we played with very good pad level. I don’t think we played with very good technique. And really, we were just overpowered at lot in that game on Saturday.”
- On how he expects to come out of this season as a different coach, considering the challenges with COVID-19: “Personally, I think it’s the ability to adapt and change. That’s what I’m gaining out of this year probably out of anything is continuing to adapt, continuing to change, dealing with outside — whether it’s the virus or social distancing — there’s been all kinds of outside influences that have changed how you have to approach and how you have to schedule.”
- On if the relationship with the players will be any different under the same circumstances: “Any time you go through adversity, a relationship grows. Due to some of the restrictions, you’re not allowed to spend as much quality time, away from the game of football, with the players, so I think that’s hurt relationships. Shared sacrifice make things grow, so we’ll have some of that.
“I haven’t had a player at my house since February or maybe the first week of March. That’s unheard of. For my wife and I, to not have a staff member or a player at our house is crazy and part of the world we’re in right now.”
- On playing younger players the remainder of the season: “I think your commitment is to your team to put guys out there that give you the best opportunity to win the game, and that’s what we’ll do on Saturdays. If that’s younger players, then so be it. We had some younger players on special teams do some good things last Saturday. Special teams, other than a punt and a missed field goal, we played and did some pretty good things. That’s not the case on offense and defense, but we’re going to play the people that give us the best chance to win the game.”
- On how Baylor was able to slow down Oklahoma’s offense last week, holding the Sooners to 268 yards: “I think it was a combination of things. Oklahoma didn’t play in a couple of weeks because they were playing at a really, really high level. I thought Baylor did some really good thing schematically. Those two guys running the defense over there have had their hand on some good defenses over the year.”
Oklahoma “still scored 27 points and still won the game handily. I still think it would be pretty early to say they aren’t pretty sporty on offense.”
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