MORGANTOWN — The first day of spring practice is in the books for the WVU football team, getting outside for the first time in nearly two months since the Mountaineers’ Liberty Bowl win against Army.
After a long winter, head coach Neal Brown said it felt good to get back out there, especially after spring camp was abruptly ended last year with the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It was good to get back outside today,” Brown said Wednesday. “The weather was really nice and starting a little bit later (in the calendar) helps. We had a lot of energy, which is a significant difference from last spring.”
Coming off a 6-4 season in 2020, Brown said he wants spring ball to be a “teaching environment” — it’s not about naming starters, but trying to fix what was broken the year before and simply allowing players to get better.
The biggest thing Brown pinpointed was situational football, including critical situations such as 2-point plays and 3-and-mediums, on offense and defense.
The NCAA Football Rules Committee is looking to change college overtime, which would put a much-greater emphasis on 2-point plays. Previously, each team received the ball at the 25-yard line and could kick an extra point until the third overtime. It the game got to that point, teams then had to go for 2 each subsequent overtime period until the game ended.
Under the proposed rule, teams will have to go for 2 after scoring a touchdown in the second overtime period, and then run alternating 2-point plays until the game ends.
“We all really looked at that LSU-Texas A&M game (7 OTs) a couple of years ago,” said Stanford coach David Shaw, chairman of the committee. “That’s what prompted the change for last season. Looking at it again this year, and this kind of came through the AFCA and a lot of coaches, we wanted to continue to find a way not to add so many more plays to an already long and draining football game.”
Brown said his team hasn’t responded well in late-game situations the last two years since he was hired in early 2019.
So just how does a coach teach his team to respond to adversity?
“I create it,” Brown said with a laugh. “You have to put them out there and you challenge them. You create adversity by making the practices hard. Having to think when you’re tired — that’s exactly that I’m thinking about because we have not executed the way we need to in critical situations when we’ve been fatigued. We have not held our emotions in check the way we need to.
“The only way to practice that is to continually put our players in them, and that’s our plan for the spring.”
Spring camp will last exactly one month, culminating in the spring game, scheduled for April 24.
As for early injuries, Brown said defensive end Jeffery Pooler and offensive lineman Ja’Quay Hubbard will be out for most of camp, but otherwise, the team is healthy.
There were COVID concerns in February, but the team is in good standing right now.
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