MORGANTOWN — When given the choice, WVU head coach Neal Brown prefers character over raw talent when adding players to his roster.
“In the portal era, I’m not sure that, outside of the top maybe 8-10 teams, there’s just this huge talent discrepancy,” Brown said Thursday. “If you look at our league (the Big 12), I’m not sure there’s a significant talent difference one through 16, so those intangibles really matter. They show up in the dark when you’re in your winter and your summer.”
Since the introduction of the transfer portal, player movement is at an all-time high in college football. Teams are having to evaluate many, many more players every offseason than they used to and they’re having to make decisions on those players very, very quickly.
“It goes really fast,” safeties coach ShaDon Brown said. “It’s kind of like speed dating, you’ve got to get to know them really quick. You’ve got to love them and marry them or you’ve got to go to the next one.”
Even as the evaluation period has sped up, Neal Brown has learned how important it is to not just evaluate a player’s talent, but how they will fit on the football team, even to the frustration of his assistant coaches.
“I always tease Coach Brown about this, but he wears me out because he says no more than he says yes,” ShaDon Brown said. “He does that because of our culture. Our culture’s really strong because we trimmed some fat and we don’t bring in guys that have been cancers at other places, no matter their talent.”
It’s because of this improved culture that the Mountaineers believe they were able to make the jump to win nine games last season. Part of the reason for that improvement was several first-year transfers who came in and had an immediate impact for the team.
By caring about character as much as talent, the team added transfers that not only helped them improve on the field but who also strengthened the locker room.
“That’s why our program is so much better now,” ShaDon Brown said. ”Kudos to (Neal Brown) and what he’s done in building the program. When everybody wanted to run us out of here, he was still trying to build the culture of the locker room and man, our locker room is strong. Our culture and the character in our locker room is really good and that why when we get down at Baylor (last season), we can come back and win the game. That’s because our locker room’s right.”
West Virginia was 3-1 in one-score games, including the 34-31 win at Baylor, and won two games with its backup quarterback last season.
“When you have poor locker rooms, when you have adversity, people point fingers and they fight or they don’t come together,” ShaDon Brown said. “We have a strong culture and so they pull together and they can pull out close games.”
“A lot of times as a coach, you learn that lesson the hard way,” offensive line coach Matt Moore added. “I think that’s what (Neal Brown has) learned by getting older and older as a head coach. I think he’s learned that maybe this guy isn’t as fast or as tall, but if he’s going to work harder and bring the culture we want, let’s go with that guy.”
WVU’s roster is filled with the kind of players Moore is describing. Whether it’s former walk-ons who have earned starting roles like offensive lineman Nick Malone and receiver Preston Fox, or a transfer like former cornerback Beanie Bishop, who became a consensus All-American last season.
“From a football character standpoint, how we’ve established we’re going to play, it’s really important for guys to strain and to be tough people,” Neal Brown said. “If they show that on tape and the talent is similar, we’re going to take those tough people first.”
The Mountaineers added more transfers who will need to play big roles if they want to improve again in 2024. Because of how WVU’s coaching staff has learned to evaluate character and talent in equal parts, they’re confident in their ability to bring in transfers who will make the team better right away, even if that means Neal Brown has to tell his assistants no more than he says yes.
“I get so mad because I know the player’s good, but he’s looking at it from a 30,000-foot view of what is that guy bringing to our locker room,” ShaDon Brown said. “And if it isn’t going to enhance the locker room, he isn’t going to take that guy.”
“Some of those decisions you’re going to be right on and some of those decisions you’re going to be wrong on,” Neal Brown said. “Through some trial and error and making some poor decisions, we’ve got a process we really feel, over the last two years, has got some really good evaluation tools for us.”
WVU held its sixth practice of the spring on Saturday and its first inside Milan Puskar Stadium. The team held a family day as players’ families were able to watch practice from inside the stadium.
The Mountaineers will continue spring camp with their seventh practice on Monday.
