MORGANTOWN – Most of the West Virginia University football team and staff were hard at work this week preparing for their upcoming Frisco Bowl appearance against No. 25 Memphis. Yet there was one longtime part of that preparation who wasn’t there.
The Mountaineers are without former head coach Neal Brown, who was fired following WVU’s regular-season-ending loss at Texas Tech. Offensive coordinator Chad Scott is serving as interim head coach for Tuesday’s 9 p.m. contest (ESPN).
WVU now has to prepare for an early bowl game against a nationally ranked opponent following the dismissal of one head coach and during the search for a new one. That all has lead to a tumultuous period for the Mountaineers, but coaches and players alike said the most important thing is that they must rally around each other to finish the season on a high note.
Scott admitted the atmosphere was unusual for the players, some of them dealing with a coaching change for the first time in their lives. He and the other coaches are trying to keep the players focused on their upcoming opponent, rather than all the activity outside of the locker room.
“We walk all the time about being where your feet are,” Scott said. “That’s literally and mentally, performing the task at hand. So the guys have done a phenomenal job being where their feet are, being where they’re supposed to be and taking care of what’s happening in the moment.”
All of the players who talked to the media Wednesday thanked Brown for what he had done for them. They were Brown recruits and spent their entire careers under his tutelage.
Defensive lineman T.J. Jackson said that, while Brown’s firing was disappointing, he understood that was just part of the business side of college football. When he and his teammates got together for bowl preparation, they made it a point to push past the business aspect of the sport and reinforce their bonds as teammates.
“We stayed together because, you know, it’s all a brotherhood,” he said. “When it comes to football, it’s all about camaraderie. We all stayed together and stayed glued together because it’s a brotherhood.
“We didn’t take Coach Brown leaving as, ‘All right, we have to split up now,’” he added. “We kind of came closer together because of it.”
Scott mentioned that, outside of the handful of players who have entered the transfer portal, including starting linebacker Josiah Trotter, all of the remaining players are in practice and preparing for Memphis.
That’s not to say there still aren’t nerves or rough patches, especially for younger players just taking their first steps into the college level. Defensive coordinator Jeff Koonz said these last couple of weeks were the fifth time of transition he has experienced in his coaching career. His three children were born in three different cities, so he knows what it’s like to be on the move.
He also mentioned it was important for him to remain calm during this time, even when his future is up in the air. Koonz is falling back on that prior experience with upheaval to keep everyone else around him on an even keel.
“The experience is what allows you to stay kind of calm and collected and stay professional in this,” he said. “It’s important for (the players) to see that on a day-in, day-out basis. You’re not changing. You’re still attacking practice the same way. You’re still attacking meetings the same way. I think they’ve seen that from our entire staff and everybody in the building.
“I’m really proud of the people in this building and the coworkers I work with,” he added. “Our players have been phenomenal, and that’s been the biggest joy, to watch them go through a really tough time and then come back and remember why they play the game of football and why we’re here to begin with.”
Scott said the players were excited to get back together and prepare for one final game. They originally were going to take last week off from football, but when they learned last Wednesday about their bowl destination and opponent, they were back on the practice field Thursday getting ready for it.
Senior offensive tackle Wyatt Milum said the group didn’t want the way its regular season ended – a lopsided loss that ultimately helped cost their head coach his job – to bleed over into a bowl game, especially when a highly touted opponent was waiting for them.
“The energy and the way this team has stayed together and practiced, the energy we’ve had is really great,” Milum said. “It’s been really great, just the guys going out there and really paying attention to the small things, really just practicing hard and staying together.
“We all want to finish this last game strong,” he added. “So we’re working toward that.”
-Story by Derek Redd
