COMMENTARY
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia coach Neal Brown went out of his way twice Saturday to let fans know that this should be the lowest point the Mountaineers have during his tenure.
A 38-17 loss to Texas Tech, and an exceptionally bad first half, led Brown to apologize to the fanbase on MSN’s radio broadcast as he walked off the field at halftime. WVU’s defense allowed the Red Raiders to score touchdowns on their first five possessions, while the Mountaineers’ offense again looked like more of the season – dumb mistakes leaving points off the board.
With slight improvement in the second half, it was too little too late. Brown ended his postgame news conference with a plea, that even in a 3-6 season that is looking more and more like a bowless campaign, this is base of the mountain.
“This is for our fans – we’re not playing very well as a football team right now,” Brown said. “We’ve got a ton of work to do in this program. I’m telling you this is going to be one of our worst days, but I’ll tell you right now, we will build a successful program here. It doesn’t look like it right now, but because of [the fans], and for them, we will be successful here. Right now, there’s some growing pains. It is what it is, and I can tell you right now, no one in this building is more frustrated with anything going on on the football field than me, I can promise you that. But we have a high percentage of guys that will be back not only for one year, but be back for three years. They will significantly get better — we’ll do a better job coaching them, and there will be a product on the field that will match the fans that we have.”
That’s the type of speech that will be replayed over and over again if the Mountaineers turn it around under Brown, and that can begin this season with three games left. But as Brown even said, there is no sugar-coating that Saturday’s loss may have been the ugliest this season, coming off one of best last week at Baylor.
The defense held Baylor to two touchdowns and the Bears were one of the top offenses in the Big 12. Against Texas Tech, the Mountaineers allowed five touchdowns before the midway point in the second quarter. The defensive line struggled to get pressure against Texas Tech’s line, which Brown considered one of the best in the conference.
“We didn’t get pressure on the quarterback all day,” Brown said. “He stood back there, and they were able to run the ball efficiently on us.”
Offensively, turnovers, drops and missed assignments in critical spots once again was the story. West Virginia had the ball inside the Texas Tech 25-yard line eight times of 13 total drives, and came up with just 17 points. On the five red zone trips that didn’t end in points, they were killed by three turnovers on downs, an interception and a fumble.
“We missed opportunities in the red zone,” Brown said. “To me, the game, which ended up being 21 points, came down to turnovers and missed opportunities in the red zone. We lose by 21 and we leave 21 points out there.”
Expectations under Brown were low for this season, considering the offense lost five guys now on NFL rosters, as well as losing its top receiver in Marcus Simms when he decided to give the NFL a shot.
Now that it’s actually unfolding before us, it’s tough to watch. But Brown continues to say all the right things to take a little bit of the sting out of the growing pains, and he has that right after what the previous coaching staff left for him.
He is raising his glass and making promises, though, that he will need to keep in due time. That time just is not right now.
