MORGANTOWN — West Virginia football had its first of 15 fall practices on Wednesday, as Neal Brown enters his fifth season as head coach.
“It’s an exciting time of the year, first practice,” Brown said. “It’s a lot different than it used to be … we basically had 16 OTAs (optional team activities) and we met briefly during the summer before those OTAs, so we kind of had a running start into practice.”
Brown said the first two days will be about players learning how to practice and then the team will get into preparing for their 2023 opponents.
“The first two weeks of camp is really about preparing for the season and preparing for all of our opponents,” Brown said. “Then those last two weeks are really for prepping for Penn State.”
As the team works through the first two weeks of practice, Brown said he is most interested in the progression of the team’s young returners.
“These first two-and-a-half weeks of fall camp, I want to see the transfers and how they mesh and get into our system, but I feel pretty good about those guys,” he said. “What I’m really wanting to see is those guys who played for us last year but were in lesser roles or maybe were really young, I want to see how big of a jump those guys are going to make. … That’s what is going to make our football team, the guys who are going to make a jump from last year.”
Brown said every player they were expecting is on campus and they have a good number of players at every position, although there will be a few walk-on additions when classes start later this month.
Transfers Need To Play
Wednesday was the first practice for any of WVU’s 2023 signing class who did not enroll early as well as any late transfer additions who got to town after spring camp. Brown said the late transfers especially will need to be brought up to speed quickly and be ready to play from the start of the season.
“All those guys that we took in that May block, we need them to play,” Brown said. “That’s why they’re here.”
Among that transfer group, Brown singled out Tyrin Bradley (Abilene Christian), Beanie Bishop (Minnesota), Antony Wilson (Georgia Southern), Tomiwa Durojaiye (Kentucky), Futorma Mulbah (Penn State), Noah Massey (Angelo State) and EJ Horton (Marshall).
“(Pass-rusher) Tyrin Bradley needs to push Jared Barlett, we need to be able to play both of those guys at the same time,” Brown said. “(Cornerback) Beanie Bishop, we need experience and he’s got versatility. He can play inside and outside and we need to get him ready to play, that’s why we got him.”
Wilson was another player brought in for his experience while Durojaiye and Mulbah need to grow into bigger roles on WVU’s defensive line.
“Tomiwa (Durojaiye) we needed somebody that had length,” Brown said. “He’s a younger player, so maybe he’s not as far along, but he’s talented and he’s big and we need him to be a factor. Futorma (Mulbah) is an older guy, kind of a role player at Penn State, we need to increase his role here and really push at that position.”
Massey and Horton were brought in to supplement WVU’s wide receiver room.
“We’ve got a couple of young guys who are maybe or maybe not going to be ready and we wanted a big guy in the middle so (Massey has) got to be ready to play,” Brown said. “EJ Horton was just coming on at Marshall right at the end of last year. He’s got a unique skill set and can really run so he’s going to get plenty of opportunities to go do it.”
Underselling Receivers
With Massey and Horton among WVU’s receivers, Brown believes the group is better than people are giving them credit for this preseason.
“I think everybody’s kind of underselling our receiver crew a little bit and I get it,” Brown said. “The old way of doing things when looking at preseason stuff is looking at returning production, and we did, we lost a high percentage.”
The Mountaineers lost all four of their top receivers from 2022.
“I get why people are underselling, but I like what we’ve done,” he continued. “It’s the most-versatile group we have, we’ve got guys that aren’t similar. Devin Carter’s a big strong guy, EJ Horton’s an extremely fast guy, Ja’Shaun Poke is fast, Cortez Braham is a physical guy, Preston Fox is shifty, and then you’ve got Noah Massey, who’s just a big human. I like the different body types we have, I like the different styles. In these first two weeks of camp, we need to figure out their strengths and how to use them the best.”
Conference Expansion
The Big 12 has been in the headlines recently after voting to bring Colorado back into the conference starting next season. It has been reported that the conference will look to bring in another school as well to keep 14 teams when Oklahoma and Texas leave after this year.
“I’m old enough to know when they were in the conference, I’ve played them in the Big 12 before,” Brown said of Colorado, which was in the Big 12 until 2011. “I’ve got a ton of confidence in (Big 12) commissioner (Brett) Yormark. However all this shakes out, West Virginia is going to be positioned well and the Big 12 is going to be positioned well.
“I think it’s genius to try and get into four time zones,” Brown said. “It’s all about TV and if you can get into all four time slots on Saturday and be in a time slot on Thursday and Friday, that’s good business to me.”
Injuries
The only major injury for WVU is freshman linebacker Josiah Trotter, who will miss the 2023 season with an injury he suffered in the spring.
Bandit Brayden Dudley will miss fall camp due to an offseason surgery but is expected to be back early in the season. Defensive lineman Asani Redwood missed spring camp but is progressing and participated in non-contract drills Wednesday.
Limited Wednesday were receiver Cortez Braham with an illness and Davis Mallinger as he comes back from surgery he had a the end of last season.
Center Zach Frazier, who was limited in the spring, was a full participant.
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