Brown Plays Off Oklahoma State Problems and will Focus on Preparing for Full Strength Pokes

West Virginia had a week off, were able to sit back and watch as Oklahoma State scratched and clawed through adversity to beat Tulsa, and now the Mountaineers and head coach relish their chance at the Cowboys this Saturday.

STILLWATER --Neal Brown is a heckuva ball coach and he has experienced a win over Oklahoma State but you have to back to 2007 and the 41-23 win by Troy over Oklahoma State deep into the South in Alabama. Since then Brown has been on staff at Troy (one other game), Texas Tech (three games), and West Virginia last season and is 1-5 versus Mike Gundy and the Cowboys. Oklahoma State has won five games in a row over the Mountaineers and there are no current Mountaineer players with a win over OSU. There are no current Cowboys that have ever lost to WVU. There is a former West Virginia player suiting up for the Cowboys in left guard Josh Sills. 

Brown gets it. His team started his second season as head coach with a resounding 56-10 win over an outmatched Eastern Kentucky team. In fact, Brown had 11 players he suspended for that game. There were several other Mountaineer players that missed due to COVID-19 protocols. His hope is to have all hands on deck at 2:30 in Stillwater on Saturday for what he agreed is a "benchmark" or "measurement" game for his program. 

"I think it's important to see if we're ready to play with the top teams in our conference which, I would argue, Oklahoma State is right up there with anybody," Brown explained. "They probably got the most experience on both sides of the ball and on special teams. I think it's a fair assessment."

West Virginia spent most of the open week work on themselves. Brown mentioned they did prepare some for Oklahoma State later in the week, but the bulk was on making themselves better. He said they still emphasized improving the run game that was anemic last season.

"The hope is we're better. We kind of attacked the bye week with some goals in mind," the head coach said. "We continued to work on our rushing offense. I think it's important that we stop the run. We're working good on good. A lot of work in the red zone, because I think that's important. If you look at Big 12 games, a lot of those are decided in the red zone. We lost a lot there last year, on both sides of the ball. We put a lot of work into special teams. We underperformed in Week One on special teams in all the phases, so we put a lot of time into that."

He watched the Oklahoma State game and dismissed the Cowboys issues against Tulsa and said he knew they would be better in their second game. He said losing your starting quarterback can really throw a team off. He expects to see the Cowboys at their best including preparing for their starting quarterback.

"I think what you do is you prepare for the guy that started the year," Brown said of preparing for Spencer Sanders. "If he's well, then my assumption is that he'll play. That's who you prepare for. If another guy plays, they'll adjust, and we'll adjust. You go in and you plan for the strengths of what he does, and his dual-threat ability, and if you need to adjust, you adjust."

Quickly, Brown said that freshman Shane Illingworth would be worthy if he is the quarterback. He did lead the Oklahoma State offense to 13 of their 16 points.

"He came in the game last week and I thought he did a nice job," Brown said. "Anytime on the first play from scrimmage you throw a touch fade - as hard of a play in football - and he did it.... I don't think the moment will be too big for him."

Meanwhile, Brown said he expects his defensive and offensive line to be better this game than they were in the blowout over Eastern Kentucky as both sides of the ball had players missing on the front. Dante Stills played against EKU and had three tackles and 1.5 tackles for loss. The Big 12 Preseason Defensive Player of the Year, Darius Stills did not play.

"I thought our young guys played well against Eastern Kentucky. I think our veterans can play better and I think they will play better," Brown said. "That is going to be as important of a matchup as there is in the game."

Whatever line-up the Cowboys have on the offensive line will be challenged.

Another important match-up will be the Mountaineers offensive line closer to full strength against Oklahoma State's veteran defensive line. 

"There's some anticipation because Junior (Uzebu) hasn't played a game, Chase (Behrndt) hasn't played a game," Brown said of a position that was hit hard by COVID-19. "I feel good going seven, maybe eight deep with the offensive line. We'll definitely play seven, maybe get into eight. There's some anticipation going into it, but I'm confident. I'm really confident in how those guys are going to play and how they're going to rise to the occasion. It's a little different going into game two when they didn't play."  

The play in the trenches will be very telling and will go a long way in determining if the Cowboys win streak over Brown-coached teams and the Mountaineers continues.