Neal Brown Recaps 2nd Scrimmage & Mentions Top Performers
The West Virginia University football team held their second scrimmage Saturday morning, and according to head coach Neal Brown, it was longer than the first one they had last week.
As he usually does before going over the details of the day, he always has that voice in his head concerned with which side of the ball was winning.
"Anytime when you're doing a scrimmage that's inter-squad, there's going to be some things that are really good, and you're concerned whether that's one side winning or the other side losing and that's kind of the way it went today. I thought there was a lot of give and take," said Brown.
He then, started with what was good on the defensive side of the ball.
"I thought the defense started off strong and forced some takeaways – fumble, two interceptions, I believe, to start the scrimmage," explained Brown before moving over to the offense.
"Offense, right around the middle, rebounded - Really ran the ball better and did some really nice things towards the middle of the scrimmage," he said. "Really had a nice drive for 98 or 99 yards. And then, got into the red zone – I thought the defense in the red zone played really well."
Brown continued, "We did a four-minute situation which the offense was able to run out the clock which is something offensively we needed to improve on, but the defense won big – we did a two-minute end of game scenario where really the offense went backwards and ended on a sack," he said before adding, "Some give and take."
"Offensively, I thought at the top of the red zone, that 25 to down to about the 10, wasn't very productive," then adding, "Had some turnovers."
Brown also added that the offense continues to run the football better, and being able to run out the clock in a final four-minute situation was executed and was able to run out the clock.
Last season, the defense gave up 159.4 yards per game on the ground, but heading into the season, Neal Brown believes that the run defense will be better but sees room for improvement.
"We can continue to do a better job against the run," he said. "We're not bad, but I think that is something that we can hang our hat on – I think we'll continue to get better at that."
Brown also added, "I think the other thing is, is when we get down in the goal line area being able to cover the pass as well. We got to do a better job at doing that. I'd like to see them get off the field in the four-minute."
The defense started slow last week and, according to Brown, lacked energy, but this week, the Mountaineer defense showed up early and often.
"Big-time improvement this week as far as takeaways, which is fun to see. I thought defensively we played with a lot better energy than a week ago, said Brown. "And, just pleased with the way they started the scrimmage and how they performed there at the very end as well."
One thing Neal Brown did emphasize was special teams and voiced his frustrations with the units.
"Our special teams just aren't good enough right now," said Brown. "We got to get better. We spend a lot of time – we invest in those. I think that has to be our edge this season is on special teams. Our effort our concentration our execution was not good enough, and we did a lot of special teams live work, and we're going to come back, and we're going to work those a bunch on Tuesday."
Top Performers from the Day
Caleb Saunders - WVU Football
Leddie Brown
"I thought Leddie Brown has had a really nice week."
A'Varius Sparrow
"Sparrow had kickoff return today and had a couple of nice runs, running with the threes."
Zach Frazier
"Zach Frazier is a guy that I've been impressed with during our entire camp."
Zach Dobson
"Zach Dobson, in his first real scrimmage with us, had a nice day today."
Tykee Smith
"Tykee Smith had an interception, a really nice interception."
Tae Mayo
"Tae Mayo probably had the play of the scrimmage. Really, kind of a shoestring interception in one of the early drives."
Tony Fields
"Tony Fields was really active in his first live football with us."
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