ShaDon Brown Talks Newcomers in Secondary, Development, Portal, Jacolby Spells + More

WVU co-defensive coordinator ShaDon Brown met with the media on Thursday.

Returning talent at corner

"We've got seven guys working in that group right now in that room, a few of those returners. Andrew Wilson-Lamp is a returner that played down the stretch for us, who's made a big jump this offseason. Really proud of his development. Malachi Ruffin is a young man who stepped in last year when we had some injuries that played a lot for us. He's back. Obviously, Jacolby Spells is a guy who was a young player last year, a freshman that was thrown in the action early and he was kind of a trial and error by fire. But he's gotten bigger and he's gotten stronger this offseason and [I'm] looking forward to him making a big jump. And then Jaylon Shelton is a guy who got here late last year. I think he was maybe seven days out prior to camp, so he came in and he was a little behind everybody else from a developmental standpoint not only physically, but mentally."

Newcomers at corner

"Montre Miller, a transfer from Kent State, is in the fold now. He got here in January. He's done a great job learning the schemes, he's changed his body. I think he arrived he was 173 pounds. He's around 188-190 already in a short amount of time. Then Josiah Jackson the freshman player that's come in from recruiting in the '23 class. He's done a great job of picking everything up. Things are really fast for him right now, but he is improving. I'm pleased with his progress."

How big of a jump Jaylon Shelton has made

"He's made a huge jump. The first place he's made a jump is he's changed his body. He's over 190 at 6'1". He can really run. He's made a jump in just his overall physicality. When he got here last year, he was undersized, underdeveloped coming from junior college, and didn't show a lot of physicality. And I think now because he has improved his strength he can help us in areas. I think he'll help us on special teams and I think he'll be able to go in and play in the game for us at corner because he's physically strong."

If there will be any need to hit the transfer portal to help the secondary

"We will add a couple more pieces as we get to this next portal window. We'll probably add at least one corner and maybe one safety. It all depends upon talent. We won't just take one to take one. We won't take a body. We'll take a guy that makes us better and gives us the best chance to win."

How good Jacolby Spells can be this season

"Last year, I thought he had some plays where he flashed and he had some plays where he didn't. That's what I call growing pains. And that's any freshman at any position. They're going to have those growing pains. The secondary and o-line are really the same. One guy can make a mistake and all you guys see it and you can write about it and parents and fans see it. If they're playing a position inside whether it's defensive line or linebacker, nobody ever sees that. They don't see those mistakes. So at corner, it's really magnified. He had some mistakes last year and some of those mistakes were just physically not being ready to compete at that level consistently over and over and over. I think what he's done this offseason is he's really changed his body. He's changed his work habits to be able to play at this level and I'm starting to see it out there in practice. I think he's the guy that's going to make a huge jump and you're going to see that in the fall."

Leaders in the secondary

"I think Aubrey Burks is a guy that comes to mind right off hand that's really stepped up his leadership skills and being more vocal. I think Malachi Ruffin is a guy that is a lot more vocal than he was last year."

Neal Brown not firing him or any defensive staff members and publicly sticking up for them

"It means a lot. This is a results-based business. We get that. We're all big boys and we all get paid well to do this job. Whenever you start to just fire guys like some people do, what you do is you send a message that it's always somebody else's fault. It's all of our fault and we've got to get better. We've got to be better. Coaching and playing. I think as you start to look across the country and you look at Tulane. They were 2-10 the year before and they didn't fire anybody. They turned it around and won the Sugar Bowl. Sometimes we get excited and we want to jump the gun because negativity sells in y'alls business. So if you fire somebody, y'all get more clicks. Or if you write an article about firing a coach, you get more clicks. But sticking with a guy, ah that's boring, right? I think sticking with us tells us a lot. He tells that he has trust in us. It also tells those players that the head coach has confidence in their coach. And hopefully, that leads to better results. I can promise you this, we didn't forget how to coach. Go back to '20 and go back to '21 and before I got here the school I was at was 17th in pass defense. So I didn't forget how to coach. I got to coach better than last year but I promise I didn't forget how to coach."

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