Uninhibited Play is the Name of the Game for WVU Football
WVU Football has a team of freshmen.
Although a quick run down the fall camp roster states otherwise, the 2023 iteration of WVU Football exudes youthful, "freshman-like" energy.
It would be a farce to equate the youthful energy of this team with immaturity, though. That's not the aura emanating from fall camp. Instead, the team showing up every day is playing a brand of football alleviated of the stress that lurks around expectations.
What remains is freedom. Freedom to enjoy the sport again. Freedom to fine-tune fundamentals. Freedom to grow through the game. Freedom to prove the conference's assessment wrong. There's simultaneously nothing and everything to lose this season.
"That's the personality of our program," head coach Neal Brown said. "It's always kind of been somebody that's overlooked, a blue collar program. You prove them right or you prove them wrong, and it's really up to us and the fact that you've got to have this burning desire and this hunger to really do better."
That hunger to improve only presents itself when a team is playing freely. Nothing to lose and everything to improve. It's a youthful, next-play mentality.
"This team's got a kind of youthful energy about it," Brown said. "They're excited. They're a confident group. They're a group that's really hungry right now, that has a chip on their shoulder. They're fun to coach."
Newly-appointed offensive coordinator Chad Scott agreed on the persona of this team. He gave a nod to the seniority's leadership, but acknowledged that as long as the players in place produced, their allegiance to the program, or college football as a whole, could wax and wane.
"We don't favor seniority. We favor production," Scott said. "It's about producing when your number's called. When you tell the guys the truth and you keep it clear, they're able to see it, and they regurgitate it right to you on the football field."
"We've got some young talent," he added. "We've got to do a phenomenal job, as coaches, being clear. We've got to provide clarity for those guys, so there is absolutely no gray area. Those guys are confident in what they've been taught to do, and that they can go out there and have the confidence and the courage to be able to take risks and play football."
Taking risks and playing free are two of the mantras passed down from this coaching staff, and the players are already latching on.
"He definitely still reminds me, to this day, just to have the same freshman mentality," sophomore running back CJ Donaldson said of Scott's game plan. "Just go out there and play loose and have fun. See a little. See a lot. Don't try to overthink things, and just go out there and play your game.
"Everybody has different ways of playing running back, and you have your own, unique style. He tells us to stick to our own, unique style of how we play running back."
Each fall camp, the WVU coaching staff preaches fundamentals, but this season feels more uninhibited. This team is playing because they love the sport and the team culture, and the coaching staff is feeding into that wide-eyed innocence, in the name of the game.
The bottom line is that innocence has the potential to manifest as confidence, if nurtured correctly.
Working with a coaching staff that prioritizes taking risks and doesn't demonize making mistakes sets forth a precedent.
"If you grade out at 100 percent, but you never take risks to go make plays, now you're not playing aggressive. You're playing passive," defensive backs coach ShaDon Brown said. "The aggressive nature that we want to play with, that every ball that's thrown is our ball, there's gonna be times when you don't make the play. The offense has scholarship players too. If you go out there and never go attack the ball and go try to make those plays, then you're trying to play safe and you're probably never going to be a playmaker.
"If there's a guy who, seven out of 10 times, he does it right, and three times he has a minus because he tried to go attack the ball, I'm ok with that, because I know that if he makes those plays, even one out of those three, he's changed the game for our entire team."
ShaDon Brown said that his position group has to play uninhibited and have a short memory.
"You've got to have a short memory," he added. "You usually don't get redos, but when the ball comes your way, you've got to compete. If you don't make the play, you've got to go right back the next step because they're coming back at you. If you make that play, they won't come back to you as often... You're gonna make some. You're gonna miss some, but you've got to keep playing."
That confidence has proven infectious. From the defensive backs to the quarterbacks and every position group in between, playing freely has already cultivated confidence. Working with a pair of mobile quarterbacks has generally helped alleviate the immediate post-snap stress, and both Garrett Greene and Nicco Marchiol have developed that trust from teammates.
"[Greene] and Nicco both have a confidence about them," Neal Brown said. "They've both been really successful athletes... They've had a ton of success, and they both have natural leadership skills, and they're likeable. When people with good energy come into a room, you kind of feel it. Both of those guys have that."
Scott's offensive schemes trend toward unpredictability, and an offense fueled by players acting with a sense of controlled, reckless abandon helps secure that identity. Scott said that "unpredictable, but in control" is what he wants the WVU offense to identify as.
"We've got to be unpredictable," Scott said. "I'm excited about the possibilities in this offense and the things that we can do. We've got to do a great job, as coaches, being clear and teaching and keeping it simple so those guys, with the natural ability they've got, speed, hands... They can go out and have the confidence and courage to go out and take risks and make plays for us."
It's a bit of a cyclical motion, as risk-taking creates confidence, but also requires confidence. Scott's approach is to provide as many reps to the entire offense as he can in order to cement that confident starting point.
"You've got to be great at what you are," Scott said. "Not saying that you can't work on your weaknesses, but whatever it is you're great at, you've got to be great at that."
If the team can maintain that youthful exuberance into the thud practices and full pads of fall, they'll have a good chance of surpassing the program expectations.
"It goes back to, 'What are you trying to be?'" defensive coordinator Jordan Lesley said of his side of the ball. "What we did try to do in those positions was to get a little bigger, a little longer. The defense will have to mirror that and go along with their skillset."
Lesley plans to tailor his playbook to the defense's strengths, as opposed to slotting players into improper alignments. His defense is fueled primarily by transfer players who bring experience, but not cohesion, to this team. It's up to him to fill them with confidence and the Mountaineer mentality.
"My take on that is that you go out and find the best football players and make the scheme fit them," Lesley said. "Experience is the best teacher."
Quality reps work to satisfy that skill progression, and the coaching staff, as a whole, seems confident that the current risk-taking phase will translate into quality when it matters.
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