West Virginia Coaching Staff Trying to Gain an Edge
The Mountaineers were noticeably eager to get practice underway in day two of spring practice before the Big 12 Conference announced all team activities would be suspended through March 29th but has since been extended until May 31st.
Currently, the West Virginia coaching staff is looking on ways for the Mountaineer football team to maintain an edge now that they’ve started to settle into the new social distancing environment.
“We’re constantly looking for edges,” said West Virginia head coach Neal Brown. “How can we create an edge during this time that no one expected, and no one planned for? How can we create an edge? I think there’s ways to do that. How can you connect the most with your team? How can you create a culture of accountability? How can you teach? What are your expectations when we do return? I think those are all things that we’re trying to do to create an edge.”
“From a football standpoint is, we’ve got to have expectations for whenever we do return,” continued Brown. “Whatever date that is, we got to clearly define what those expectations are. What do we expect our players to know when we get back? What do we expect them to know? Let’s define those expectations. What kind of shape do we expect them to be in? Let’s define those expectations, so they know that everything that we’re doing from now to whatever that date that unknown out in the future, let's define that so they can work towards that.”
Neal Brown and his staff have set a routine and continue to lay a foundation to have the team ready for whenever they do return to the football facilities, and Neal Brown believes that being organized and creating good habits will give them an upper hand when the season does start.
“When they say we can come back, we’re going to be ready,” stated Brown. “I think how you handle this is going to have a distinct impact on how your team performs whenever we play. I think you can create some momentum and you can get yourself better during this time.”
Although the Big 12 Conference has set a date of a possible return, there is no certainty that team activities will resume June 1 and there is no real indication when people can go about their normal everyday lives.
There are several questions that need to be answered, which there are no answers for but one question that’s being passed around is, how much time will teams need to ready for a full slot of games? Well, the NCAA allows 25 practices during fall camp, but players will need time for conditioning before fall practice starts.
“I think you’re probably looking in that four weeks or so to get yourself in shape,” said Brown. “I think what it does - I think it’s different. Your big guys really got to get into a position where they can have strength and be able to have impact and things like that. Your skill guys got to get into more of a cardio and be able to have short bursts and things like that.
“I’m just ballparking, these are just some conversations that (Strength and conditioning coach) Mike (Joseph) and (Assistant Athletics Director and Head Athletics Trainer) Vince (Blankenship) and even (Athletic Director) Shane (Lyons) and I have talked about it as well,” continued Brown. “And I think that four to six weeks is kind of the framework that we’ve talked about. I think you got to have some kind of lead into fall camp. Just because of how short it is now. You’re basically talking about three weeks or so. I think you have to have some lead-up. I think if you don’t you put your players at risk for soft tissue injuries, even maybe into the concussion realm because so much of concussions is what you do through your neck and really training those types of muscles.”
You can follow us for future coverage by clicking "Follow" on the top righthand corner of the page. Also, be sure to like us on Facebook & Twitter:
Facebook - @WVUonSI
Twitter - @SI_WVU and Christopher Hall @WVHallBilly
