Neal’s Deal: Five Key Elements of West Virginia Football – West Virginia Football

WVSports.com takes a look at West Virginia head coach Neil Brown’s weekly press conference and identifies the five most interesting topics of discussion.

We take a look at what was said and what it means for the football team both this week and going forward as the Mountaineers navigate the 2024 schedule.

Next up is a trip to Cincinnati.

1–New defensive coordinator. Brown made the decision during the bye week to relieve Jordan Leslie of his defensive coordinator role and replace him inside with Jeff Kuntz. The former inside linebackers coach is someone who has called defenses before during his time in Cincinnati and had opportunities to take on coordinator roles at other schools, but turned them down to stay in Morgantown. That patience was rewarded with Kuntz being selected to lead the defense for the final four games of the season. Brown felt Koonz did well whenever he was put in charge, whether it was leading recruiting, the kicking staff or special teams.

He has coached both linebackers and linebackers, which ties into that defensive coordinator role. Brown said he addressed the situation with his players up front and explained why they’re making the move and how they’re moving forward with Kuntz in the role.

The main focus will be on consistency on the defensive side of the ball, as that has been a major issue for the team all season. This starts simply with the correct alignment and then moves down to getting takeaways and minimizing explosive plays. The bye week allowed the coaching staff to adjust some things and do some introspection, with the main focus not being so predictable on that side of the football. The personnel is as it is at this stage, but the focus will be on trying to get the most out of each of those players on the pitch.

2–Injuries. The Mountaineers are coming off a much-needed bye week that allowed most of the team to recover after being a beaten football team in the win over Arizona. But that won’t be the case for all the injured players on the roster. West Virginia will be without Aubrey Burks, cornerback Aidan Garnes and wide receiver Jaden Brey against Cincinnati, while starting quarterback Garrett Green is considered questionable against the Bearcats.

Green left the Kansas State game at halftime and did not play against Arizona, and now it seems likely he will miss his second straight game, though Brown said he is expected to throw this week, but they will be careful with him as he continues to rehab. It remains to be seen what develops at the position when Green returns, but if he can’t adjust, it will once again be redshirt sophomore Nico Marchiol who gets the call.

West Virginia will return left tackle Wyatt Millum, who returned to practice Thursday, as well as running back C.J. Donaldson and defensive end Keke Tarnu after those players either missed or were injured during the game against Arizona. So while things are improving, there are still some concerns.

3–Change of personnel. With Koonz now in charge of the entire defense, he will still work with the linebackers, some of whom will be moving, but Luke Nardo will handle some of the individual things at the position. On special teams, Koonz will relinquish his role as the leader on the kicking team, with Tony Thompson taking over in addition to his role on the kick-blocking team. Assistant Chris Haering will continue to serve as the leader of the kickoff and kickoff return teams.

Still, there isn’t that much shifting of responsibilities overall given the fact that so many different coaches can’t work with the players on the field.

4–Marchiol must maintain and improve. If Marchiol is called upon to be the starter again, Brown wants to see him continue to play well in the football care and efficiency department. That was certainly the case in the road win over Arizona and will need to be a focus moving forward in his role at quarterback.

But in terms of improvement, Brown wants to see Marchiol hit some of those big shots down the field and make some better decisions in the run game and on third down. However, the focus is on the coaching staff putting him in the best possible position to succeed with the way they both game plan and decide the offense with him on the field.

5–Great November. West Virginia is 4-4 on the season with road games in Cincinnati, home games against Baylor and UCF and a shutout at Texas Tech still remaining. There are still many different possible outcomes on the table for this football team, and Brown’s message to his players is that they still have an opportunity to stay in the Big 12 Conference race and finish strong. The sixth-year head coach said the fate of the season will be decided over the next four weeks and the players on the roster are fired up and determined to finish strong.

Brown emphasized that his teams played their best football in the month of November and they will have to deal with that again this year.

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