West Virginia Football: 3 takeaways from huge win over NC State in Week 3
By Phil Poling
3. Neal Brown continues to impress
Rolling out three new interior offensive lineman is a tough test for any team, but Neal Brown had a plan. With an All-Big 12 offensive tackle in Colton McKivitz, getting to the perimeter seemed like an obvious goal — and the ‘Eers offense executed it perfectly.
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Instead of the early outside runs to the halfback WVU got stopped on in the first two games, Brown opted to get to the edge with a motioning wide receiver. Quick tip passes from Austin Kendall to freshman Winston Wright forced the Wolfpack defense to respect the outside runs, in turn opening things up elsewhere. This is brilliant game-planning for an offense that averaged just over 30 rushing yards per game.
Brown continued with the quick tunnel-screen game, too, getting Sam James the ball early and often. He also pulled out a few trick plays and a faster tempo that really got the ‘Eers going offensively.
Aside from the brilliant play-calling and game-planning, Brown got the best effort from his players that we’ve seen this season. It resulted in a few more penalties than fans would’ve hoped for, but that’s going to happen with a young team. He’ll certainly coach those guys up, but when a team plays hard, there’s no telling what can happen.