West Virginia football: 5 biggest surprises from the 2019 season
By Phil Poling
West Virginia football dealt with a lot of turnover in 2019, from the coaching staff to the roster itself. However, there were pleasant surprises.
After taking over for Dana Holgorsen, Neal Brown led West Virginia football to a 5-7 record during his first campaign as head coach. The team that took the field in the first game, though, was entirely different from the roster he inherited in January.
He lost a couple players to the transfer portal, including All-Big 12 safety Kenny Robinson and Marcus Simms, the team’s third leading receiver from 2018 before the summer even ended. Add the handfuls of players that left for graduation or the NFL Draft, and the roster was pretty bare. Transfers and youth would have to play a key role.
However, Brown and defensive coordinator Vic Koenning still got the team ready to play. They started 3-1, despite a running game that just couldn’t get rolling, and although they were surrendering 25.5 points per game, the defense was making winning plays.
A 5-7 record won’t be acceptable moving forward, but Mountaineer fans will look back on this inaugural Brown team and be able to see where it all started. It helps to have two, home-grown West Virginians playing extremely well, too. And that’s where we’re going to start. Many believed these two would play at a high level, but few thought they’d dominate the Big 12.