Anonymous Big 12 Coach Says West Virginia Looks Like a MAC Team
This is always one of the most interesting parts of the off-season, when anonymous coaches from a league talk about their opponents to Athlon Sports. We will also note, that Athlon does a great job with its preseason magazine, and has for a long time.
With that being said, one of the most interesting anonymous coaching quotes was targeted at the West Virginia Mountaineers.
“This might be the worst roster in the league. They have some talent, but they’re not physical at all. They’re really small, especially compared to the old WVU teams. … The defense is legitimately bad. They look like a MAC team compared to the rest of the league, and he [Neal Brown] didn’t fire his coaches. He’s a really loyal guy, but it’s also a sign he knows it’s a personnel issue. They lost [QB] JT [Daniels] and [offensive coordinator Graham] Harrell. I think you can say that experiment didn’t work out like they thought it would.”
Now that is a brutally honest assessment from one coach to another.
There’s no doubt that Neal Brown hasn’t gotten it figured out yet four seasons into his time in Morgantown. His career record is 22-25 and 14-21 in Big 12 play. Brown has only finished one of his four years above .500, when he went 6-4.
The Mountaineers defense gave up over 32 points per game last season, meaning the offense will have to carry this team, however it’s not even clear who the starting quarterback is going to be with Garrett Greene and Nicco Marchiol battling it out this offseason.
If the anonymous coach is right and WVU brings a team with a horrible defense, uncertainty at quarterback and MAC talent into the Big 12 this fall, Brown may not make it to Halloween.
West Virginia opens the season September 2nd against Penn State with kick off set for 6:30 p.m.
