MORGANTOWN — There’s been some public “buzz” around the coaches’ office about a late defensive collapse Saturday that caused West Virginia University to blew a 10-point lead in the final four minutes and lose 38-34 to the University of Pittsburgh in the 107th Backyard Brawl.
They are not talking about the kind of noise you normally think of, loud, angry and often ignorant voices, but that’s another story.
The noise the fans make isn’t the whirring and squealing of blades meant to quell the heat, but a sound that has appeared on social media and on Barroms that simply raises the temperature, a noise about the coaching jobs of West Virginia’s Neal Brown and defensive coordinator Jordan Leslie.
You may remember that Leslie suffered a helmet laceration above his eye after being hit by his own linebacker on the sideline a week ago, but rest assured, Leslie received no such mistreatment on the sideline after Pittsburgh’s comeback when quarterback Eli Holstein picked up multiple key yards on the game’s final two drives, even managing to escape a second-down, 30-yard situation with a completed touchdown pass despite three defenders closing in on his receiver, one of whom was flagged for pass interference.
It’s a noise being quietly shouted across the state, and Brown isn’t ignoring it.
“We’re confident of the victory,” the coach said at a press conference on Monday. “We didn’t get the win. We were close to winning and we just didn’t get it done. This is a game between rivals. We’re not going to feel sorry for ourselves. We’re not going to just sit back and be miserable.”
“There are people in this world who have real problems, and it’s not us. We didn’t play enough football games.”
It would be nice to give up now and move on to next Saturday’s Big 12 opener against Kansas, but we all know that won’t be an easy escape after the Mountaineers’ defense has exposed fatal flaws in each of their three games so far, leading to two losses to Penn State and Pittsburgh.
Brown must address the football shortcomings that have been exposed and the psychological impact they have on the team, redirecting the team’s objectives while correcting defensive tactical and personnel issues.
“The players will follow whatever instructions I give them,” he said, “and not ignore them. I have the advantage of just sitting back. They don’t. They’re in class, on calls. When you play somewhere important, a lot of negativity comes along. You can’t get all the good without experiencing the bad.”
“When you lose a game against your rivals despite being ahead in the last minutes, there are negative emotions. We had to act on it. We have to admit our mistakes and play better. That’s what we did.”
“I’m not going to let them be miserable. I’m not going to let them get down. We’re going to be better. We have good players. We have the staff to make them better. I truly believe that. And this isn’t just me talking at the press conference.”
He plans to make some personnel changes, saying, “If the players are healthy this week. C.J. Crandall will play more. Jacolby Spells is pretty much 100 percent, so he’ll play. As for the other players, it’s still up in the air this week.”
Crandall, a speedy transfer from Colorado State, has played in both of the past two games in the series and is expected to play more this week, while Spells showed promise last year but missed the spring with a major injury and is now gearing up for a return.
“From a personnel standpoint, we have some players who are not performing as well as they should and are not performing to their potential. It’s not a question of effort. It’s a question of technique and lack of discipline,” he said.
“They’re not trying to do something that they’re not being asked to do. That’s not the situation. They’re just not playing well. When that happens, you have to give other players a chance. You can’t keep giving playing time to players who aren’t playing well. It sets a bad precedent for the whole team.”
Coach Brown and his staff were surprised by the secondary’s issues because no secondary defensive players showed up to fall camp… even Coach Brown said so.
“We had better performances in fall camp and they didn’t show it,” Brown said. “I believe we have better performances than we’ve shown, but that’s just me saying that now because I don’t have the video to prove it. And I’m not naive about it. I’m not trying to hide our issues.”
Brown said the passing game and an inability to stop quarterback scrambles have been some of the most consistent factors so far, but it’s the lack of stability in the secondary that has been most frustrating.
And yet, just when it looked like West Virginia’s defense was dominating Pittsburgh in the second half, the Panthers came back to steal the moment and the game.
“We had three straight three-and-outs in the second half and our execution was really good. And then the next big scramble on our last possession to give them an opportunity to attack, we executed the same call we did last series perfectly,” Brown said.
Brown said he plans to make personnel changes and there will also be organizational changes, but he has not said what they will be.
“I won’t go into any detail about our plans at this point because I don’t want to give Kansas an advantage, but we’re not going to continue doing the same thing,” he said.