Photo courtesy of BlueGoldNews.com Quarterback Garrett Green struggles for yards.
MORGANTOWN — It’s funny, we “The good old days” As “It was better in the old days” Rather “The good old days”However, this may not be the case.
Nostalgia has always reigned supreme in sports. Roger Maris was demonized for challenging Babe Ruth’s hallowed single-season home run record, and Henry Aaron was demonized for breaking the Babe’s career home run record.
To the old timers, whoever they were, Jim Brown, Gale Sayers, Earl Campbell and Bo Jackson will always be the best running backs in football, and no matter how much technology and training methods have produced far superior athletes in this region, there will never be one better than Jerry West.
That’s how we view life. The good old days are different for 40-year-olds than they are for 60-year-olds and 80-year-olds. We have a hard time remembering which key opens our front door, but we remember every pitch Sandy Koufax threw and every home run Ted Williams hit.
But times do change, and often for the better, humanity. We’ve had setbacks like last weekend’s loss to the University of Pittsburgh at West Virginia, but in essence it’s the same disaster that was 2007, even if the outcome hinged on it.
And Bobby Bowden, after losing a 35-8 Backyard Brawl lead at halftime against Pittsburgh in the 1960s, complained that fans fired him, just as now they are firing Neil Brown and defensive coordinator Jordan Leslie on social media.
What remains the same is that coaches have to find a way to fix their problems. Some of a coach’s problems are coaching problems, some are player performance problems and some are just mental problems. That may be a priority for West Virginia as it prepares to open its Big 12 season at home against Kansas on Saturday.
These days, teams have strength coaches and nutritionists to help with the physical aspects of recovery, they have technology to monitor sleep and physical activity, and they have sports psychologists to help players with the mental effects as well as teach coaches how to best deal with the issues.
Among them “The good old days” While a coach like Bear Bryant would get angry and drive his team harder and longer in practice, today this approach has been minimized by both sanity and rule changes, Neil Brown knows he can’t be coddled either.
“When you lose, especially when you’re leading in the final minutes against a rival, it’s going to leave you with a negative feeling.” Brown said Monday as a week of resuscitation treatment began. “You just have to accept it, admit your mistakes and try to get better.”
While fans spend the week complaining on social media, players spend the same week in a completely different way, rebuilding their attitude and confidence, creating memories of how terrible the loss was, and doing what is necessary to avoid it this week.
“I will not allow them to be miserable, and I will not allow them to hang their heads.” Brown said. “We’ll be better.”
That will be a challenge for Kansas, which has dynamic quarterback Jaylon Daniels looking to get back to the form he was in before he was injured last year, and running back Devon Neal, who is playing the best game of his career as a Power 4 running back. Kansas, like WVU, has billed itself as a Big 12 contender this season, but with a 1-2 start and facing all the challenges the Mountaineers have, it will have to do it on the road in Morgantown.
Mountaineers players believe they can turn things around because they’ve been there before. Center Brandon Yates saw it happen in 2022 when West Virginia lost four of five games, allowing 40 or more points in three of those games and 31 or more in all four losses.
However, they won two of their final three games, beating Oklahoma and Oklahoma State.
Then in 2021, they suffered three straight losses, including blowout three-point losses to Oklahoma and Texas Tech, before winning four of their final seven games.
“It reminds me of when we lost to Texas Tech in 2021.” Yates said. “We were expected to win that game and that game was a turning point in that season because I think a win would have changed our season. There were a lot of times after that game where I thought we could have turned things around and fixed things.”
Last season, Oklahoma State’s wide receiver transfer Jayden Bray led the Cowboys to a non-conference loss to South Alabama and then a loss to Iowa State in their Big 12 Conference opener. Like West Virginia this season, the season looked like it was going to be a flop, but Mike Gundy’s team won seven of their next eight games en route to the Big 12 Conference championship.
“It came from not paying attention to the outside noise and realizing that the only people who know what’s going on are the people who are there every day practicing.” Bray explained: “It all depended on what type of team we were and what we thought we could achieve.”
“It’s about focus and sacrifice on and off the field.” Bray continued. “If you really want to get to where you want to be, you just have to work harder.”
Of course, it doesn’t hurt to intercept a pass or two or at least cover a receiver.
