MORGANTOWN — In the coaching offices, they speak of the “noise” that is being made in public over Saturday’s late defensive meltdown that led to West Virginia blowing a 10-point lead in the final four minutes and losing to Pitt, 38-34, in the 107th Backyard Brawl.
They are not speaking of noise as you normally think of it, but of speaking loudly and angrily, often unintelligently, too, but that’s a story for another day.
This noise made by a fan — not the kind that creaks as the blades spin to offer some relief from the heat but instead that appears on social media and in bar rooms simply raises the temperature, noise about the coaching job done by WVU’s Neal Brown and by his defensive coordinator Jordan Lesley.
You might recall Lesley was battered a week earlier on the sideline when his linebacker ran into him and his helmet opened a gash over his eye, but rest assured that Lesley didn’t take anywhere near the beating on the sideline as he took on social media after the Pitt comeback when quarterback Eli Holstein scrambled for key yardage over and over on the final two drives of the game while also escaping a second and 30 situation with a touchdown pass that somehow was completed despite three defenders being on the receiver, one of them even being flagged for pass interference
That’s the noise that is silently being screamed across the state and Brown doesn’t back away from it.
“We own it,” he said during his Monday press conference. “We didn’t get it done. We had it in our grasp and didn’t finish. It’s a rivalry game. We’re not going to feel sorry for ourselves. We’re not going to sit around and be miserable.
“There are people with real problems in this world and it’s not us. We didn’t play well enough in the game of football.”
One would like to drop it right there and move on to next Saturday’s game with Kansas, the Big 12 opener, but everyone knows that you can’t just walk away from the fatal flaw that has shown itself in the Mountaineers’ defense in all three games to date, leading to two losses against Penn State and Pitt.
Brown has to address the football shortcomings that have shown themselves and the mental effect it will have on his team moving forward. He has to redirect them in their purpose as he corrects the problems with his defensive schemes and personnel.
“The players will take whatever direction I take,” he said. “You don’t ignore it. I have the benefit of just hunkering down. They don’t do that. They go to class. They’re on the phone. There’s a lot of negativity that happens when you play at a place that matters. You can’t have all the good without experiencing the bad.
“When you lose a rivalry game when you were ahead in the final minutes, there’s going to be negativity. You have had to act on it. You have to own your own mistakes and go about playing better. That’s kind of how we’re doing it.
“I’m not going to allow them to be miserable. I’m not going to allow them to hang their heads. We’re going to get better. We’ve got good players. We have a staff who can get them better. I believe that. That’s not just me talking in a press conference.”
He plans to make personnel changes, for one thing.
As long as they stay healthy this week. C.J. Crandall is going to play more. Jacolby Spells, we think he’s close to being 100% and will get in the mix. As far as anyone else, it’s TBD this week,” he said.
Crandall is a speedy transfer from Colorado State who has played a series in each of the past two games. He will play more this week. Spells showed promise last year but missed the spring with a significant injury and now is making his way back.
“From a personnel standpoint, we have some guys who are just not performing as well as they need to and not as well as they are capable of playing. It’s not an effort deal. There’s some technique; there’s a lack of discipline,” he said.
“It’s not like they’re trying to do what they’re not asked to do. It’s not that type of scenario. They’re just not playing well. When that happens, you have to give other guys opportunities. You can’t continue to reward guys with playing time if they aren’t playing well. That sets a bad precedent for the whole team.”
The problems in the secondary have caught Brown and his staff by surprise because they did not show up in fall camp … and he said so.
“We performed better in fall camp, but they haven’t shown that,” Brown said. “I believe that we’re better than what we’ve shown but that’s just me speaking right now because there’s no video proof of that … and I’m not naive on that. I’m not up here trying to cover up what our issues are.”
The most frustration comes from an inconsistency back there in the secondary, Brown said, although the inability to stop the passing game and the scrambles of quarterback really has been one of the most consistent factors to date.
Still, just when it appeared in the second half as if WVU’s defense was dominating Pitt, the Panthers put together a comeback to steal away the moment and the game.
“We had three three-and-outs in a row in the second half where execution was at a high level. Even the big scramble on the next last possession that opened up that drive for them, we executed that same call to perfection the previous series,” Brown said.
Brown plans personnel changes and says there will also be schematic changes, but he is far less forthcoming with what that will be.
“I’m not going to get into any great detail right now about the schematics because I don’t want to give Kansas any edge, but we are not going to continue the same things,” he said.
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