In preparation for the 2024 season, the West Virginia football team began their fall camp Wednesday.
After practice, head coach Neal Brown spoke with the media and gave several updates, while speaking on the Mountaineers’ plan going forward. WVU will host Penn State week one on Aug. 31 and will work on improving as a unit heading into the 2024 season.
“Today was a light practice, worked a ton of red zone area. That’s a key improvement area for us,” Brown said.
West Virginia’s week one of practice will run from now until Saturday, with practice next week starting on Monday-Wednesday, then Friday-Sunday. Preseason camp will conclude on Aug 21 as WVU begins its fall semester.
“Everybody on the roster will get reps through that second scrimmage. And the purpose of that is this, everyone has an opportunity to get evaluated,” Brown said.
Brown gave huge props to West Virginia Football’s health and nutrition department. He stated that he sees a lot of progress being made and is excited about his roster.
“Our (players) body fat percentages are the best they’ve ever been. We look the part, when you come out there tomorrow. We look like a contending power-four team,” Brown said.
Brown also gave an update on the personnel and injury status of players. He said CJ Donaldson, Jaheem Joseph and Kole Taylor were full participants in Wednesday’s practice and will continue to have the green light going forward. He mentioned that freshman Kyle Altuner will be ‘out’ with a lower injury and is expected to return to football activities midseason. Corey McIntyre will also be out with a lower injury, he’s expected to be back later in the year. Redshirt freshman Oryend Fisher is limited from an injury he suffered during WVU’s bowl preparation. Asani Redwood and Jacolby Spells have made good progress in their injury recoveries but were limited in practice Wednesday. Freshman Dom Collins was also limited, but is expected be a ‘full go’ within a week.
Two players will be taking medical redshirts, which Brown touched upon. Linebacker Jairo Faverus and offensive lineman Maurice Hamilton are not on West Virginia’s active roster as they take a medical redshirt due to debilitating injuries. Unfortunately, Brown believes they will be career-ending injuries.
Brown continued the press conference by answering questions and was asked about the difficulty of West Virginia’s schedule.
“On paper, it looks really hard. Our league is extremely deep,” Brown said. “To be determined on the schedule. We just got to take it one (game) at a time, but there’s some really good teams on there.”
When asked about his roster, Brown also said it was to be determined, but has high hopes for his group of guys.
“To be determined too. Talk to me after probably our second scrimmage and I’ll be able to give you a fair answer,” Brown said. “We’ve got some depth, defensively we got more depth than we ever had. Offensively we’ve got a good mix of playmakers, probably the most diverse group we’ve had.”
West Virginia has had true freshmen make a difference in the past including Jahiem White and Traylon Ray last season. That may continue this season, with Brown saying that some freshmen are going to play.
“There will be some freshmen that are going to play. ‘Who?’, we’ll wait and see. It usually kind of clears itself out after the first scrimmage and if they can handle the load once you start installing in the second week, then you know you’re on to something. But we’re going to have some freshmen that play, will it be as many in the past, to be determined. I like these guys,” Brown said.
In the new era of the Big 12, West Virginia is one of the most winningest teams of all-time in the conference. Coming off of a successful season, Brown was asked if there’s added pressure with new competition entering the league.
“We embrace the tradition and so the conference championships are on the wall in the weight room,” Brown said. “I think that our tradition is undervalued.”
In terms of the realignment, Brown has looked past that and looks at WVU on the national scale.
“Regardless of the conference, West Virginia has always fared really well,” Brown said. “The one common theme is we’ve had success program wise.”
