Why Neal Brown expects West Virginia to be much improved in 2023

West Virginia has yet to have a winning season in Big 12 play under Neal Brown and is coming off of a 5-7 (3-6) year in 2022.

With that said, Brown expects the Mountaineers to take a big step forward this upcoming season.

The 43-year-old Brown spoke with ESPN at Big 12 Media Days on Thursday and shared why he expects his club to be much improved in 2023.

“Well, I think starting on defense, that’s where we had our most issues is, we had to simplify. We need to do a better job of getting lined up. We need to do a better job of minimizing explosive plays. And so what we’ve done is we’ve gone back and we have simplified,” Brown said. “We’ve really stressed fundamentals. I think we’ll be a much better tackling team this year. And from a coverage standpoint, we’ve gone back and really started from scratch. We’ve added some key pieces in the secondary that have played a lot of football. We’ve added three all-conference players as transfers, so we’re excited about that.”

Brown also expects West Virginia to be much better on offense. The Mountaineers coaching staff has identified what went wrong last year and is working to fix it.

“Then on offense what we’ve got to do a better job of is creating explosive plays and eliminating the errors – turnovers and penalties,” Brown said.

For West Virginia, everything should start with the running game. The Mountaineers have an experienced offensive line, a really good running back and a pair of athletic quarterbacks who are competing for the starting job.

“I think for us, we have a lot of faith in our offensive line. We return 132 games started. That’s one of the top in the country. I think anytime you have a really good offensive line you’re going to have a chance,” Brown said. “And then we’ve got what I think is a budding superstar in CJ Donaldson. He had two games of 100-plus last year [in Big 12 play] before he got injured. He’s 240 pounds. He’s a different style running back than others. So I’m excited about what we’re going to look like. And we’re going to be much more athletic at the quarterback position.”

Donaldson rushed for 526 yards and eight touchdowns in seven games last year, before going down with an injury in October. He topped the 100-yard rushing mark against Pittsburgh, Towson, Virginia Tech and TCU.