Evaluation focus shifts as WVU football ramps up

MORGANTOWN, W.Va (WDTV) - As Mountaineer football continues fall camp, fans, players and coaches alike are eager to know who is up next on the depth chart for the Gold and Blue. When it comes to evaluating players without game experience, WVU head coach Neal Brown states that sometimes it can be hard to judge a players potential on practice alone, but you have to trust it.

“I just think that there’s very few gamers,” said coach Brown. “What I mean by that is that there are very few that have the ability to practice and then, all of a sudden, play at a high level in a game. The flip side of that, I think, is true. I think that there’s a lot of really good practice players that don’t translate to the game. I don’t buy into the gamers. Football is a trust game. For coaches and for players you have to earn that trust in practice.”

For WVU, practice in full pads is the next thing on the list. Coach Brown says that when it comes to full contact, the coaching staff has to put on a different set of evaluation goggles.

“You drill for skill development,” said coach Brown. “You do team work for evaluation. We’ve gotta see. A lot of newcomers. See how they react in the stadium. We haven’t been in the stadium yet, but we plan on doing that this week coming up. See how they react in the stadium when coaches are off of the field in the press box and there’s not someone giving you pointers every play. We need to see when full officiating crews are there with full tackle. See how guys can do.”