WVU Football
WVU Football HC Neal Brown, Players Not Satisfied with Being Bowl Eligible
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The 2023 WVU football team is officially bowl eligible, but that’s not on the mind of anyone involved with the Mountaineers.
After beating BYU 37-7 on Saturday night, West Virginia head coach Neal Brown was asked about reaching the magic number of six wins to ensure some type of postseason play. He said it’s not even something he’s addressed with his team.
“We’re alive and well in the conference race and that’s what we’re talking about. The best teams play their best in November. We’re on a quest to play our best and I felt like tonight was the most complete game we’ve played,” said Brown.
WVU HC Neal Brown says he did not bring up being bowl eligible to team after BYU win. He says they are still in conference race. “The best teams play their best play in November.”
— Mike J. Asti (@MikeAsti11) November 5, 2023
This sentiment was echoed by quarterback Garrett Greene and linebacker Ben Cutter as well. Greene literally said just reaching a bowl game is not the goal of the team and they still feel where they want to be is obtainable.
Brown may not want to celebrate the achievement of simply reaching a bowl game just yet, but he did take the opportunity to bring up proving the Big 12 preseason predictions wrong.
“That’s where we were picked. We gotta keep proving that’s not who we are.”
On Monday, safety Aubrey Burks said he’s glad to know they’ll be in a bowl and get the seniors an extra game, but they now want to push it to reaching a better bowl game and even get to the Big 12 title game.
Even though the standard of the WVU football program and the mindset of the current group of Mountaineers says bowl eligibility is not enough on its own, getting to six wins on November 4th in 2023 is giant step in the right direction when you compare it to finishing with only five wins all of 2022.
Oklahoma now stands as the next challenge for West Virginia as they hope to make the season about more than just playing in a bowl game. The Mountaineers will be back at it at night on another national stage. WVU and OU will kickoff from Norman, Oklahoma at 7 pm ET and be televised on FOX.