WVU HC Neal Brown Fired Up in Support of Team After Win at Arizona

Neal Brown was fired up after West Virginia’s 31-16 win at Arizona on Saturday night. Brown reiterated his belief in his team based on its character, brought up the adversity the Mountaineers had to overcome and spoke about the bye week coming up.

“Over 2,000 miles traveled after a really tough stretch and our guys’ backs against the wall. A lot of negativity, a lot of adversity, we come out here without three of our four captains, three of our four captains don’t make the trip, but we come and just fight. And I think it’s a credit to our guys. Y’all have heard me talk about the character of our team. Our character of our team is really good,” said Brown.

“We wanted to be better than 2-2, but we went 2-2, and now it sets us up for a November stretch. We need some time to heal up, we got to get away and rest and recover for a few days, but then we get back, and that November stretch is going to be critical. How we finish is going to really matter. We’ve got to continue to win, stay in the conference race, I think that’s the big picture of it.”

WVU HC Neal Brown after the win at Arizona:

"Over 2,000 miles traveled after a really tough stretch and our guys' backs against the wall. A lot of negativity, a lot of adversity, we come out here without three of our four captains, three of our four captains don't make the…

— Mike J. Asti (@MikeAsti11) October 27, 2024

After talking about the getting the much-needed win, Brown then turned his attention to evaluating Nicco Marchiol‘s performance. Marchiol completed 18-of-22 for 198 yards and a couple touchdown passes. He also added 39 yards on the ground.

“He’s so much better player than the last time he started a game. So last time he started a game was Texas Tech, and that was in September, I guess, a year ago. And he’s matured, he’s been patient, and he’s gotten better. And I’ve said that a lot, y’all heard me talk about that in the spring, and you heard me talk about it in fall camp, and then he showed that today.

“And he didn’t play very well in the second half of the Kansas State game, which was a tough setting for him, but I thought he really stepped up today when we needed him, and he played really well,” Brown said.

“Offensively, I thought we really controlled the game. It got a little interesting late, but I thought we controlled the game. We were really efficient,” Brown added.

For a related story, WVU fans praised Nicco Marchiol while watching him impress against Arizona.