WVU HC Neal Brown Rips Into Instant Replay After Penn State Loss

(Joe Smeltzer, Nittany Sports Now) – West Virginia head coach Neal Brown knows his team wasn’t good enough in its 34-12 loss to Penn State at home Saturday.

He credited Penn State and acknowledged that his team didn’t rise to the occasion.

“We played bad football. We played really poorly. And it was on a big stage and I’m aware of that,” Brown said at the start his postgame press conference.

Brown wasn’t happy with his team and didn’t blame the outcome of the game on the referees.

In fact, he complimented the officials in his postgame presser. But he was angered about the instant replay situation.

After saying how WVU wasn’t good enough, Neal Brown then went in on the replay system and said “we shouldn’t have mistakes on replay.”

— Mike J. Asti (@MikeAsti11) August 31, 2024

“If we’re going to have replay, then we need to have replay in the first half,” Brown said.

“I want some explanations on that because having the ability to watch the video at halftime and, we had that long break (because of) the lightning delay (139 minutes), so I really watched every play of the first half,” Brown said. “And I don’t understand. So I’m gonna have to get some explanation on that because you have replay so plays get checked.”

WVU coach Neal Brown was critical of instant replay after yesterday’s loss to Penn State.

Said it “looked like the ball was moving” on Harrison Wallace III’s second touchdown in the last seconds of the first half.

Felt it didn’t affect the outcome, but doesn’t want to forget. pic.twitter.com/wH0FqGCI1n

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Brown cited specific examples.

He wasn’t sure Penn State QB Drew Allar’s second touchdown pass to WR Harrison Wallace III should have been called a touchdown and wasn’t happy that it wasn’t at least reviewed.

“The touchdown at the end of the first half, the ball looked like it was moving, and it never went to replay,” Brown said. “So why do we have it? I don’t understand how we have it if it never goes (to replay).”

¡¡DREW ALLAR FINDS HARRISON WALLACE FOR HIS 2ND TOUCHDOWN OF THE GAME!! #PennState 20-6 #WestVirginia
pic.twitter.com/FgME4HfVf7

— Crazy NFL (@NFLCrazy_) August 31, 2024

There was another play that did go to review that didn’t go West Virginia’s way.

In the second quarter, some thought Penn State QB Beau Pribula had fumbled, which would have set West Virginia up in Penn State territory.

But the initial ruling of down by contact was confirmed, and Penn State went on to score a touchdown to go up by two scores.

Penn State fans were also upset with replay Saturday.

With Penn State ahead 13-3, Brown decided to go for it on 4th and 1 at the PSU 30.

It looked like Penn State had stopped WVU RB CJ Donaldson Jr. on 4th and 1, but the spot ruled that he got the first down. Penn State then challenged, and lost, which sent PSU Twitter into a brief rage.

But it didn’t take Penn State fans long to calm down.

PSU ended up holding WVU to a field goal, making it 13-6. Then, after taking over with 32 seconds left.

In that 32 seconds, Allar hit Omari Evans for a 55-yard reception that Brown felt should have been offensive pass interference, although he also felt his defender was “didn’t play in his correct coverage lane.”

Drew Allar DEEEEEP to Omari Evans 🎯@PennStateFball pic.twitter.com/G2ZJf2fqQq

— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) August 31, 2024

“I thought it was offensive PI on the big play,” he said, “and after watching on film, I think no question about it. It was offensive PI. Anytime you have two hands and you push it… Aubrey (Burks) got into him first, but there was two hands extension and that’s the definition of offensive pass interference.”

Brown doesn’t feel instant replay impacted the final result but still wants things to be better in the future.

“Officiating is really, really hard,” Brown said. “The crew of the game did a nice job and that’s in live time. That’s fast. But we shouldn’t have mistakes in the replay ever. And so I wanna get some explanations on that.”

Most of this story initially appeared on our partner site Nittany Sports Now.