MORGANTOWN — Some WVU football fans look at the Mountaineers’ 2023 schedule and feel nothing but dread. Again playing one of the toughest schedules in the country, WVU will face 11 Power 5 opponents for the sixth year in a row, excluding the truncated 2020 season.
Where some see despair, WVU head coach Neal Brown sees opportunity.
“If you think about this team, we play one of the more exciting schedules in the country,” Brown said during an interview with The Dominion Post last week. “Our fan base should be really fired up about playing Penn State at Penn State. We’ve got Pitt coming here for the first time in a really long time. It’s going to be a night game with our biggest rival.”
The tough scheduling hasn’t gone the Mountaineers’ way as of late as, after going 8-4 under Dana Holgorsen in 2018, the team has only reached six wins once in the span, a 6-7 mark in 2021. WVU went 6-4 in the abbreviated 2020 campaign.
Being excited is the only option for Brown. As a coach on the hot seat, the team is either going to win this year or he very well could be looking for a new job when winter rolls around. And as challenging as WVU’s schedule is this season, the first month is actually somewhat favorable for the Mountaineers to build early momentum and buzz for the fan base.
The toughest game of the year might end up being the season-opener at Penn State on Sept. 2. The Nittany Lions went 11-2 last season, won the Rose Bowl and were ranked No. 7 in the final Top-25 poll.
“It’s a tough environment, they’ve got a top-10 football team,” Brown said. “I think they’ve got anywhere from three to four potential first-round picks on their team. We’re going to have our hands full but also, we feel like we’re going to take a pretty good football team up there, too.”
A tough test to be sure, but also an incredible opportunity for the Mountaineers to breathe a little life back into their program. A win in Happy Valley would set off celebrations in Morgantown, but even just a strong showing could be enough to spark some hope among the WVU faithful.
“I don’t think you can make decisions based on how the fan base is going to swing,” Brown said. “All we can do is do our best in the summer to get ready for fall camp, do our best in fall camp to get ready for the season and then the two weeks getting ready for Penn State, do the best we can to prepare to go play in one of the top atmospheres. Our guys are going to be excited. They’re going to be well-prepared, they’re going to be excited.”
Even with a loss at Penn State, WVU plays its next three games at home.
“We’ve got an opportunity on a national stage, on NBC, to set the tone for our season,” Brown said of the Penn State game. “If it doesn’t go the way we want, then we’ve got to bounce back and we’ve got three home games in a row. That’s going to put us in a position to launch our season.”
Following Penn State, the team plays FCS Duquesne, Pitt and Texas Tech all at home. The Panthers and Red Raiders are tough customers to be sure, but just like PSU, wins against them should be a nice shot in the arm for the Mountaineers.
Following the home stand, WVU closes September with a trip to play national championship runner-up TCU. It’s another early-season challenge with a huge reward with the Mountaineers can pull off the upset.
“If you look at our schedule, Penn State is probably going to be in the top seven in the country, Pitt will be nationally ranked when we play and then Texas Tech in the preseason is going to be borderline nationally ranked but then they will if they beat Oregon,” Brown said. “Then we play at TCU, who played in the national championship game. We’re going to play a lot of quality football teams early, there are going to be a lot of nationally televised games early. Is it a challenge, yes, but it’s also a tremendous opportunity for our team and our program to make a statement early on.”
For Brown, the first month of 2023 presents a golden opportunity to change the perception of the program, re-energize the fan base and get the Mountaineers back into national relevance.
If the team can’t do that and comes out of the gates flat with a handful of losses, it probably won’t be Brown’s problem for too much longer thereafter anyway.
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