Cover Photo: WVU Athletics
CHARLOTTE, North Carolina — The West Virginia Mountaineers finished the season 9-4 this season after being predicted to finish 14th in the Big 12 Conference and expected by many experts to only win a few games this season. Here’s what Neal Brown had to say after West Virginia’s huge 30-10 victory over the North Carolina Tar Heels in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl:
“West Virginia showed up. I thought we had a great crowd. The music selection was on point for our guys. A national audience got to see how our fans support our team. I’m sure we’ll sell some beer tonight in Charlotte.
One of the great things about college football games is that you can win your last game. I think bowl games are meaningful and means a lot to us. I think we should be in the Top 25. I think we deserve that. I have a vote and I’ll vote us in. And I think next season we should be a Top 25 preseason team.
Defensively, I thought we played extremely physical, which is hard to do in a bowl game. I’m fired up for our defensive guys. Special teams was outstanding. We won the special teams battle soundly. Offensively, we weren’t our best. In the end, we found a way. Garrett Greene is gritty and found a way to win. Our young receivers made some great plays.
I think winning 9 games is significant. This is the third time since we’ve joined the Big 12 that we’ve won 9 games. We had some very winnable games that we lost, but think about where we would be if we finished games against Oklahoma State and Houston.
I think picking us 14th in the Big 12 Conference in the preseason was just bad reporting. I never thought we’d finish 14th. That’s not where we were and I knew we’d be a lot better than we were predicted.
There’s no time to rest now. We have to hold on to our roster and bring this team back to do something special next year.”
