PITTSBURGH (93.7 the Fan) – Nine weeks since their last in-person meetings, West Virginia head coach Neal Brown met with reporters Wednesday saying the last few weeks has been tough on his team. He’s starting to worry about player’s mental wellbeing.
“I think there is definitely some Zoom fatigue,” Brown said while talking on Zoom. “What is enough and what is too much? We have eight hours that we can meet with them on football. There is no way in hell that we can hold their attention for eight hours on football.”
Brown says they try to vary up their contact with players and just because they are tired of phone communication, doesn’t mean they don’t still love the game.
“The guys want to play football, which I think is important to note,” Brown said. “I think they do want to play. I think they have concerns, just like anybody else about certain aspects and they have questions. But they want to play.”
The worries aren’t so much of issues from the pandemic, rather them coming back too fast and getting soft tissue injuries. Brown said they will rely heavily on their sports science staff and make sure they hydrate and don’t over train.
West Virginia athletic director Shane Lyons told Dan Zangrilli on the Fan this weekend that football accounts for 75% of their revenue. Does Brown feel pressure to get a season started and completed?
“It’s important that we play during this fiscal year,” Brown said. “Really not going to be up to me to figure out the pros and cons. I understand that is really important, I think its important for a lot of reasons, not just financially. I think our country needs something to look forward to.”
As we’ve heard from a number of sports leagues, it will be up to the availability of testing to see if a season happens. Brown doesn’t want to speculate if it will happen or impose drop-dead dates to get things started.
“I would be waiting as long as possible to make decisions,” Brown said if he were in charge of a conference. “I think it’s the right thing do to. That’s been my feeling during this whole pandemic, the longer you wait to make a decision, the more information you are going to have.”
The NCAA said they will allow individual schools to make up their minds on when to play based on the guidelines from the states and the university leaders. Brown said he has trust in WVU President Dr. E. Gordon Gee and Lyons.
The second year WVU coach says take his profession out of it. He is like many of us, he wants the distraction that sports provide.
“I miss being able to watch NBA basketball,” Brown said. “I missed the NCAA basketball tournament. I miss being able to watch college baseball. That’s huge for our family, it’s great family time.”
“I think athletics in general, when we get the go-ahead, it’s going to be huge for our country.”