WVSports – West Virginia head coach Brown explains play calling decision

West Virginia head coach Neal Brown ended any suspense at Big 12 media days when he made it known what had been assumed since January — he will call offensive plays.

It’s not an unfamiliar role considering that Brown has called the majority of plays for eight of the nine years that he has been a head coach during stops at West Virginia and Troy. But it is a return to it after he spent last season outside the role after Graham Harrell was brought in to handle that responsibility.

Chad Scott is the offensive coordinator by title and will still have a sizable role in the process along with quarterbacks coach Sean Reagan but Brown made the decision to go back to what he has both been comfortable with and had success with in the past.

“And for me the most success I’ve had as a head coach is doing it. The only reason I have this job in the first place is because I was a really good offensive coordinator,” Brown said of the decision.

Brown admits that the role of in-game play caller is somewhat overrated as the main job is to make sure the game plan is set during the week and being able to rep those plays as much as possible while having answers during a game to combat the defense.

“Answers within the game comes from those guys that aren’t the play caller. As a play caller you’re thinking ahead and in between series those guys can help you because they’re not focused on the ball as much they’re looking at other things,” he said.

On the plus side, Brown believes that the head coach handling the role of play caller brings some advantages when it comes to managing the game. There is less need for communication especially from a data and analytics standpoint.

Because most of the decisions on whether to go for it on fourth down or whether to opt for a touchdowns or field goal are made on Thursday prior to a game it cuts down on communication needed in those situations.

For example, if the head coach isn’t in that role you have to let the play caller know on first or second downs if they have three or four downs to work with during a series. If the head coach already knows, that cuts that aspect out of it.

The head coach also can control the offensive tempo of the game and a good example of that is when the Mountaineers traveled to Oklahoma in 2021 and were beat on a walk-off field goal. The plan going into the game was to control the time of possession and slow down the pace, but it wasn’t something that was necessarily relayed to the team. Instead, it occurred naturally by Brown handling that role.

“The offensive play caller has more of an impact on the tempo of the game than anybody else,” Brown said.

That being said, Brown doesn’t regret the experience last season as it allowed him to take a step back and grow in many aspects. It gave the fifth-year Mountaineers head coach a chance to think about what the offense needed to do in order to become successful as well as mapping out what his weeks and days look like as a play caller.

Scott is expected to remain heavily involved with the run game on top of being a voice on the offensive side of the ball. Reagan will continue to operate from the box and there is room for both of their roles to continue to grow on the play calling front.

“I listen to them, they’re not just giving suggestions. They have really good reasoning behind it. When they tell me things whether it’s practice, games or planning purposes — I listen,” Brown said of his assistants.

And the success or shortcomings on the offensive side in Brown’s fifth season will ultimately lie at his feet. In a role he’s comfortable handling.