{"id":4218,"date":"2023-05-04T02:55:33","date_gmt":"2023-05-04T07:55:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/?p=4218"},"modified":"2023-05-04T02:55:33","modified_gmt":"2023-05-04T07:55:33","slug":"neal-brown-stresses-the-need-to-add-quality-walk-ons-to-roster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/neal-brown-stresses-the-need-to-add-quality-walk-ons-to-roster\/","title":{"rendered":"Neal Brown stresses the need to add quality walk-ons to roster"},"content":{"rendered":"

A lot has been made about building and developing your team through recruiting classes and now the NCAA transfer portal, and rightfully so. But West Virginia<\/strong><\/a> head coach Neal Brown<\/a><\/strong> understands the importance of having a strong walk-on culture. As he recently explained, following the Mountaineers\u2019 Blue-Gold annual spring game having a great walk on culture is essential for the Mountaineers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think with that award; there\u2019s a little bit of dues paid to it, right? There are certain guys that have earned scholarships, and there\u2019s a long history of quality walk-ons here,\u201d said Brown.<\/a> \u201cAnd guys that have walked on, earned scholarships, and been great players. In the four years, we\u2019ve been here, there\u2019s been some really good players that are walk-ons. And more importantly, they\u2019re the glue of your roster.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a small state, I think it\u2019s really important for us to have West Virginians. And there\u2019s only a certain amount of Power-5 scholarship players in our state. So, it\u2019s important for us to have a quality walk on the program, and I think that\u2019s something that\u2019s improving.\u201d<\/p>\n

West Virginia football has a proud tradition for their spring games, which dates back to 1991. After each spring game, the Mountaineers hand out the Tommy Nickolich Award; an honor given to the most outstanding walk-on. This year\u2019s recipient was sophomore wide receiver, C.J. Cole.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith CJ, first of all, he is someone that\u2019s very, very respected on our football team. There\u2019s three ways you become a leader,\u201d Brown said. \u201cIt\u2019s number one, you\u2019re one of the best players; number two, you\u2019re one of the best people; number three, one of the hardest workers. And there\u2019s no doubt that CJ is one of the best people on our team, and he\u2019s also one of the hardest workers.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a factor force last year on special teams; he played on two special teams. And he\u2019ll continue in that role. He\u2019s one of our best scout team players. And so, all those reasons are the are why he was chosen by the staff as the Nicholas award winner.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cole may not have the stats of some of his other college football teammates and is possibly not as talented. But according to Brown, the West Virginia native has heart and is one of the hardest-working individuals on the team. Those two attributes are what make coal essential to the Mountaineers, their culture, and their success on the field. And what better way to reward the senior wide receiver than to honor him with the most prestigious walk-on award in the program.<\/p>\n

The post Neal Brown stresses the need to add quality walk-ons to roster<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A lot has been made about building and developing your team through recruiting classes and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4218\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}