MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – I was 12 the last time West Virginia football had a game-changing moment when Mountaineer Field opened in 1980.
Forty-one years later, I think we are about to witness another one.
Yesterday, coach Neal Brown gave the media an hour-long tour of the newly renovated Milan Puskar Center, a $55 million investment President Gordon Gee, the WVU Board of Governors and WVU Director of Athletics Shane Lyons made in Mountaineer Football.
To say it is awesome is an understatement.
Any picture posted, any video clip you watch or any virtual tour you take will not do this place justice. You have to see it for yourself to fully grasp what has happened in there.
Senior defensive tackle Dante Stills said last week the new place will "100%" help West Virginia's recruiting.
"My first two years there were really no changes, and last year the locker room was done and the players' lounge," he said. "I can tell they put a lot of hard work into it and I appreciate everyone who was involved with it."
Running back Leddie Brown, another senior, admitted he's still trying to find his way around the place.
"At first, I had trouble finding the meeting rooms because they changed the whole upstairs around," he said. "I feel like our facility is one of the best in the country now and I feel like we can really use it to our advantage in the future."
WVU Varsity Club Director Dale Wolfley told me the former players he recently brought into the place were completely floored.
Retired NFL general manager Ken Herock, who continues to do football consulting work and frequently travels to many different football complexes around the country, told Wolfley what West Virginia has done to the Puskar Center makes it as good as any he's seen anywhere.
Any coach, player, recruit, scout or NFL executive who walks into this place is going to get one immediate impression – West Virginia is now dead serious about its football program. It's no longer a question of what West Virginia doesn't have, but rather what doesn't West Virginia have?
This is really a couple of years in the making, the seeds being planted the moment Neal Brown took over the football program in 2019.
A team of committees was assembled by Senior Football Administrator Keli Zinn to go over every detail with a fine-toothed comb, right down to the color schemes, graphic choices, artifacts and displays.
Not only does the facility have the flash and wow factor 18-year-olds are looking for today, it also properly recognizes the great history of Mountaineer football. Zinn mentioned at the outset of yesterday's tour that plenty of room was left unused because she is expecting to add much more hardware to the place in the coming years.Some of its most impressive aspects are breathtaking, such as the player mud room which reminds me of the scene in "Dr. No" when James Bond and Honey Rider are getting radioactive material washed off of them in Dr. No's secret laboratory.
In the mud room, the WVU players dispose of their dirty gear in a special room before proceeding in car-wash fashion down the hallway toward the pool area where water is sprayed on them to remove the rubber pellets from the turf field. Then they walk through a shallow pool before heading into the shower.
The sleep room adjacent to the player lounge is another example of a sci-fi movie that's come to life. The guys have two sleep pods, two massage chairs and eight zero-gravity seats in which to get a nap between practices. The ceiling simulates a starry night and up to 15 players can catch a little shuteye at any time of the day.
Down the hall, past the athletic equipment room, is the player recovery area, which includes a tracking station to monitor how much the guys are eating, sleeping and getting hydrated. There is a nutrition fueling area for players to get something to eat or drink before and after workouts, and a high-tech recovery suite adjacent to the weight room that will blow your mind.
Inside, the players have access to two light beds, which helps with regeneration and recovery, a couple of cryotherapy pods with liquid nitrogen pumped into it to help players with blood flow and recovery, two float tanks which allows players to become completely weightless, and a body pod for the medical staff to measure their body compositions.
Say what?
Wait, there's more.
The player lounge features a barber shop for the guys to get haircuts, a recording studio to create podcasts or music videos, and upstairs outside the Team Room, is a replica ESPN College GameDay set for some camera-phone pictures.
The spacious player locker room, adorned with video screens and lights, also includes an enclosed area dedicated solely to former West Virginia players now playing in the NFL. These guys can use it whenever they return to campus to get workouts with Mike Joseph.
Upstairs, before you get to the assistant coaches' suite, there is a fully functional studio for Brown to do his weekly media stuff with Tony Caridi. It will also be used as football's main hub for all virtual visits.
The team rooms feature stadium-style seating for the players, attractive graphics highlighting some of West Virginia's greatest players, plus individual records pertaining to their positions. There is a massive meeting room adjacent to Brown's office that looks like something straight out of Dr. Strangelove.
Somebody mentioned to me in passing that it was big enough for the Pentagon to use.
There is a Fifth Quarter suite near Neal Brown's office, which is focused solely on off-the-field player development before you get to the academic support suite. The team training room, completed before Brown's arrival, is another area that gets your attention.
The hallway leading to the training table is made up solely of West Virginia players in the NFL, connecting the training table area to the Hall of Traditions, which used to be in the far corner of the Puskar Center where nobody had access to it.Now, the Hall of Traditions is in the front of the building and is much more accessible to West Virginia football fans for game days and during weekdays.
"I'm very, very proud of this facility," Brown said Tuesday. "It's got flash and it's got functionality."
To me, this place is a game changer for Mountaineer football, similar to the way Mountaineer Field once changed the trajectory of West Virginia football when Don Nehlen took over the program in 1980.
It took unbelievable vision to build that football stadium in the late 1970s when the program was at its low point, and similar vision was used today in the middle of a pandemic to make the current Puskar Center a reality. These guys didn't stick their toes in the water - they jumped in with both feet!
After touring this facility, there is no doubt in my mind that Shane Lyons has moved all of his chips to the middle of the table in support of Mountaineer football.
It's that impressive!
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July 21, 2021 at 10:39PM
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