MORGANTOWN- Back in 2019, the West Virginia Mountaineers went searching for a new head football coach after the departure of Dana Holgorsen who fled to Houston to be in his favorite city.
The school conducted a search, interviewed several candidates, and even hired a search firm for help and recommendations on who should lead the Mountaineers into the foreseeable future.
When it was all said and done, former WVU athletic director, Shane Lyons, settled on the young Neal Brown, head coach of the Troy Trojans, and winners of at least 10 games for three years in a row, including upset wins at LSU and at Nebraska.
It was the perfect fit. Brown was the complete opposite of the free spirited Holgorsen, who frequented casinos and even got thrown out of the one in Cross Lanes one offseason during his tenure. Brown was on the straight and arrow, had been married for several years, and had young children. Again, he was on the other end of the rope far away from Holgorsen.
Fast forward to nearly six years later, and Brown is now in the unemployment line (can you be in that line after collecting $10 million?) after West Virginia parted ways with him on Sunday, December 1 after mediocrity had set in for the team, and apathy with the fans.
The day before the firing, the Mountaineers got absolutely clobbered at Texas Tech—a school where Brown was the offensive coordinator before—52-15 and played with no effort, no heart, no emotion, and no soul. It was almost as if the players had already been told what was coming the following day and they didn’t care how Saturday turned out. It got so bad and so embarrassing that I dozed off at least three times watching it. That is unheard of for me. I used to look forward to every single game, but after the opener against Penn State to open this season, I just started to look forward to the end of it all and said to myself, “well, I’m ready for basketball.”
Brown never put it together in Morgantown. He came in as a hot commodity but is leaving as arguably the worst coach in the history of the school based on numbers and results. He finished just 37-35 overall and 25-28 in Big 12 play. The Mountaineers were 3-17 against ranked teams under Brown and have not been ranked one single time in the AP or CFP poll since he took over six years ago. Read that again. West Virginia HAS NOT BEEN RANKED ONE TIME UNDER BROWN. In SIX years.
For all the good he did Sunday through Friday, it was all erased on most Saturdays with unpreparedness, no killer instinct, and the losses that followed.
Brown’s best year was in 2023 when fans hoped he had turned the corner after a 9-4 finish and a bowl win over UNC.
But it was all fool’s gold.
The Mountaineers schedule that season was as weak as it had been in a long time. The only three decent teams they played all year, Penn state, Oklahoma State, and Oklahoma, WVU lost 38-15, 48-34, and 59-20. They beat up on all the others except for Holgorsen’s Cougars where they lost on a hail mary in another coaching blunder, but that is another long story.
However, in 2024, and after finishing 2023 on a high note with that bowl win over the Tar Heels, the expectations suddenly grew to a new level. West Virginia fans were excited about the Penn State matchup and excited again in general. The national media started talking about the Mountaineers again, former WVU player Pat McAfee could not quit gushing about his alma mater on his daily show on ESPN, which draws the most viewers of any sports show in the country. McAfee even took his show to Morgantown the day before the opener with Penn State and had former legends of all sports as his guests and even had Brown on there as well. Brown acted excited and confident and the publicity that the team was getting reached new heights.
Then, the game was played.
The Nittany Lions dominated it from start to finish, even with a weather delay in between, and they beat the Mountaineers 34-12, and it was at that moment that most fans decided for good that this coach just does not have “it.”
A few weeks later, Brown got a chance to redeem himself. One more chance. A time to negate the past and really show the country that WVU is still on the map. They were hosting nationally ranked Iowa State in a coal rush themed game and breaking out the black coal uniforms for the first time ever. It was a sellout crowd and the place was hopping. Morgantown was still alive and still had a pulse.
Final- Iowa State 28, WVU 16.
The very next weekend, the Mountaineers still had yet another opportunity to slightly right the ship against nationally ranked Kansas State. Again, another large crowd that was willing to forgive the Iowa State loss if the team could just get past the Wildcats on national tv and another night game with a sellout crowd and an outside chance to stay alive for a Big 12 title game berth.
Final- Kansas State 45, WVU 18.
It was at this point, fans started taking to social media and wherever they could, screaming for the administration to relieve Brown as the coach and start over. It was apparent that he was never going to get the job done. Brown had called his 2024 team the best he’s ever had, and on October 19, more than halfway through the season, his team sat at 3-4 with losses to Penn State and Pitt (where WVU blew a 10-point lead with 4 min. left).
The biggest hurdle at the time was Brown’s buyout which was put in place by Lyons after the Mountaineers narrowly defeated Army in a bowl game in the shortened 2020 Covid season when Brown got a contract extension.
The problem?
The buyout was monstrous. Basically, if Brown were to ever be fired, he would be owed 75 percent of his remaining salary which at the time, would have been around 20 million dollars with that total amount reduced each year. This year, the amount was down to about 10 million, but the school still saw that as unaffordable. However, over the last few weeks, current athletic director Wren Baker and some major donors began to work out those kinks and obviously a plan fell into place on Sunday.
Brown gave it his all at WVU. But if a coach does not win, that coach cannot last. It’s a winning business and Brown never proved himself as a consistent winner.
The one thing I will say about coach Brown is even after all the ridicule and all the negative publicity, he always seemed to say the right thing and kept a positive attitude about everything.
Something I heard yesterday from a reliable source is that Brown is being cooperative and working hard on convincing the top current players to stay at WVU and play for the great state of West Virginia rather than transfer somewhere else. Players like Jahiem White, CJ Donaldson, Traylon Ray, Hudson Clement, Josiah Trotter, Tray Lathan and Nicco Marchiol, among several others, are all being persuaded to stick it out in Morgantown for the new coach.
As to who that coach will be? My guess is we will know something very soon. Maybe even as soon as this coming weekend.
What we already know, however, is that it was never going to be Neal Brown past this season. Winning matters and it just has not been done in Morgantown for the past six years.
