All Eyes Turn to Neal Brown, WVU Football
Since about the midway point of the 2022 season, there have been massive amounts of pressure on WVU head football coach Neal Brown. Another lackluster season led to growing frustration from the fans and rightfully so.
Once Wren Baker publicly supported Neal, announcing he would remain as the team's head coach, a significant portion of the fanbase was upset. They felt like it was time to move on and start anew. But as time went on and men's basketball made their return to the NCAA Tournament and the baseball team put together a historic season, the football team took a bit of a backseat. With the baseball team falling 10-0 to Kentucky on Sunday, their season has officially come to an end which means all eyes/attention are squarely back on Neal Brown and the football team.
Brown enters his fifth year at West Virginia with a 22-25 record. In his first four years on the job, he's notched just one winning season but most would put an asterisk beside it due to it being a 10-game schedule thanks to the pandemic. Heading into year five, it's well past time for Brown to produce positive results.
Over the last couple of days, I spoke to a handful of fans about the football team and the consensus feeling is that there's not as much excitement heading into this season. They don't trust things are going to turn around. They don't believe enough has been done in the transfer portal. And most of all, they don't believe Neal Brown will be on the job this time next year.
Typically when there's some uncertainty at key positions such as quarterback, there's a lot of interest in the battle for the starting job. My sense is - yes, fans are interested to an extent but they don't care who wins the job. They just want to win games. Getting to a bowl game shouldn't be viewed as a successful season anymore. Maybe in year one or two, not year five.
Unfortunately for Brown, the Mountaineers have a challenging schedule to begin the year facing Penn State on the road and then two weeks later, hosting Pitt prior to the start of Big 12 play. Should West Virginia drop both of those games AND fail to become bowl eligible, the chatter surrounding Neal Brown's job security will be loud once again.
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