Can Neal Brown Save His Job at West Virginia...Again?

Examining the head coaching situation at West Virginia during the bye week.

Ben Queen-Imagn Images

A year ago, West Virginia head coach Neal Brown coached his way off the hot seat with a nine-win season and a fourth-place finish in the Big 12 Conference. In the offseason, he was rewarded with an extension but took a pay cut, and some restructuring of his buyout was done.

Eight games into the 2024 season, and questions about his job have emerged once again.

Toward the end of the 2022 season, it felt like Brown was a dead man walking in a lot of ways. The team was struggling mightily, in some instances not even looking competitive, and a new athletic director (Wren Baker) was coming into place. Because of the timing of Baker's arrival, he felt like he needed time to assess the situation both on and off the field with the football program before making any sweeping changes.

This time, it feels a little different, doesn't it?

Frustration has reached an all-time high with the fans. It starts with the product on the field being completely underwhelming for the talent that returned from a nine-win team.

It started with the Mountaineers looking as flat as can be against Penn State in the season-opener, a game that was considered to be the biggest home opener in over 20 years. Then you blow a 10-point lead late to Pitt, which had everyone up in arms.

Despite that, WVU got out to a 2-0 start in Big 12 play and had two big home games to really put themselves in the conference title chase.

Once again, the big stage appeared to be too much as the Mountaineers dropped both games convincingly, bringing Neal Brown's record versus top 25 opponents while at WVU to 3-17.

As if the losses weren't enough, Brown really lost a lot of folks with his comments about the Iowa State game, asking fans if they had a good time and encouraged them to come back for the K-State game.

Was it taken out of context? I don't know. But the truth of it is, it was a poorly worded answer, and the moment those words came out of his mouth, you knew it was about to be a long week. That's something that won't be going away anytime soon, either.

Then, within just the last handful of days, an online group called "The Wolfpack" purchased multiple billboards around Morgantown that read, "Fire Neal Brown," taking the frustration to a whole new level. A significant portion of the fanbase believes that is going a bit too far, but regardless of what you think, it just shows how "done" a lot of folks are with Brown and this regime.

And in all honesty, can you blame them? The man has a 35-33 record and is in danger of recording his fourth losing season in six years. At some point, you have to win football games and win them against people who matter. You can't afford to blow games against your rivals, and you can't just beat teams with losing records. To be taken seriously, you have to beat quality people.

So, can Neal Brown save his job again?

Yes, he certainly can, but that doesn't mean he will. The outside noise is intensifying and putting more and more pressure on Baker and the administration to make a change. Unless the Mountaineers go 3-1 or better in these final four games, Brown, Baker, and everyone else will continue to hear it from the fans.

As I've stated many times before, the buyout for the head coach is not the only issue. You're going to pay for Brown and his entire staff to go away, plus hire a new head coach and entire coaching staff. That's a big bill to foot. However, a university can't be afraid to make a change because of that cost. Winning football games increase ticket sales, merchandise, and heck, even enrollment for the school, believe it or not. All of these things can help make up for that change to some extent.

The last thing the administration can do is send a message that they are accepting of these types of results on the football field. You can't have one of the most expensive gameday experiences in college football and ask for fans to continue donating money to Country Roads Trust and expect them to be okay with a .500-ish football team on a yearly basis. That's not going to cut it.

Now, as far as what could happen down the stretch on the field...that's a whole other dynamic. Let's talk about it for a minute.

Brown made the decision to fire defensive coordinator Jordan Lesley. Re-read that sentence because it is very important to keep in mind.

If the defense doesn't improve over the next four games, who does that fall on? Is it Jeff Koonz or Neal Brown? That's an easy question; it's Brown. By making this change, and making it now, it reads as if Brown believes this will help them win more games in November. If it doesn't, how does this lead to him returning as the head coach in 2025?

This is exactly why I don't believe the notion that firing Lesley buys Neal more time. What could buy him more time, hypothetically speaking, is making a quarterback change. Garrett Greene is banged up, and although it's still early, his status for the Cincinnati game doesn't sound all that encouraging.

Nicco Marchiol played an efficient game last week at Arizona and proved to be more than capable of getting the job done. On paper, the schedule looks much lighter than anything the Mountaineers have gone through to this point. Brown could elect to turn the offense over to Marchiol to give him a runway into 2025, much like he did with Greene at the end of the 2022 season when he took over for JT Daniels.

If this change does take place, and Marchiol looks legit, and you win some games to close out the season...that, my friends, is what buys Neal Brown more time.

MORE STORIES FROM WEST VIRGINIA ON SI

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Several 'Keep Neal Brown' Billboards' Now on Display in Morgantown

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