Neal Brown Addresses the Elephant in the Room, Clears Up Poorly Delivered Message

The WVU head coach talks about his mishap from earlier in the week.

West Virginia University head coach Neal Brown. / Christopher Hall

Thursday night during his radio show at Kegler's, West Virginia head coach Neal Brown took responsibility for the answer he gave earlier in the week and gave his thoughts on the situation.

"I'm in a little bit in a bubble, so most of my knowledge gets told to me by other people. I don't have really any firsthand knowledge, most of mine is second-hand knowledge, but I was made aware on Monday night and typically, I wouldn't even respond but it grew into something that wasn't even close to what I meant it to be.

"I think first of all, it wasn't my best answer, right? I take ownership of that. I own it. It wasn't my best answer. But let me be clear, I want to start with this is I hate losing. I think anyone that's been around me knows that. It's not okay. Can't stand it. I think every coach and player in our building can second that and I think every coach and player in our building feels the same way.

"I fully understand the expectations and the scrutiny that comes with this job. I do get it and it's part of it when you're in a public space. If you want to criticize us on losing on Saturday, that's fair. If you want to criticize a play in the game, that's fair. If you want to criticize a recruiting decision, that's fair. Anything to with football or a particular game, I think that's fair. Scrutiny over this comment, I don't know if it's fair.

"I would urge everyone, just listen to how I open the press conference. I really talked about how disappointed and I talked about the stage being set because it was. It was a great night. I thought our athletic department did a tremendous job. Our fans created a great atmosphere and it was the entire day. Mantrip was outstanding. We had I don't know how many miners were at the end of the mantrip. 50+ probably. I mean, it was a great atmosphere. Everything was set. New uniforms, Coal Rush, top-10 opponent, and then we didn't deliver. We didn't win the game and that was tough.

"The question I was asked was asked toward the end and I just didn't answer it very well. If I had to do it again, what I should answered is we've got a damn good football team, we've lost to three undefeated teams. At some point, we're going to put it all together and we're going to play up to our capabilities and we're going to finish one of these games. We've got guys that are playing the right way. They play tough, they play physical. This is what our opponents say before or after they play us.

"We've got guys that it means something to. We've got guys on our football team that numerous are from the state of West Virginia, so they're fully aware of what it means to the fans here. And I would encourage our fans to continue to come out and support because our guys are playing the right way and we are going to figure it out. That's the way I should have answered it. It wasn't my best answer, but at the same time a lot of that was taken completely out of context."

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