Neal Brown Remains Passionate in Developing Players

West Virginia head coach Neal Brown says, "we're going to pour into these guys and give them everything we got, and if we do that, there's going to be a lot more success stories.”

Christopher Hall - Sports Illustrated: Mountaineer Maven

West Virginia head coach Neal Brown had time to reflect following the departure of defensive lineman Akheem Mesidor. It came as a surprise, and the loss of the former freshman All-American prompted Neal Brown to hold an unscheduled press conference to announce Mesidor intentions to leave the program.

Brown shared his intentions on operating the program and reiterated again following day six of spring practice.

"I think when anytime that something doesn't go or you don't see something that happens, right, maybe catches you off guard. I'm a guy that like, likes to take some time, you know, and I always self-evaluate before I evaluate anything else. It's just kind of the way that I think is the best way to operate or it's the way that I've operated the best in the past.

“So, what I did is I went through the process, you want to self-evaluate and here's the thing, like, I was hurt by that, and I think to I tried to say that in a way where it was understood. I was really hurt by what happened earlier in the week. This is what I meant by this is, you go back, and you say ‘okay, well, why did it hurt?’ Well, it hurt because I think the best way to go about it is you pour into kids, right? You pour into them, and you give them everything that you can possibly give them from a personal investment from surrounding them with infrastructure. And I still believe that's the right way to do it. And that's the way we've been doing and that's why we will continue to do it.

Christopher Hall - Sports Illustrated: West Virginia

“There's going to be instances in the world we live in, in college football now, where you're going to do everything that you can for certain individuals, and they're still going to leave. And so, to me, alright, you sit there, and you think, and you go, ‘Oh, you know, we're doing all this is it worth it?’ And it's absolutely yes, it's worth it. Because that's when I said, ‘we’re going to have a lot more success stories than we do where you really hurt when people that you grow and develop and they leave, they're still going to be a lot more success stories.’ We're going to continue not only me personally, but our coaching staff and our entire support services, is we're going to pour into these guys and give them everything we got, and if we do that, there's going to be a lot more success stories.”

Christopher Hall - Sports Illustrated: West Virginia

Brown has put in place several tools for his players to succeed on and off the field, but to his point, he is correct. Sometimes you can give a player everything he wants but it’s still not enough. He noted college basketball coaches have been going through this for quite a while. It also struck me when he said in the current state of college football, coaches will have to put teams together year to year instead of long-term. Baseball head coach Randy Mazey had a similar quote in the preseason, and Hall of Fame head coach Bob Huggins has seemingly been doing it since joining the Big 12 Conference. 

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