Sunday Morning Thoughts: Is Neal Brown Returning in 2025?

Final analysis on West Virginia's win over UCF.

Ben Queen-Imagn Images

Although the sportsbooks didn't have the West Virginia Mountaineers favored to beat UCF, everyone who has followed this team all year long saw Saturday's result coming from a mile away.

I'm not trying to be smart here, but this team is the purest definition of average. They beat the teams they should and lose to the teams they should. There haven't been any whacky results where they've lost to an inferior squad or taken down one above them in the Big 12 standings. They're just average.

Beating UCF isn't something to pound your chest about by any means, with all due respect to the Knights. They entered the weekend with a 4-6 record and had lost six of its last seven coming into the matchup.

For WVU head coach Neal Brown, this was more about not losing this game than it was about winning it. Now, if you ask him, that's not the answer he'd provide, but it's just the truth of the situation. Had the Mountaineers found a way to let this one slip through their fingers, the pressure on athletics director Wren Baker would have been turned up to extreme levels.

Just because WVU didn't lose to UCF doesn't necessarily mean that West Virginia is 100% moving forward with Neal Brown as head coach, but that's the sense I get. With the early signing period set to begin on December 4th, just days after the final game of the season at Texas Tech, it leaves very little time for a change to be made at the end of the regular season.

Plus, if the Mountaineers win in Lubbock and then go on to win the bowl game, they'll finish the year with an 8-5 record, bringing them just one game shy of what they accomplished a year ago. That doesn't make it acceptable by any means; it just lessens the sting of what has been a very disappointing season.

If this does happen, WVU will have put together the best two-year stretch they've had since joining the Big 12 with consecutive 6-3 records. Now, when you look at who those 12 wins have come against, it's not the most impressive thing in the world, but it's still something for the administration to point to as a sign of hope. It also means the Mountaineers would finish somewhere in the top half of the league, which is on par with what they were picked to do in the preseason poll.

Again, don't confuse this with what I believe I think should happen. WVU wants to do everything it possibly can to avoid having to pay Neal Brown's buyout. If that means clinging on for another year, so be it. It's not what I would do if I were Wren Baker, but that's the feeling I get.

WVU sees the frustration from the fanbase. They share that disappointment, believe it or not.

But the one thing I keep wondering is if next year's non-conference slate is part of what keeps him around. Not that a decision like this is being made based on that, but 2025 will be the first year in Brown's tenure that WVU didn't play two Power Four teams in non-conference play. Instead of challenging yourself, you can gift-wrap another win by substituting that game with a Group of Five opponent.

This is the way WVU wants to schedule moving forward, so seeing how Brown handles a supposedly lighter slate may be what they view as a fair assessment instead of going off the previous six years of falling short of expectations. Is that how it should be handled? No, but just throwing that out there as something that may be tossed around from within.

I haven't heard a peep about West Virginia plans to do with Brown, but if I had to put my money on it, I expect that he'll be back in 2025. Should they fail to meet expectations next year, they'll cut ties. WVU has already given Neal Brown one of the longest leashes you'll see, and sticking with him for another year will show the next head coach how patient the university is.

MORE STORIES FROM WEST VIRGINIA ON SI

Mountaineer Postgame Show: WVU 31, UCF 21

What Neal Brown Said Following the Win Over UCF

West Virginia Sends Seniors Out with a Win in the Home Finale

Initial Thoughts: WVU Becomes Bowl Eligible, Quiets the Noise Around Neal Brown