Sunday Morning Thoughts: West Virginia Deserves Better

Final analysis on West Virginia's latest loss.

Schuyler Callihan | Nov 17, 2024

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West Virginia Mountaineers

Following Saturday evening's loss to Baylor, the West Virginia Mountaineers are virtually out of the Big 12 Conference title race.

They're still mathematically alive, thanks to Kansas pulling off yet another upset, taking down undefeated BYU. That being said, they need approximately 87 things to go their way, in addition to winning the final two games of the year against UCF and Texas Tech, to punch a ticket to Dallas.

*Whispers* It's not happening.

It's year six of this regime, and they're struggling to make it to win six. Being content with just getting bowl-eligible this deep into a tenure is not acceptable. Coaches can have a down year every now and then, even six years in, but you have to have shown something in the past that shows you're capable of winning. This staff has yet to do that.

I went back and looked at last year's schedule a little deeper and found that the six teams that West Virginia beat had a combined Big 12 record of 16-38. The four league wins they have this year have a combined record of 7-19. Only one of those ten wins (Texas Tech last year) came against a team with a winning record in Big 12 play. Teams with a pulse, they can't beat. That's a problem.

I'm not here to put Neal Brown on blast, although it may seem that way. All I'm saying is something has got to change. This program, this state, deserves better. If it's continuing on with Neal Brown, then there needs to be new faces that populate the coaching staff, better decisions made in the transfer portal, and better scouting of high school prospects. NIL is a big piece of this, too, and they must find a way to be more competitive in that space.

I'm aware that after each of the Mountaineers' last three or four losses, my Sunday morning columns have talked about the job security of the head ball coach to a certain degree. I don't believe in pressuring someone to make a change after every single loss; I really don't. The only reason it has been a main point of these weekly stories is because of the nature of each loss and how this team continues to fall short of expectations.

Why is it that players can't take the next step and bring some star power to this team? Aside from Zach Frazier and Wyatt Milum, WVU hasn't had pro-level talent that they recruited out of high school and developed. There used to be four or five of those guys every year in previous regimes.

Why is it that Garrett Greene hasn't turned into one of the top quarterbacks in the Big 12? Why has CJ Donaldson not evolved into one of the top backs in the league? Why is someone like Justin Robinson not putting up big numbers? Could you imagine what type of numbers he would have put up in a Dana Holgorsen offense? They say his biggest issue is playing away from the ball. Okay? Then throw it to him. That's his number one job anyway, isn't it?

Development has been a big problem with this staff at the skill spots on offense and everywhere on defense. And when you're a program that is lined with big pockets to use in the transfer portal or high-end recruits, development is the one thing you have to ace.

Will Wren Baker make a change? I don't know. But the longer this goes, the more stale the product becomes to the fanbase and, eventually, to the players being recruited to West Virginia. I'm not sitting in Baker's chair, but once again, all I know is the people of West Virginia deserve better. What that looks like and who returns the program to relevance is for Baker to figure out.

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