The One Thing Neal Brown Must Prove in 2024

The WVU head coach saved his job a year ago. Now, can he take the next step?

Candice Ward-USA TODAY Sports

Every college football analyst and fan in the country believed West Virginia head coach Neal Brown was a dead man walking heading into the 2023 season. He had just wrapped up his third losing season in four years and with a new athletic director in place, it felt somewhat inevitable that 2023 would be Brown's last as the Mountaineer head coach.

But he and his staff did what no one thought they could do and that's win nine games and finish inside the top five of the Big 12 Conference standings. He went from having arguably the hottest seat in the country to being praised for what might have been the best coaching job in all of college football.

This fall, Brown has to prove that last year wasn't an anomaly or the result of a relatively light Big 12 schedule. WVU played all four of the league's newcomers, each of whom made the jump up from the Group of Five/Independence. They went 3-1 in those games and were an incomplete Hail Mary away from being 4-0.

This year's slate is incredibly more difficult with a brutal stretch of games to open conference play - vs. Kansas, at Oklahoma State, vs. Iowa State, vs. Kansas State, and at Arizona. Let me repeat that again...a BRUTAL stretch of games. And that doesn't even include Penn State to begin the year or the Backyard Brawl in Pittsburgh in Week 3.

Even with a more challenging schedule, expectations for this year's team are high and not just from the outside (the fans). Those in the building, Brown included, believe this is a group that can compete for a spot in Dallas for the Big 12 championship game. Not reaching that game doesn't mean the season is a complete failure, though. But the one thing the Mountaineers can't do is take a clear step back to say, five or six wins. Doing so re-plants a seed of doubt in the minds of WVU fans that Brown may not be able to get WVU to the mountain top.

Why?

Well, this is the deepest roster that West Virginia has had when you put all three sides of the ball together. It's also the first time he's had a high-level producing dual-threat quarterback returning. That alone, raises the bar on expectations, Duplicating the 2023 season with an eight-win regular season would in my mind be a step forward. Sure, it may not look like it but winning eight with this schedule is about the equivalent to winning ten with last year's.

Again, it's not championship or bust. That's a bit unfair. But barely getting bowl eligible will have folks rethinking their trust in the climb. Neal Brown proved everyone wrong a year ago, now can he prove he has this program trending toward contention?

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