MORGANTOWN — Former West Virginia football coach Neal Brown wasn’t the program’s savior like he was expected to be.
Brown turned around Troy in two seasons. In his four years at Troy, he led the Trojans to three 10-win seasons, three bowl wins and a top 25 finish in Year 2. He was a young coach with the traits to be great.
His time in Morgantown didn’t work out. Brown had just two seasons above .500, and one of them was in 2020, where West Virginia played 10 games. He had two bowl wins, and in 2023, he finished with his best record at WVU at 9-4.
Brown had a down year in 2024, finishing 6-6. The Mountaineers won the non-important games, but Brown lost the big ones. He lost to rival Pitt and then ranked teams Penn State, Iowa State and Kansas State. He also lost a close game to Baylor and was throttled by Texas A&M. The three ranked games were at home and left a bad taste in the West Virginia fans’ mouths.
Athletic director Wren Baker decided the 6-6 season wasn’t sufficient and fired Brown before the bowl game.
Brown didn’t get the Mountaineers back to the promised land, but his record shows he isn’t a terrible coach. Brown has a 72-51 record as a head coach and a 37-35 record at West Virginia. His bowl record is 5-1 and 2-1 in Morgantown.
Rich Rodriguez took his place. Rodriguez wasn’t fired from WVU but was fired from Michigan and Arizona.
During a press conference, Rodriguez told the media to stop asking the players about previous head coaches because it wasn’t a fair question.
The media and fans might’ve thought Brown wasn’t a good coach, but Rodriguez thought differently of his predecessor.
“Neal Brown is a good football coach,” Rodriguez said. “Sometimes things didn’t come together or you get unlucky or it just didn’t click and all that. But Neal didn’t get to this level as a head coach by not being a good coach. He’s a good football coach.”
The job of a college football head coach is becoming increasingly harder. Numerous college coaches in all sports didn’t want to tackle the ever-changing world of college athletics and retired. Rodriguez said it’s hard to adjust because every month, there seems to be a new rule.
Fans and universities are becoming impatient, too. It takes time to build a program, but fans and donors are asking for a coach’s head after just two seasons now.
As a head coach, Rodriguez understands it’s hard to win at the FBS Power Four level.
“There are a lot of factors that go into being able to win,” Rodriguez said. “I’ve been fortunate to have some success. I had really good players that played really hard. I had great staff around.”
Brown’s already back coaching and didn’t take a year break like some coaches do when they are fired. He’s now the special assistant to the head coach on Steve Sarkisian’s staff at Texas. Although he’s not being paid head coach numbers, Brown is still back in the coaching ranks.
Brown will be a name to watch in the next coaching cycle after the 2025 season, despite the unsuccessful stint at WVU. Rodriguez’s praise of Brown helps his case.
“I’ve followed some really good coaches,” Rodriguez said. “Including Neal Brown.”
