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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; one was in 2020, when 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 return the Mountaineers 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…
Source link : https://www.dominionpost.com/2025/04/16/rich-rodriguez-defends-former-west-virginia-football-coach-neal-brown/
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Publish date : 2025-04-17 02:33:00
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