Morgantown, West Virginia – Moments ago, Wisconsin Athletics announced that Head Coach Paul Chryst has been fired. He had a 67-26 record in his 8th season with the Badgers and had a buyout of $16.4 million dollars. Sounds very familiar, doesn’t it?
Coach Neal Brown’s buyout goes down to that exact metric once the season is over, but the real question is this:
Should we keep him for that long?
Absolutely NOT. Brown has had four years to prove himself. Unlike Chryst, Brown has been averaging a 5-7 season here with the Mountaineers. Unlike Brown, Chryst had SEVERAL years of success with Wisconsin.
Wisconsin is extremely similar to West Virginia in academic success. Both teams have around the same total wins historically. (731 for Wisconsin and 765 for West Virginia respectively).
So why does Wisconsin fire their head coach with much more success, while we still keep Neal Brown who has been mediocre?
This is a GREAT question, and all I can really say is that they care more, or at least their Athletic Director has more competence than Shane Lyons. Lyons is getting paid a lot of money to make the right decision on a head coach.
Football is the future, and Lyons doesn’t seem to be getting the picture. It is absolutely unacceptable if we are going into year four, and we are still below .500. An 8-4 (6-3) season should be the BARE MINIMUM if you are in your forth year as a Head Coach at West Virginia.
Will Neal Brown be fired anytime soon?
If he loses to Baylor at home on the 13th, it is very possible. This would be the FIRST time Baylor would have beaten us at home in the history of this conference rivalry. If we can’t even be .500 going into the second half of the season, then it is time to say goodbye to Coach Neal Brown.
Can we pay for his buyout?
ABSOLUTELY. Our biggest donor is the owner of the Arizona Diamondbacks and is a West Virginia native. He has a network of over 1 billion dollars.
What about WV Governor Jim Justice?
It is honestly worth a shot. If he can waste money funding Marshall and their football program, he can certainly help fund the buyout for West Virginia’s top school!
It will take another loss to fire Neal Brown, but if Wisconsin can do it, then West Virginia certainly should be able to do the same!
