Photo Courtesy of West Virginia Athletics
Morgantown, West Virginia – Neal Brown said it all in his most recent press conference: “Graham Harrell (West Virginia’s new offensive coordinator) is going to do a great job with our offense. I’ve been doing double-duty the last couple of years and he’s going to a lot better than I did.”
Brown finally saw what the rest of the world already knew. The West Virginia Mountaineers needed a real offensive coordinator.
For the past three seasons, The Voice of Motown has begged and pleaded for Brown to hire an experienced, proven offensive coordinator so that he could concentrate on his duties as a head coach.
Last season, the Mountaineers finished 87th in the nation in overall offense, averaging a mere 371.3 yards per game. West Virginia also only averaged 123.4 rushing yards per game, which was 103rd in the nation and dead last in the Big 12 Conference.
In the last two seasons, the Mountaineers only averaged 22.54 points per game, had only two 30+ point games and had zero 40+ point games against FBS schools.
While Head Coach Neal Brown had plenty of experience as an offensive coordinator prior to coming to Morgantown, his duties as the leader of the program are far-reaching, and he should have never had to focus his energy and time on calling offensive plays. Neal Brown’s offense at West Virginia was not only too often stagnant and predictable, it completely lacked identity.
Who were the Mountaineers on offense under Brown? Were they a run team, or a passing team, or both? How exactly would you describe West Virginia’s offense under Neal Brown?
Bland. Vanilla. Predictable. Stagnant. Unproductive.
Brown was stubborn and controlling during his first three seasons at West Virginia, and unfortunately this led to a lot of losses. The West Virginia defense has been plenty good enough to be competitive, but the offense has been terrible and hurt the team over and over and over again.
Whether Brown finally saw the light or West Virginia’s Director of Athletics Shane Lyons forced him to make the change, the obvious, necessary hiring of an offensive coordinator has finally happened.
It’s just unfortunate that it came three years late.
It’s great to hear @NealBrown_WVU finally admit that being the offensive coordinator and the head coach was too much responsibility for one person. Unfortunately that realization was 3 years late.
— The Voice of Morgantown (@voicemorgantown) March 30, 2022
