Morgantown, West Virginia – Despite Neal Brown’s absolute failure during his almost three seasons as the head coach of the West Virginia Mountaineers, many West Virginians still trusted the climb because, somehow, they believed that the program is headed in the right direction.
That may not be the case today now that two of West Virginia’s top recruits in the formerly-outstanding 2022 class have de-committed from the program.
Last night, ultra-talented running back, Justin Williams, declared on his social media accounts that his recruitment is now 100% open and that he was no longer committed to the Mountaineers. Moments later, Kevin Thomas, a three star wide receiver out of Philadelphia, PA, also announced that he will not be attending West Virginia University.
Now that Brown’s amazing recruiting class is falling apart, what does he have to fall back on? The future of the West Virginia football program looks bleak at best.
This issue is that players like Williams and Thomas will be courted by some of the top programs in the country and those programs and coaches will certainly point out the flaws and weaknesses of the Mountaineers’ program, and they will have a lot of material to work with.
A coach could make a very reasonable argument about Brown not trusting young players, about the team’s lack of excitement on offense, the team’s poor record and could highlight the numerous former players who have transferred. Remember, West Virginia leads the Big 12 Conference in transfers this year by a large margin.
Let’s hope Brown can somehow manage to keep the rest of this recruiting class together. Brown’s supporters frequently bring up his ability to recruit, but it now appears that the class could implode entirely.
There’s nothing exciting about West Virginia’s football program right now.
Brown’s ability to sell his program to high level recruits is fascinating and impressive. Unfortunately, the product he is selling can’t match the product on the field. West Virginia’s brand of football is neither exciting nor fun.
There are infinite options for student athletes to choose from and it’s difficult to see why a top prospect would choose West Virginia University right now. Brown must find a way to make West Virginia football not only a winner, he has to make it fun and exciting again.
