MORGANTOWN, West Virginia — Neal Brown walked into Beaver Stadium last night and knew his team was going to lose. He didn’t believe in his team and it showed. There was zero fire, zero passion, zero belief that they were truly going to shock the college football world by beating the #7 team in the nation.
This is Neal Brown football. Passionless, dull, underwhelming.
Neal Brown is not ready for the bright lights and the pressure that comes with big-time college football. He’s far more concerned about “not making mistakes” and “keeping it close” than actually trying to win, and that’s been apparent since Day 1 in Morgantown. He’s a Sun Belt coach masquerading as a Big 12 head coach and there’s a very big difference between the two.
Now at 22-26 in his 5th season at West Virginia, Brown can offer little more than trivial hope and promises of getting better. But what has been clear for five seasons is that Neal Brown believes that he’s not doing anything wrong. He believes in his heart of hearts that what he did at Troy will eventually be successful at West Virginia if he just keeps doing the same thing over and over and over again.
Nothing has changed and nothing has improved in five years and nothing ever will change with Neal Brown as the head coach. His decision to retain his entire coaching staff and the unbelievable choice to take over play-calling shows that he believes that he is simply a victim of circumstance and that he is doing the right things to win big with the Mountaineers. The bottom line, however, is that his coaching staff is one of the worst in Power 5 football, he has been dreadful as a play-caller at West Virginia and there has been zero growth from the football program since he’s taken over.
Neal Brown wasn’t ready for the bright lights at Beaver Stadium last night and unfortunately never will be. Winning big games against top opponents on the road requires something Neal Brown simply doesn’t have: guts, passion and a fire to win at all costs.
