MORGANTOWN, West Virginia — Neal Brown should have been fired following the 2022 season. Virtually everyone familiar with the sitaution understood that and accepted that the university was moving on after another 5-7 record for the Mountaineers. Unfortunately, WVU shockingly gave Neal Brown another season and West Virginia shattered expectations, finishing the season 8-4. While the team didn’t beat a single team with a winning record, Brown was saved and will be back in 2024.
If West Virginia University fired Brown in 2022 as they should have, they could have easily hired a true winner and a program-changer in Curt Cignetti. Cignetti, 62, was the head coach at James Madison University, finished the season 11-1 and there are several reasons why he would have made the perfect candidate to replace Brown. Cignetti was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was a quarterback at WVU, graduated from WVU, his father was the head coach at WVU and he was a remarkable 52-9 overall and 31-3 in the Sun Belt Conference.
In addition to that, he was a former assistant coach under Nick Saban, the winningest head coach in college football history. In other words, Curt Cignetti is a winner, the type of winner that Neal Brown never will be. If West Virginia had the foresight and guts to fire Brown and hire the right guy, Cignetti would have instantly brought back the fire and passion of the Mountaineers’ fanbase, which has sufferred from major apathy over the last 5 years.
Instead, West Virginia stayed with Brown and Cignetti was hired away from James Madison by Indiana University. When Cignetti was hired by the Hoosiers, he spoke at an Indiana basketball game and said the following: “Purdue sucks…so does Michigan and Ohio State”, announcing that he has arrived in the Big Ten and he was ready to make a splash. The Indiana fans went crazy and that fanbase finally believes for the first time in decades.
Neal Brown would never. West Virginia really missed the boat on hiring Curt Cignetti. He would have been the perfect head coach to bring back the excitement and energy of the Mountaineers’ fans again.
“Purdue sucks…so does Michigan and Ohio State” …Curt Cignetti has arrived in the Big Ten pic.twitter.com/4Edzp3z5Zo
— Michael Niziolek (@michaelniziolek) December 2, 2023
