Morgantown, West Virginia – Bob Huggins enters his 14th season as the Head Coach of the West Virginia Mountaineers basketball program with perhaps his best team ever in Morgantown and Football Head Coach Neal Brown is in the middle of his 2nd season leading the Mountaineers.
Huggins and Brown are in very different places in their careers – Huggins at the end of a long and illustrious career, and Brown at the very infancy of his time with West Virginia – and both coaches are very popular, respected figures in the state of West Virginia.
Bob Huggins is a legend, a real West Virginian that could have coached anywhere in the world but chose his home in Morgantown. Neal Brown is an up-and-comer, a rising star, a coach who says and does all of the right things and has Appalachian roots that ties him to the area.
Bob Huggins’ popularity is at an all-time high. With his most talented team ever and huge expectations for this season, combined with his outstanding history of winning and love of the state, Huggins could run for Governor of West Virginia and win big.
Not many public people enjoy a 100% approval rating in their occupation, but Bob Huggins is universally loved and likely very close to having a perfect approval rating from West Virginians. To test this theory, The Voice of Motown did an informal Approval Poll on our Twitter account and the results were astounding. Like we thought, Bob Huggins’ numbers were incredible.
In a small sampling of West Virginia fans (217 votes), Huggins received 95.4% “Yes” votes and 4.6% “No” votes for the question “Do you approve of the job that Bob Huggins is doing as the head coach of the West Virginia Mountaineers?”
Although it’s impossible to determine who or why a few people chose “No”, it’s likely that they were wise-asses or attempting to do something that would cause a stir among West Virginia fans. Still, 95% approval rating is incredible and virtually unprecedented.
Do you approve of the job Bob Huggins is doing as Head Coach at #WVU?
– Poll for upcoming article “The King Of Morgantown.” Does he have a 100% approval rating?
— The Voice of Motown (@voicemorgantown) November 9, 2020
In comparison, Neal Brown also received high marks, albeit not as high as Huggins. When asked the question “Do you approve of the job Neal Brown is doing as the head coach of WVU in Year 2?”, 80.9% chose “Yes, I Trust the Climb” and 19.1% chose “No, not enough progress.”
Remember, however, that West Virginia is coming off a devastating loss to the Texas Longhorns and this certainly could have impacted the decision of several fans.
APPROVAL POLL: Do you approve of the job @NealBrown_WVU is doing as Head Coach of #WVU in Year 2?
— The Voice of Motown (@voicemorgantown) November 9, 2020
Regardless, both West Virginia coaches are respected and admired by the people of the state of West Virginia. In a time where criticism is constant and coaches are particularly in the eye of scrutiny, Bob Huggins and Neal Brown have the overwhelming support of Mountaineer fans.
