OT: Neal Brown reacts to WVU being picked last in the Big 12
- Thread starter Smashcat
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He has a point is that every year it’s Texas Oklahoma and maybe a team like tcu are top then it’s Oklahoma st Baylor next snd then the rest based purely on reputation and/or recruiting class ratings
Sort of like sec preseason ratings
Sort of like sec preseason ratings
How do you lose SIX defensive starters in one off season to the portal? That has got to be a program culture issue
Neal Brown is popular among many UK fans but he is a dead man walking in Morgantown. I believe Brown is capable of being successful in the right setting. But WV has an impossible recruiting base that Brown has been unable to grow. It is not an especially robust or well funded athletics department. In hindsight, which is always 20-20, Brown made a mistake by accepting the WV job. The B12 is in trouble and WV finds itself in a tough position.
I'm a Neal brown fan, but I think he should try the ACC. I do think he is close to losing his job, but if he can hang on another yr,then Texas and Okla the top 2, fall out he could maybe move up a cpl rungs on that ladder. Hoping he pulls it off.
I don’t know if Kingsbury was lucky or good. He got fired as a college head coach, accepted an OC position at USC, then got hired a few weeks later as an NFL head coach.
NB reminds me of Kingsbury. I wish NB the best, but he needs to survive this year, then parlay into an OC at a top 10 program. (That’s not a demotion, but being smart.) I do realize it probably means a pay cut, but OC’s are now making 7 figures. He leads an offense for a few years and makes a push to make the 12 team CFP a couple years. Then, he rides that momentum to a better HC position with a better chance of winning.
He can probably do the same thing even if he gets fired at WVU. But, he’s been on thin ice for a couple years and this one doesn’t look better.
NB reminds me of Kingsbury. I wish NB the best, but he needs to survive this year, then parlay into an OC at a top 10 program. (That’s not a demotion, but being smart.) I do realize it probably means a pay cut, but OC’s are now making 7 figures. He leads an offense for a few years and makes a push to make the 12 team CFP a couple years. Then, he rides that momentum to a better HC position with a better chance of winning.
He can probably do the same thing even if he gets fired at WVU. But, he’s been on thin ice for a couple years and this one doesn’t look better.
That blew my mind. A guy gets fired from a college HC job and is an NFL head coach the next season. Just bizarre.
There is no valid comparison between Neal Brown and Cliff Kingsbury. Kingsbury is an innovator with NFL coaching experience who is coping with the rocky marketplace. Brown is an "air raid" proponent who is paying a price for coaching a horizontal offensive style in an age when Power 5 defenses have more athletic LBs and safeties than ever before. I believe Brown could probably be successful if he could hook onto a Power 5 job with a robust recruiting base, but I can't see how he gets to that point from the WV job. Brown is in a very difficult position.
Kingsbury and NB have many comparisons. Both coaches are known for the “air raid.” They may use different elements of it, but Kingsbury’s attempt to bring “Air raid to NFL” was all the talk a few years ago. Also, like Kingsbury, NB is on a slippery slope and close to getting fired from his college HC position. I won’t quibble much about their similar situations, but there are a few more obvious ones.
I agree with you that NB is in a bad situation and it will be difficult for him to land a solid P5 HC job before going somewhere first as a successful OC.
I know the competitive spirit in us makes it hard to take a lesser role. But, if obtaining a good P5 HC position is his ultimate desire, then the sooner he takes a high level OC position the sooner he will have better HC opportunities. Sark at Tx is exhibit A of what being a top coordinator at a top 5 program can do for a once fired HC.
NB is one of our’s and I wish him the best.
Neal's a good guy, but in no way would i have Coen share playcalling duties. None! Best OC in yrs, he doesn't need extra hands cooking the meal.
No way would I make anyone co- OC!!! We have two great coordinators and I wouldn’t do anything to mess up that chemistry.
Now, paying them $10k a year to work as analyst while drawing full salary from previous school is another story.
I’d like to have a former head coach helping break down film. Saban has reformed several fired coaches while using them to provide another set of eyes.
Holgerson did well at WVU, and he wasn't some world beater coach. WVU has to pull from other areas -- PA, OH, VA, east coast, etc. Not sure what his recruiting rankings were at WVU, but he def had some good players there. A good coach can succeed at WVU -- success defined by average 7 to 8-win seasons with an occasional 10 win plus season. IMO it's not an impossible situation -- WVU has decent tradition with a passionate fanbase and a lot of talent in the surrounding states -- not much different than UK. I think he had to take the job-- just needs to prove he can have a little success (like a 7-win season for starters).
IMO WVU is in an impossible to win situation. Try and recruit kids in the areas you mention....to go get on planes and play in the states of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas. The guys who go there and quickly tire of the travel and portal is totally understandable.
Constructing a good roster to Morgantown and to be willing and excited to stay and play Big 12 football doesn't look likely by Brown or their next coach. Like Nebraska, Syracuse, Virginia Tech and others, the circumstances of realignment and geographic changes have moved WVU far from what they were.
WVU Among Most Profitable Athletic Departments in 2022
Some may equate struggling on the football field to led to an athletic department struggling to make money. That is not necessarily the case, and is definitely not the case for the WVU athletic department. The West Virginia Mountaineers were in fact among the most profitable athletic departments...
wvsportsnow.com
51-38 after they joined the Big 12 under Holgo, 33-30 conference. Best finish in 7 seasons was 2016 tie for 2nd. In 7 yrs typically 4th or 5th best team out of 10, only finished ranked 2 times.
Better than Brown. Not as good as their fans want. Holgo knew the situation was so hopeless he did the unthinkable in demoting himself from a power 5 job to a then group of 5 Houston.
61-41 overall over 8 seasons, so 7-8 wins a season, two 10 win seasons, and a hell of lot more exciting than the product Brown has put out. WVU fans would take that in a heartbeat. When he left WVU, they chose not to match Houston's offer. And also prior to WVU he coached in the state of Texas and U of Houston.
Overall he did well, and the fans would be happy with these results at this point, cause Brown hasn't even had a 7 win season --- to do this poorly is on Brown, not WVU for being "impossible" to win at.
Rich Rod had them playing extremely well in the early to mid 2000-2010, so we'll that Bama tried and thought they had hired him and changed his mind and stayed only to leave for Mich. Neither has had the success they were enjoying at WVU. Now with the BIG EAST gone as someone already said it's tough trying to convince kids from that area to spend half their season in Texas. Right guy might turn the program around but no idea who that could be.
Holgerson recruited in the 30's at WVU and supplemented with transfers, grad transfers, JUCO players and the like. Brown has recruited very similar to Holgerson.
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Neal Brown appears to have put together a good 2023 recruiting class. The 18 high school players who signed National Letters of Intent with West Virginia in December bring together a group ranked nationally from No. 34 to No. 42, depending on what scouting service you read.
This is about par for the course at WVU, which has had an average ranking of 37.6 in Brown’s five years at the helm and a 37.8 ranking in Dana Holgorsen’s final five years in charge of the Mountaineers.
So with similar talent Holgorsen averaged 7 plus wins/season, Brown is averaging 5.5 wins/season. Holgorsen is a good coach, but a coach of his stature is not unattainable for WVU. Brown so far just hasn't proven he can do it at a P5 level.
No, 2011 his 1st yr they were in the Big East, finished 10-3. Deduct that to get his true results.. Doesn't compute with their present circumstances of Big 12 life.
Maybe...you don't know. They beat Clemson by 40 in their bowl game. Even subtracting that season, the point is he still averaged over 7 wins a season in the Big 12.
Not to hijack the thread, but we have a former coach/player down at Troy that I would love to have as a future coach
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