By Kyle Golik
This past weekend the weather was absolutely gorgeous in Western Pennsylvania. My younger brother was getting married and I had a great drive into the mountains in Pennsylvania enjoying the fall foliage during my drive. I had some alcohol packed with me for some pre-wedding ceremony action with my brother and his groomsmen. We all stood around in our suits and tuxedos, which let me tell you my brother went the extra mile in the purple velvet suit he had that will be talked in my family for ages, kind of like lined up like King of the Hill gang going yep, this is a nice weather and we are going to have a good time.
Anyone who has been through a wedding day knows it is all about the bride so if the bride is happy and everything goes to play you had a winning day.
In many ways, West Virginia head coach Neal Brown completely misses this point as his seat in Morgantown continues to get hot, especially after West Virginia’s latest debacle, losing to Kansas State 45-18.
While his seat was going to be uncomfortable in defeat, it is what Brown said earlier last week that has the seat uncontrollably hot in Morgantown.
Mike Asti of West Virginia Sports Now asked Brown in his weekly press conference why fans should keep showing up and supporting him despite the failures in big games. After the loss to Kansas State, Brown is now 3-17 in games against ranked opponents.
Brown took a gamble, one that would backfire, in his approach to sell the experience of coming to West Virginia football games:
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“I get that they (the fans) want to win, but what I would say to the fans is, did they have a good time? Did they enjoy it? It was a pretty good atmosphere. I’m assuming they had a pretty good time tailgating, so if they’re in the deal for enjoyment then I would come back. I looked at the weather and it’s going to be nice again. It’s a night game and we need them to provide a home-field advantage.”
In my life personally, I have been in Neal Brown’s shoes numerous times, whether it was trying to get a job, maybe convincing a lady to go out with me, trying to sell things, and sometimes it worked, but most often I failed. Fortunately for Brown, he realized midstream his answer wasn’t the best one and tried to salvage it.
“I get they’re frustrated that we didn’t win. We’ve played a tough schedule. Everybody that’s beat us hasn’t lost a game yet (as of when Brown said this Penn State, Pitt, and Iowa State are all undefeated), but that’s no excuse, that’s just the truth, and the games in our league are going to come down to the fourth quarter and I don’t think this one on Saturday is going to be any different. We need them to help us, but I do get their frustration.”
It’s unacceptable for WVU to be on this list. https://t.co/Lptb04qDyK pic.twitter.com/iwzAXbecAp
— West Virginia Sports Now (@WVSportsNow) October 20, 2024
Even Brown’s three ranked wins have been far from impressive and are not recent:
- In 2021 defeated No. 15 Virginia Tech and No. 22 Iowa State at home. Virginia Tech finished 6-7 and Iowa State 7-6.
- In 2019 defeated No. 24 Kansas State, who finished 8-5 and was the last time West Virginia defeated a regular season opponent with 8 or more wins.
The lack of a signature win hasn’t given Brown any equity to build his program or even fend off the antsy critics in Morgantown. With Vanderbilt being included in this week’s AP Top 25, West Virginia is now one of three programs in the Power 4 to not have been ranked since 2018. The other schools are Texas Tech and Rutgers, and neither school has the history of West Virginia.
When you consider West Virginia is 15th all-time in wins, they have more wins as a school than Washington, Pitt, Florida, Texas A&M, Georgia Tech, Syracuse, Oregon to name a few, it is alarming to see West Virginia not achieve what so many others have over the last five seasons, all of which Neal Brown has been the head coach.
Brown says to his faithful we must “Trust The Climb,” personally Brown summited his “climb” during last season’s Duke’s Mayo Bowl. The fact he was able to win nine games with that bunch and what he got out of Garrett Greene, he deserves all the laurels for.
To me, like I have been saying since 2022, Neal Brown isn’t the right coach for West Virginia or even a Power 4 program. The answer he gave displayed that.
Right now, West Virginia fans are playing John Denver’s seminal hit and West Virginia state song “Country Roads, Take Me Home” more literally of going home instead of the tailgate at Mountaineer Field because this Neal Brown experience isn’t “fun” anymore.
