WVU Fires Coach Neal Brown After Going 37-35 In Six Seasons

West Virginia College (WVU) fired coach Neal Brown on Sunday because the Mountaineers proceed to flounder within the Massive 12, ending the season 6-6.

Athletic director Wren Baker introduced the firing in a press release, wishing Brown and his household “the easiest of their subsequent endeavor.”

Brown had an general report of 37-35 in his six seasons main the Mountaineers. His groups by no means competed for a Massive 12 championship or had been ranked within the AP High 25 ballot. They misplaced 9 consecutive occasions to ranked opponents.

Brown is because of obtain a $9.5 million buyout for the final three years of his contract.

Baker’s assertion didn’t point out who will coach the Mountaineers of their bowl recreation. West Virginia will study its bowl opponent subsequent weekend.

Brown had been preventing to maintain his job for fairly a while.

In November 2022, following back-to-back shedding seasons, Brown was retained on the identical day that Baker was employed as West Virginia’s AD. A 12 months in the past, Baker issued an identical vote of confidence as his predecessor, then gave Brown a contract extension in March following a 9-4 end.

However a return to mediocrity and mounting issues had been an excessive amount of for Brown to beat.

West Virginia’s offensive manufacturing suffered considerably regardless of returning dual-threat quarterback Garrett Greene and working backs Jahiem White and C.J. Donaldson. The protection was one of many worst nationally in passing yards allowed. West Virginia misplaced 4 occasions at residence this season and was outscored within the second half in 10 of 12 video games.

Brown had the worst six-year stretch beneath one coach at West Virginia since Gene Corum went 29-30 from 1960-65. Besides Brown’s groups confirmed flashes of brilliance one week, then stumbled the following. The Mountaineers had been particularly weak on the street, going 13-20 with 11 losses by a minimum of 17 factors. Brown additionally went 1-2 in opposition to rival Pittsburgh.

“Our report on the finish wasn’t what we’d hoped for,” Brown mentioned after a 52-15 loss at Texas Tech on Saturday. “I believed that over the course of the 12 months, there have been occasions when individuals had been counting us out and our guys bounced again and did some good issues.”

After a house loss to Iowa State, followers grew to become particularly agitated when Brown was requested to elucidate why they need to hold exhibiting as much as video games.

“I get that they wish to win, however what I’d say is, did they’ve time?” he mentioned. “You understand what I imply? Like, did they get pleasure from it? It was a fairly good environment.”

He acknowledged later that he may have answered the query higher and easily requested followers to return assist the crew.

As an alternative, billboards calling for Brown’s firing went up in Morgantown. Brown fired defensive coordinator Jordan Lesley on Oct. 29 after the protection gave up 45 factors to Kansas State and surrendered a pair of landing passes in blown protection in a 31-26 win at Arizona. In Jeff Koonz’s first recreation as interim defensive coordinator, West Virginia beat Cincinnati on the street, then misplaced two of its ultimate three video games.

West Virginia hasn’t received a league title since 2011, which was the final of its six Massive East championships over a nine-year interval earlier than shifting to the Massive 12 in 2012.

The 44-year-old Brown was in his first major-college head teaching job after main Troy to a 35-16 report over 4 seasons, together with the 2017 Solar Belt championship.

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Get alerts on the most recent AP High 25 ballot all through the season. Enroll right here. AP school soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football