Hot Seat Meter: Analyzing Neal Brown's Job Security
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West Virginia got off to a blistering hot start to the season, winning four of its first five games pulling out two of those victories with backup redshirt freshman quarterback Nicco Marchiol running the show on offense.
Out of the bye week, the Mountaineers had a great opportunity to move to 5-1 facing Big 12 newcomer Houston on a Thursday night. They didn't play well at all in the second half and fell behind by two scores but managed to take the lead with twelve seconds. Then the Hail Mary happened.
The following week, they stubbed their toe in the fourth quarter as no one on the Mountaineer defense seemed all that interested in tackling Oklahoma State running back Ollie Gordon, resulting in their second straight loss.
Losing to former WVU head coach Dana Holgorsen was never going to be good for Brown, but to follow it up with another loss at home nonetheless put a lot of pressure on the UCF game. West Virginia answered the bell winning the next two games against UCF and BYU convincingly, seemingly wiping out all the noise surrounding Brown's future in Morgantown.
And then last Saturday happened.
For the first time maybe ever, WVU fans felt really good about their chances on the road at Oklahoma. The Sooners had lost two straight which knocked them out of CFP contention and the Mountaineers were coming off their most complete game against BYU. After scoring on the opening drive, it all went downhill in a hurry. There are no excuses for losing 59-20 in year five and especially not in those circumstances. A spot in the Big 12 Championship was still in play for the Mountaineers and putting that performance on display in a game of that magnitude is just not going to sit well with the West Virginia faithful.
It didn't help that the very next day, West Virginia native Jimbo Fisher was relieved of his head coaching duties at Texas A&M.
The talk all week on social media has been about Jimbo Fisher and a potential return to West Virginia to lead the Mountaineers. A significant portion of the fanbase wants it to happen and I'm not going to completely rule anything out, but Brown can slam the door shut on those types of conversations by winning these final two games against Cincinnati and Baylor, who have a combined record of 6-14. Well, it may not stop the fans from wanting it or talking about it, but one could assume the administration would then be comfortable moving forward with Brown as head coach.
As it sits, I'd say Brown's job security is a 6.5/10, ten being the safest. That's just my opinion and how I'm reading the situation.
Losing either of these games two upcoming games, I would think, puts Brown in murky waters, dropping that 6.5 significantly. You just simply can't lose to teams like this and especially not at the end of the year where you are supposed to be trending up.
Dropping both games? That's unsurvivable, in my opinion.
If they win both, I would expect Wren Baker to make a statement immediately after the Baylor game announcing they are continuing with Brown so that he and his staff can begin to work on player retention, signing day prep, and begin targeting players in the portal.
Neal Brown and the Mountaineers already overcame adversity once this season. Will they do it again?
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