Neal Brown Gives Brutally Honest Thoughts On His Time at West Virginia

The Neal Brown era with the West Virginia Mountaineers is now a thing of the past, as Brown is gearing up for his next chapter in Denton with North Texas. West Virginia, meanwhile, is looking to rebound after a tough first season with head coach Rich Rodriguez. While Brown is starting anew, he recently looked back on what went wrong during his tenure at West Virginia.

According to Mike Craven of TexasFootball.com,, Brown does not view his tenure at West Virginia as a failure.

“It wasn’t that we necessarily failed. We were okay. We just never got over the hump.”

It was an honest assessment from Brown that really isn’t wrong. West Virginia finished with a .500 or better record in three of Brown’s six seasons with the Mountaineers, most notably a 9-4 season that ended in a Duke’s Mayo Bowl victory in 2023.

Brown even discussed his mindset on balancing being the head football coach of a major college football program with being a father.

“At the start of my tenure, I treated the West Virginia job just like Troy. And what I mean by that is, I was really involved in everything. There are two issues with that. One, the job is bigger, so you have more responsibility. Two, my life was evolving, and my kids were getting older, and that was my first priority. And so, as a father, I couldn’t do all those things.”

It is important to note that WVU was Brown’s first opportunity to be a head coach with a Power 4 team, and just the second head coaching gig of his career. His three ten-win seasons at Troy from 2016-18 proved that Brown is a more than capable Group of 5 coach. Brown will get his chance for a fresh start with the North Texas Mean Green this coming fall after spending a year on the staff of the Texas Longhorns as an assistant to head coach Steve Sarkisian.

Brown described the past year as a time to develop a new mindset that he hopes will lead to success with the Mean Green.

“It really helped me take a breath. Now, for this job, I'm ready to go, and I have a new perspective. I'm seeing it through the players' eyes. I'm seeing it through the assistant's eyes. And maybe I didn't at the end of my tenure at West Virginia."

It sounds like Brown is ready to take a much more relaxed approach at North Texas, one that allows him to focus on his team and trust his assistant coaches. Brown has already plucked several former Mountaineers from the transfer portal to join him in Denton, including safety Jason Cross Jr. and star running back Jaheim White. It will be interesting to see what the future holds for Brown and the Mountaineers alike.