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Sunday Morning Thoughts: Neal Brown Wanted to Climb, Instead He Took WVU to Rock Bottom

Final thoughts on West Virginia's loss to Kansas State.

When the hire became official four years ago, I didn't know what to think. I felt like WVU looked at the available candidates, realized there wasn't much out there that they could afford on short notice, and went to the guy with the best resume. 

Hiring a guy that won 10 games in three consecutive seasons at Troy, a school that typically doesn't win like that, makes sense. He took his small program in to Baton Rouge and Lincoln, defeating both LSU and Nebraska and nearly pulled off a massive upset at Clemson. 

Neal Brown began to appear on the radar of several Power Five schools, but for whatever reason, no one hired him. Maybe it was because there were more qualified coaches out there, guys that were considered "up and coming stars", or they just simply didn't believe that Brown could get the job done at this level. 

West Virginia, unfortunately, is finding out the hard way. Hiring Brown wasn't the problem. It was giving him a two-year extension when, to that point, he had accomplished nothing. Is WVU really to the point of handing out extensions for six-win seasons in which you barely defeat Army in a bowl game? Come on. 

This is exactly why Shane Lyons is no longer sitting in the seat as Athletic Director.

Now the question is, will Neal Brown be out of a job as well?

Assuming the new AD does what most new AD's do, that answer is yes. When he/she arrives and accesses the situation, what would lead them to believe that the program is in good hands? Saturday's loss to Kansas State clinched a losing season, marking the third time in four years under Brown. Prior to Brown's arrival, West Virginia only had two seasons this century in which they finished with a losing record (2001, 2013).

To further prove how bad the development of players has been during Brown's tenure, there have only been three Mountaineers that have been drafted on his watch. Two of which (Kenny Robinson, Colton McKivitz) were Dana Holgorsen recruits. Robinson never played a game for Brown at WVU and McKivitz only played one season. Tony Fields was the only player drafted that he recruited to WVU and he was a grad transfer. He was already developed at Arizona. So technically, Brown's staff has yet to develop and put a guy into the NFL. That's a red flag, considering Dana Holgorsen averaged 3.1 players drafted per year.

You want to really know how WVU has hit rock bottom? Take a look at this picture my co-publisher of Mountaineers Now, Christopher Hall, took during the fourth quarter of Saturday's loss to Kansas State.

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This is on Senior Day, against a top 15 team in the country. 

Neal Brown wanted the fan base to Trust the Climb. At first, it was a cool little slogan that tied in with rebuild and and the team's name. The problem is, it was never more than that. The slogan became a punchline for jokes within the fanbase i.e. Trust the Fall, Trust the Demise, Trust the Descent, etc.

As my co-host of The Walk Thru GameDay Show, Eugene Napoleon, stated a few weeks back, "If you want people to Trust the Climb, you have to give them something to trust."

When I've talked with fans on social media or through text, the one thing that everyone seems to share is that the losses don't hurt as much as they used to. When I asked one fan, who chose to remain anonymous, to explain that feeling he said, "Well s***, when you lose all of the time it becomes numb to you. When is the last time we played a meaningful game? Losses don't hurt as much when your season is over by the end of September or first weekend of October. There used to be a feeling of excitement throughout the week and when the game was over, the result made or broke your week. You don't have that anymore. Now, it's damn, I just hope we don't get embarrassed today."

That was an eye-opener for me. I didn't really think of it that way. When you're in my position or Chris Hall or Julia Mellett's position as a writer, you just kind of go with the flow. You write about the shortcomings, why things are so bad, what needs to change, and so on. We're so busy working that at times, you kind of forget what the actual feeling is amongst the fan base. That quote tells it all. 

It sucks to see the fans feel that way and it sucks that the results have already cost someone (Shane Lyons) their job. Neal Brown, as I've stated numerous times before, is a genuinely good dude. And that's why it's so hard for some within the administration to have the willingness to move on, although they know that's probably what's best for the program moving forward. 

I have no doubt that Brown, if fired, will land on his feet and return to his winning ways at a smaller school. It might be hard to believe, but Brown has the potential to be a solid Power Five coach. It's very possible that he made the jump from G5 to P5 too soon. Only four years of head coaching experience isn't all that much before landing your first big-time job. Returning to the Group of Five could be very beneficial to him and if he has success, he may become a more attractive candidate given that he has Power Five experience, although his stint at WVU didn't go as planned.

As for West Virginia, they've got to hit on this next hire. The program is too valuable to the university, the state, and its people to become a bottom-dweller of the Big 12 on a regular basis. 

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