Sunday Morning Thoughts: There's Nothing to Trust
Neal Brown described this season as a "rollercoaster" in his postgame press conference Saturday night following the 48-10 loss to Texas Tech.
I can't speak for anyone else, but to me, a rollercoaster season has ups and downs to it. The ups, in my opinion, have been non-existent. Beating Virginia Tech and Towson have no merit. The win over Baylor? Okay, I'll give you that. But for the most part, this has been exactly what former West Virginia punter/kicker Pat McAfee described it as yesterday on College GameDay, "one of the most disappointing teams in the country".
As far as the bigger picture is concerned, the Mountaineers have to win three of its final five games to reach bowl eligibility. With matchups against TCU, Oklahoma State, and Kansas State still on the slate, that's not going to be an easy mark to reach. Falling short of bowl eligibility would mean that WVU will have posted three losing seasons in four years under the direction of Neal Brown. Prior to Brown's arrival in 2019, West Virginia had just two losing seasons since the turn of the century: 2001 and 2013.
In today's world of college football, turnarounds aren't some long, drawn out process like it used to be where it would take three, four, five years to build depth. With the transfer portal, programs can turn on a dime as evidenced in Kansas with the Jayhawks and at TCU under Sonny Dykes. Although K-State didn't turn it as quick as those two, they've shown progress throughout the first four years under Chris Klieman and are firmly in the mix for the Big 12 title this season.
Meanwhile, the Mountaineers currently sit ninth in the league with a 1-3 record and fans are wondering where in the heck this thing is going. I mean, losing four straight games to Texas Tech? A team that is consistently finishing near the bottom of the league? That's a big problem. To get blown out by 38 is problematic.
Of the Power Five head coaches that were hired in 2019, Brown finds himself in a dangerous spot. Only four coaches have a worse winning percentage and three of them are no longer employed as head coaches: Matt Wells (Texas Tech), Geoff Collins (Georgia Tech), and Les Miles (Kansas).
Ryan Day (37-4)
Mack Brown (27-18)
Chris Klieman (25-17)
Manny Diaz (21-15) FIRED
Scott Satterfield (22-22)
*Neal Brown (20-22)
Mike Locksley (17-20)
Matt Wells (13-17) FIRED
Geoff Collins (10-28) FIRED
Les Miles (3-18) FIRED
For Saturday's outcome to occur in the seventh game of year four should tell you all you need to know about the future of the program. The patience from the fan base has worn out and as former West Virginia running back Eugene Napoleon stated in the Mountaineers Now Postgame Show last night, if you want folks to "Trust the Climb", you have to give them something to trust.
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