Brown Says WVU's Top Players Will Receive Portal Interest: 'They're Going to Have Options'
There's a lot of uncertainty with the future of the West Virginia football program and because of that, there could be several players who enter their name in the NCAA transfer portal over the next handful of weeks.
Student-athletes can't enter the portal officially until the window opens to do so. That 45-day window begins the day after championship selections are made. The NCAA also implemented a dead period so that coaches can have honest conversations about their role, future playing time, etc.
WVU head coach Neal Brown does his best to block out the outside noise, but he isn't blind to the noise inside the building.
"You got to be ready," Brown said when asked about the portal. "So, what we'll do next week is - there's a lot of things that have to be decided but we'll try to get in front of it. There's the new dead period where the portal opens Thursday or Friday and there's a period there where it's dead recruiting. Coaches can't leave campus. And that dead period is in there so you can have conversations with your players. I'm quite sure that our best players are and the guy that we have to put a premium on retaining - yeah, they're going to have options. I can get up here and gripe and complain about it but that's the world we live in."
Now, does this mean that Brown knows his days are numbered at WVU and that's why he says the top players are "going to have options"? More than likely. It didn't come across as he and his staff were going to put forth maximum effort to keep those "top players". It also, however, could mean that he knows that some of them are either frustrated with their role or believe they have a better chance of winning somewhere else.
As disappointing as the Neal Brown era has been, it's not 100% his fault. When players are leaving the program left and right to chase money, you have to realize that as a university and find ways to keep those players rather than letting them walk.
Christopher Hall did a really good job of breaking down WVU's issues with NIL back in the spring. Click here to check it out.
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