MORGANTOWN — Up and down. Rough and smooth. Bad and good.
Six and six.
Viewed in its totality, the West Virginia University football season has been perfectly pedestrian. As much yin as there has been yang. A straight .500. Not a flaming catastrophe. Not a rousing success. Just … there.
Now, that regular season finale against Texas Tech? That couldn’t even be called pedestrian. WVU fell behind by a staggering 39 points by the end of the first drive of the second half. Nothing that happened after that mattered.
The Mountaineers looked like a team nowhere near prepared for what it faced Saturday. They got punched in the face early and couldn’t even throw a couple of wild haymakers to stay in the fight. In the days leading up to this game, coach Neal Brown mentioned there were some milestones WVU could reach with a victory. It would have given the Mountaineers a 6-3 Big 12 record for the second straight season, the first time that had happened since WVU joined the conference.
That dream died at Texas Tech’s first touchdown in the second quarter.
Now WVU ends the regular season with six or fewer wins for the fifth time in Brown’s six seasons at the helm. There will be a fourth bowl game in five seasons, but it will be some lower-tier game created for the sports networks to have some inexpensive content over the holiday season.
So there is one question every member of the WVU athletic brass must ask themselves right now.
Is any of that good enough?
Here’s the reality: WVU has a six-year sample size of Neal Brown’s coaching. He’s 37-35 overall. He’s 25-28 in the Big 12. WVU has finished at least two games over .500 a grand total of twice since he became coach – the COVID-shortened 6-4 2020 campaign, and last season’s 9-4 finish that gave everyone hope for the future.
That hope had dwindled by the middle of this season, as the Mountaineer fell to Iowa State and Kansas State in back-to-back, nationally televised night home games. WVU slid back into the same so-so state in which it has resided for the majority of Brown’s time in Morgantown.
And it showed in the Milan Puskar Stadium stands. I’ll tell you a story. My best friend found tickets for the UCF game online for $8 each. First, let me reiterate: he found tickets to WVU’s home finale against a beatable opponent for $8 each.
He wanted to go to the game. He asked his wife and kids to join him. They weren’t interested. He asked friends. They weren’t interested. He ended up staying home.
Plenty of others joined him in staying home for that UCF game. The lack of interest toward WVU’s football program has become evident. And remember, the opposite of love is not hate; it’s apathy. Would sticking with the same formula do anything to recharge the fanbase?
I can pose all the questions I want here, but they’re just words. The decision on WVU football’s future will be athletic director Wren Baker’s to make. But here’s another factor to consider. WVU will welcome a new president in the new school year, a president who has no requirement of loyalty to the football coach or the AD. Would that new president tolerate another season like most of WVU’s under Brown? And if that person doesn’t, how many pink slips would get passed out if Brown comes back for 2025?
Sure, there are reasons WVU could balk at making a change. Brown might still have some capital saved up from last season’s nine wins. His buyout isn’t cheap, either, a high-seven-figure total. And if West Virginia moves on, what does the potential hiring pool look like?
Those factors could lead WVU to maintain the status quo. There are plenty of others that could spur it to try something else.
Chances are, if there is a decision made, there won’t be long to wait.
— Story by Derek Redd
