MORGANTOWN – Over the past week we surveyed West Virginia and the Mountaineers’ place in the changing world of college football, but now we complete our look at “The Summer of Change” by looking at how coach Neal Brown has changed personally and as a football player. coach in the previous five challenging years.
If you remember back on January 5, 2019, Neal Brown was named to replace Dana Holgorsen as head coach.
There was some skepticism surrounding the choice made by then-athletic director Shane Lyons, as he was a step up from mid-major Troy at Alabama, where he had enjoyed great success for three years.
Many fans, however, were pushing for a coach with a track record of success at the Power 5 level but overall he seemed like a logical choice with a strong financial fit.
No one could have foreseen the landmines that awaited him when he asked fans to “trust the climb,” a climb that was much steeper than he had imagined. It turned out that Holgorsen had left the squad weakened, especially on the offensive end.
Then there was COVID along with the forced divorce between Brown and his longtime defensive coordinator, both of which created invisible obstacles that slowed the rise.
It wasn’t until last season, when WVU won 9 games, that Brown’s football culture and system seemed to fit his job at stake, providing him with a contract extension through 2026.
With that in mind, we asked him the question of how he had changed, not in his football approach, but in his human approach, about how all of that had changed him as a person. He spoke openly about where he had been, where he is and where he is going.
“When I first got here, we were coming off success in Troy. That was a place I was coming back to when I got there.” he said.
He was referring to having been an assistant there before leaving for five years as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Kentucky and Texas Tech.
That led to a four-year head coaching career at Troy, where he followed a 4-8 debut season as head coach with years of 10-3, 11-2 and 10-3 that included a surprising upset against No. 25 LSU. in Baton Rouge, snapping the Tigers’ 46-game non-conference home winning streak.
He propelled Troy into the Top 25 and onto the radar of top universities across the United States.
But winning football at Troy and winning football at WVU were different animals.
“We got here and it was different. There were a lot of changes. We had COVID. There were a lot of different things going on,” he said.
NIL came in, the transfer portal came in, the Big 12 was changing. The patience of WVU football fans was being tested.
But what was changing was more than football.
“For me, what I probably underestimated the most was the life change,” he said. “I was sitting there in Troy and my kids weren’t very old, they didn’t have a lot of activities.
“Now, I’m going into year 6 and I have a 16-year-old girl (Adalyn) who is going to be a junior (in high school) and has played softball all over the country. I have a 13-year-old girl. My son 9 year old (Dax) is getting into a lot of things.
“You’re in a different stage of life and you have to keep your priorities where they belong. You have to change some things, right?”
Not winning complicated everything.
“I think anytime you don’t have the success that you want or think you should have, then you have to look inward and say we have to restart this,” he said.
And that’s what he did last offseason.
“I realized the best thing for me and the program was to focus on what I’m good at,” he said.
That led him to self-analysis and led him to this.
“My strengths are on the offensive side… from game planning, teaching and things associated with the offense,” he said.
He then noted that his second best trait is relationship building. He is a sociable person.
With this in mind, he put together a plan with “a 30,000-foot view of the overall situation of the football program.”
“By this I mean how we are going to attack the calendar year, what our board structure is going to be, see what our strengths are and then, if it is not a strength, make sure that we have experts in those areas and give them creativity to be great in their areas,” he said.
Part of that could be seen in the fact that while negotiating his contract extension, the key financial demands were for more money for his staff to ensure he did not disrupt what was now a work in progress.
WVU had made that mistake once before, Rich Rodriguez maintained during an appearance on the Pat McAfee Show that he left for Michigan not because of the Pitt loss, but because the school refused to add $50,000 for his assistants to share.
“Sometimes you just take a step back,” Brown said. “That’s pretty much what we’ve done, then sometimes you have to focus on what you have to focus on. Right now that’s NONE.”
Recruiting and funding player names, images and likenesses takes up a lot more time than I would have imagined a while ago.
“That’s finances coming in and finances going out,” Brown said. “You have to be able to raise money and have a plan on how to structure player pay.”
As for recruiting, Brown has emphasized recruiting not only quality players but quality people as well, hoping to limit distractions from behavioral issues or academic issues.
“You have to invest time in hiring because it’s more about hiring the right type of people,” he said. “So there’s something I knew when I arrived, but that I feel much better about after living here: the public relations aspect of this job. It’s essential.
“People talk about not having professional sports teams, but in many ways it’s similar to being a political figure. You have to make sure you’re around and spending time with constituents,” Brown said. “Managing your calendar is important. I say not much more than before. I think you have to do it.”
Saying no sometimes leaves time for the important things.
Summing it all up, Brown put it this way.
“How have I changed? Well, I focus on what my strengths are and what’s necessary. If it’s not one of those two things, then we make sure we have the right people to lead in those areas.”
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