The 2022 West Virginia football season was one filled with some good wins, but also some rather disappointing losses for Neal Brown.
The Mountaineers lost some close ones, including to rival Pitt and Kansas to open the season 0-2, and also lost handily to Texas Tech, Iowa and Kansas State as the year went on.
Without an athletic director, as the school parted ways with Shane Lyons a few weeks ago, questions about the job security of Neal Brown have been getting louder and louder for a while now.
With new athletic director Wren Baker coming to Morgantown from North Texas, there is reportedly some clarity on Brown's job status atop the program.
Ross Dellenger tweets that, while many may have expected a head coaching following a disappointing 5-7 fourth season for Brown, his job is believed to be safe and he will remain the leader of the program for 2023, "barring an unforeseen snag."
Neal Brown signed a six-year deal upon his arrival in Morgantown, and after going 11-11 in his first two seasons, former AD Shane Lyons signed him to a two-year extension taking him through 2026.
Under that new extension if Brown were to be fired before December 31, 2024, he would be due a buyout equal to 100% of his remaining contract. Meaning, if the school would have parted ways with him after this season, would amount to about $16 million.
Lyons, who has since landed on his feet within athletic administration at Alabama, has taken a lot of heat for the deal in the last several months, as results on-the-field are not what the Morgantown faithful had hoped for, but for now it appears that with a 22-25 record, and a 14-21 mark in Big 12 play, Brown will get the 2023 under a new AD to further prove the trajectory of Mountaineer football is heading in the right direction.
Stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.
Update>> The school has released a statement from interim AD Rob Alsop that reads:
“Over the past several weeks, President Gee and I have discussed the future of WVU Athletics and our football program with a number of individuals and talented athletic administrators from across the country. We were also impressed with the effort of our team the last few weeks. Additionally, we have also had discussions with Coach Brown and our new Director of Athletics, Wren Baker, about our next steps as a department. In fact, Wren and Coach Brown have already connected relating to the future of the program. As a result of all of these efforts and discussions, it is clear that Coach Brown should continue to lead our football program.
With new energy that comes with new leadership, it is time to rally around Wren’s leadership as we move forward quickly to recruit more top student-athletes to our program and continue to develop the incredibly talented group of returning players who are an integral part of our Mountaineer family. I know that Wren will be focusing a lot his time and attention on how we improve our results on the football field and across a number of our programs."