Pat McAfee is arguably the most well-known person related to West Virginia University and the West Virginia football program.
It is also no secret that McAfee has not been the biggest fan of current head coach Neal Brown due to his lack of success in his four years at WVU.
On his daily show, ‘The Pat McAfee Show’ on Thursday, McAfee talked about the decision to keep Brown for the 2023 season as well as the new hire of Director of Athletics Wren Baker.
“I think Neal (Brown), probably a great guy,” McAfee said. “He’s 22-25 in four years with the WVU Mountaineers. His statement was ‘trust the climb’ back in the day and I think we all did. We’re like, ‘alright we like this guy, we trust the climb.’ And then there was a plateau for a while.”
McAfee said he recognizes Brown has a losing record, but also sees the young talent currently at West Virginia and expected to enroll in upcoming recruiting classes.
“[Brown] has a losing record after his recruits have gone through an entire cycle now. He’s got a lot of good, young dogs right now, but what says that’s going to ever have success in the Big 12 which is a big conference which is adding schools and losing schools at the same time,” McAfee said.
McAfee said he hopes Brown can turn things around or he believes, like many, that Brown will be out of a job come this time next year.
“[Brown’s] got a young batch at West Virginia that might get really good next year, honestly,” McAfee said. “Neal Brown’s going to be climbing again and if not, he’s going to be gone and then we’ve got a full coaching search with a new [athletic director].”
That new Athletic Director is Wren Baker from University of North Texas, who was hired Wednesday and who then made the decision to keep Brown around for the 2023 season.
McAfee said Baker reached out to him via Twitter, sending him a direct message, but admitted he has yet to open the message.
“Brand new AD (Baker) sent me a [direct message] on Twitter,” McAfee said. “I didn’t open it yet, I don’t want to leave him on read.”
