Neal Brown is entering his fifth year as head football coach at West Virginia and the pressure is on to win now or he could be at high risk to lose his job.
“We’re in a year where we need to have success,” Brown said at Big 12 Media Days in July.
West Virginia University Director of Athletics Wren Baker was brought in last December, and said he is going to take an evaluation period for Brown and the rest of the football program.
“I look forward to getting in and really working Coach Brown and learning everything I can about the football program and I’m confident we can together we can figure out where we need to go,” Baker said about Brown upon his arrival last year.
Now, Brown and company is just 10 days away from the start of the 2023 season and he faces one of the hardest conference schedules in the country this year.
“I’ve been really impressed not just with Coach Brown, but all of our coaches here. I’ve spent 1-on-1 time with all of them,” Baker said of the coaching staff.
Baker said he feels the program is in a good spot and thinks them getting picked to finish last in the Big 12 Preseason Poll is a good thing for the unification of the team.
“I’m excited. I feel good about where we’re at. Feel good about the team, their resolve. I think the prognosticators not having very high expectations has helped motivate them, I think it’s helped motivate all of us really,” Baker said. “We want to go out and prove people wrong, but there are a lot of things that are done right inside this program.”
“My core belief is you have to value the person over the player. And if you value the person first and foremost, then eventually you’ll get the full abilities out of the player. This staff does a great job of really pouring into developing people. Helping them grow their character, helping them have success academically, helping them really plan for the reset of their life. There is a lot of positive things going on with this program.”
Despite the success Brown and his staff are having with developing kids off the field, Baker says he still knows the on-field results have to be there.
“We know that we have to win games. Coach Brown has said that,” Baker said. “I read his commentary all the time. He knows where we’re at, everybody knows that’s an expectation. I’m really proud of the way this team has kind of come together and there is a great camaraderie between that group right now.”
