Heading Into Year Five As WVU Head Coach, Brown Showing He Just Gets It
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MORGANTOWN -- Neal Brown gets it.
That's why he's grown on us. That 9-4 season a year ago helped because, when you are a football coach, it is your win-loss record that goes into the history books. That matters to West Virginians, who are always fighting for respect in athletics, especially football.
But it isn't what, over five years, won me over and, I suspect, it isn't what won you over as West Virginians or WVU fans.
It's that he's accepted West Virginians for what they are, which friendly, hard-working, determine people with blue collars darkened with coal dust; who take in pride in the fight they fight endlessly for respect and who like the feel of green grass under their feet, who take pictures of deer visiting their backyards, who would rather tuck a napkin into their shirt while they have a pepperoni roll than have someone tie a lobster bib around their neck in some fancy-schmancy restaurant.
They love small-town life as compared to big city traffic and they worship at the altar of their state university rather than waving Terrible Towels, doing the Tomahawk Chop or being so pretentious that they would dare insert the word "The" before West Virginia University.
He's proud to be West Virginia's football coach and doesn't see it as a stepping stone to a bigger job, as a couple of his predecessors did.
It's funny, really, how it all fell so neatly into place during a weekend appearance on ESPN's Marty and McGee Show, a show with an SEC affiliation, with hosts who somehow pushed the magic button with an early question that hit right into how Neal Brown and WVU football go together.
"I love that college football gives all these little towns all around the land that are represented by the college football programs that are within the communities in those regions. There is none that is more applicable than West Virginia University football," Marty Smith said.
"I love your state. I didn't always. I grew up 12 miles from the state line in (Peansburg) Virginia. But I love your state now and their convictions. How do you describe what West Virginia football means to the folks in that state?"
That's a door that Neal Brown always will walk through, to talk about small-town America, college football, WVU and West Virginia.
"We know you grew up a Hokie, man, but we won't hold that against you," Brown began, evoking a laugh. "We have some boosters in town for an event and I was just talking to them about how special college football is. I used as an example that a couple of years ago we played in Lane Stadium (in Blacksburg, Va.).
"It was a Thursday night and one of the examples I used was how many West Virginia fans were in Lane Stadium that night and they stayed to the end and sang "Country Roads," which was special."
Indeed, the WVU-Virginia Tech rivalry has been special, not necessarily because of the football, although that has had many great moments provided on each side, but because of the depth of involvement from the fans on both sides.
But in Virginia, there are big cities. There is another other Power 4 university.
West Virginia is almost unique and Brown never hesitates to brag on how they have handled that situation.
"I think there are two other programs that are similar in the country … Arkansas and Nebraska. Those are the only other two programs that really represent an entire state," he said. "In West Virginia, there's no other Power 5 schools. There's not any professional organizations at the highest level. We're 1.8 million strong and we're all Mountaineers. I don't think there's any other university that is more closely linked to the state than West Virginia."
This relationship is inborn with West Virginians, but it is something that can be incorporated into the culture of anyone who will accept it and Brown, certainly, has bought in completely and that has created the bond that is growing each year.
"It probably took me a little bit of time for me to understand it -- and I'm from central Kentucky. I grew up with similar people. It probably took a couple of years to understand the makeup of our team and how we played and the culture and identity of who we are really needed to match the people of the state," he said.
"We have to be a mentally tough and physically tough team because that's who our people are."
Don Nehlen before him learned it and rode it to the College Football Hall of Fame. His teams were just that, mentally and physically tough.
WVU football is Sam Huff and Owen Schmitt, Karl Joseph and Jahmile Addae, Wes Ours and Zach Frazier.
More than anything else, college football captures the West Virginia imagination and Brown has come to understand that.
"College football is special. High school football is special. I'm from Danville, Ky., went to Boyle County High School and, you talk about raising a community, man, high school football has raised that community like no other."
It's done just that in Morgantown and Fairmont, in Parkersburg and Martinsburg, in Princeton and Bluefield.
You look at Brown's teams and each year, it seems, there are more West Virginians representing the state in key positions.
Last year WVU had a pair of senior grunts in the offensive line named Frazier and Doug Nester, an offensive lineman who strayed briefly across the state line to play at Virginia Tech but eventually found his way back home.
This year there's Wyatt Milum, Sean Martin, Preston Fox, Nick Malone, Xavier Bausley and Hudson Clement in key roles.
There are no fewer than 28 West Virginians on the 2024 WVU roster. There were 22 West Virginians on Brown's first team in 2019.
The level of excitement and anticipation for the season is reaching the point where it was back in the old Big East days as Pitt and Penn State are both on the schedule, which adds a historic touch to a team in a league moving away from past history — as if there is any other kind — to one bent on making its own history.
"It is going to be a special atmosphere two weeks from today right here. We play a 12 noon kickoff. We play Penn State and our fans are ready. If they opened up the tailgate lots right now, they'd be here. It'd be a two-week shindig getting ready for that," Brown said on the show.
"It's going to be electric. The challenge for our football team will be to be at our best because being at our best is required on Aug. 31. Penn State rolls in with all new coordinators, with a lot of talent. They are probably as talented as anyone in the country.
"It's a challenge. But it's a great opportunity for us on a national stage against a premier opponent. It's a rivalry game in one sense but it's a rivalry which hasn't gone West Virginia's way very often. This is the final game of the series and there's nobody that our fans would want to beat than Penn State.
"Then, in Week 3, we go to Pittsburgh and this is the third year in a row we play the Backyard Brawl. I know you have a lot of quality rivalries. I know you guys are closely linked to the SEC. I played there and coached there and have a lot of respect for that, but there's no other rivalry the fans take more personal than the Backyard Brawl."