Neal Brown recalls satisfying 2023 season after being picked 14th in Big 12

If you asked somebody in the summer — Who would be the first Power Five head coach fired this season? The answer would likely have been Neal Brown. Nobody expected West Virginia to have a good season as they were projected to finish dead last in the Big 12, below the new members coming from the Group of Five.

West Virginia finished with a 9-4 record, capped off with a Duke’s Mayo Bowl victory over North Carolina. Brown admitted proving the preseason media bowl was a satisfying feeling. He understood why the Mountaineers were counted out but internally, people in Morgantown believed 2023 would be a success.

“It was really satisfying,” Brown said during Thursday’s episode of Andy Staples On3. “When I went to the Big 12 Media Days and we got picked last, understood it from a small perspective because the narrative around us was so negative. But what they didn’t see is that our culture had changed.

“Some of our struggles in ’22, some narrow losses, but some things happened that we didn’t a good enough job at athletic department wise and we’ve gotten our football program to really change.”

In Neal’s eyes, the end of the 2022 season was not too bad either. Two wins out of the last three, including the finale against Oklahoma State in Stillwater. Continuing on the three-game losing streak they were on in late October/early November would have been a disaster.

But where Neal believes West Virginia was severely underrated in the preseason was the line of scrimmage. He had faith in the WVU offensive line and defensive line and thought they would be why they could win games.

“I knew we went 5-7 (in 2023),” Brown said. “We won two out of our last three. We beat Oklahoma. We beat Oklahoma State. We weren’t that far away. And then I had a lot of trust in our offensive line and defensive line. I felt like, regardless of league you’re playing in, if you’re good up front, then you have a chance.

“That’s where I thought the media didn’t do a very good job of doing their homework. Some of that is because the media that covers the Big 12 is so Texas-centric. They don’t really know what we have… They just assume that we’re not going to be very good.”

West Virginia proved a ton of people wrong and then some. Nine wins was the most the program has had since 2016 under Dana Holgerson. Brown is now firmly off the hot seat and looking to compete in the new-look Big 12.

Even so, he feels like a win or two were left on the table. If anything, West Virginia should have been able to have double-digit wins. The feeling of a lost opportunity is what’s driving the Mountaineers heading into 2024.

“A little bit of a ‘What if?’ because we lose on the Hail Mary (to Houston) and then we’re up against Oklahoma State in the fourth quarter and we don’t finish,” Brown said. “So, two really winnable games that we didn’t finish on. There is still a real hunger in our building.”