Neal Brown ponders how West Virginia can mimic TCU’s breakout season

As a conference opponent, West Virginia got a front row look at the historic turnaround TCU completed last season. Head coach Neal Brown said there is a lot his Mountaineers program can learn from how the Horned Frogs turned their program around in just one year.

“The unique thing about what TCU did — we’ve talked about it with our team — is they were a significantly better football team with not a significant different roster,” Brown said after a spring practice at the beginning of April. “If you started thinking about the guys that they added. They added the tight end from Texas who was the backup tight end in Texas. They added a corner from Louisiana-Monroe. They added a safety from Colorado, They added a linebacker from Navy and then they brought a center in from SMU. Those were kind of their waiver wire, free agency, what everyone call it. But they lost an all-conference D-lineman to Nebraska. They lost an all-conference running back to Ole Miss. They may have had some more losses.”

TCU went 5-7 during the 2021 campaign, which saw them fire long-time head coach and program legend Gary Patterson during the season. They went across the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex to SMU to hire Sonny Dykes as its new head coach.

As Brown mentioned above, the Horned Frogs did have some roster turnover but it was very minimal compared to what you might expect in the transfer portal era. The result was one of the best seasons in TCU’s storied history: a perfect 12-0 regular season — which included a 41-31 victory over West Virginia — a Fiesta Bowl victory and an appearance in the College Football Playoff National Championship.

Brown cited another Big 12 example in the Kansas State men’s basketball program as another team that executed a turnaround.

While a TCU-esque turnaround might be too much to expect — for any team — but West Virginia hopes to take some of those lessons and execute it on the field.

“I think the lesson to be learned from TCU is is how much better the guys on their current roster got between the end of fall 21 until playing in the national championship game. That’s the story,” Brown said. “But even looking at Kansas State men’s basketball. There’s carry over. The answer is yes, I’m giving you a long answer. The answer is yes. You study any of those groups that make a quick turnaround. I think Kansas State they’re fresh on my mind in men’s basketball. What a great year those guys had and they turned that roster over really quickly.”