Paul Finebaum weighs in on Neal Brown, hot seat situation at West Virginia
West Virginia football isn’t off to the start they hoped. The Mountaineers dropped their first two games to Pittsburgh and Kansas, then rallied to win two in a row before falling this past weekend to Texas by 18. Simply put: a disappointing five games to start the season. With the only wins coming against Towson and ACC bottom-feeder Virginia Tech, who lost to Old Dominion earlier this year.
With the rough start this fall, head coach Neal Brown sits at just 19-21 overall at the helm in Morgantown. He’s staring at a third losing season out of four if the Mountaineers continue on their current trajectory. Whatever the standard is at WVU, Brown is most certainly missing it. So after four years of treading water near the .500 mark, is Brown’s time just about up?
SEC Network analyst Paul Finebaum believes it may be. On the ESPN YouTube channel, Finebaum sat down with Matt Berrie to recap all things college football following a packed weekend of games. As part of their discussion, Berrie asked whether Neal Brown was on the hot seat. Finebaum answered that he likes and respects Brown, but can’t deny that the results thus far have not been satisfactory.
“Yeah I’ve always liked him. I know a lot of people that are very high on him, but when your trajectory is bad, you end up getting fired,” Finebaum stated bluntly. “That’s just the nature of the game. And he’s not gonna — he’s probably not going to be the exception to that. And, you know, yesterday was really bad for him. So yeah, the the hot seat conversation starts to really percolate, Matt. And by the way, I’m not I’m not starting it for Brent Venables, he’s in good shape, right. At least for a year or two.”
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Geez, seats get hot quick in the Big 12. At schools like Oklahoma and West Virginia, you gotta produce and produce quickly once taking the job. However, even if the Mountaineers move on from Brown, Paul Finebaum really doesn’t see a lot of dazzling coaching options in the college football landscape.
“I would agree with you on Neal Brown. And I think, you know, I don’t know where these schools are going to find top-flight coaches right now. Because there just simply aren’t that many out there. And the one that I’ll say that I’m surprised by — and I think it’s gonna be a conversation just because of what’s happening elsewhere,” Finebaum finished with, noting the recent job openings at Wisconsin, Nebraska, Georgia Tech and Arizona State. Four power five jobs that have already come open just since the beginning of the season.
If West Virginia pulls the trigger on Brown and joins that group too — well, there’s going to be quite the arms race for power five programs this offseason to hire new coaches.