West Virginia fires Neal Brown following 6-6 season
Two Big 12 schools are now looking for new head coaches.
West Virginia announced Sunday that it had fired coach Neal Brown. The Mountaineers finished the season 6-6 following a blowout loss to Texas Tech on Saturday.
“Coach Brown is a great person and he has served as a tremendous ambassador for West Virginia University,” athletic director Wren Baker said in a statement. “He led our storied program with class and integrity and always put in the hard work necessary to allow for success. We are grateful to Neal, his wife Brooke and their children for their contributions to our university, community, and state, and we wish them the very best in their next endeavor.”
The Mountaineers took a step back in 2024 after a 9-4 campaign in 2023. Last season was the first time West Virginia had won more than six games in a season during his tenure.
Overall, West Virginia was 37-35 in Brown’s six seasons in Morgantown. Outside of 2023, the team was over .500 just once. That season came in 2020 when WVU went 6-4.
The Mountaineers went 5-4 in Big 12 play this season though they lost two of their last three games. WVU lost 49-35 to Baylor before beating UCF by 10 in the penultimate week of the season. On Saturday, Texas Tech jumped out to a huge first-half lead before ultimately winning 52-15.
Brown signed a one-year contract extension in March that pushed his contract through the 2027 season. However, the new deal included a $300,000 pay cut from what he was slated to make in 2024. The school said this spring that Brown’s pay cut was so that the salary pool would be greater for his assistant coaching staff.
West Virginia's move to change coaches comes a day after Gus Malzahn resigned at UCF. Malzahn is moving across the state to be the offensive coordinator at Florida State.
It's worth noting that former Texas A&M and Florida State head coach Jimbo Fisher is a West Virginia native and will likely be a very popular candidate among portions of the fan base. Fisher, 59, is a native of Clarksburg, and played college football at Salem University in the state before a season at Samford.
