West Virginia’s Neal Brown No Longer Most Likely Coach to be Fired First

The job security of Neal Brown at WVU is going to be a topic of conversation all season, but at least for the moment, he’s not sitting at the top of the list of coaches most likely to be fired.

There are actually four coaches who are believed to be even closer to the end of their tenures. Odds currently favor West Virginia native Jimbo Fisher (Texas A&M) as being the first coach to go. Followed by Fisher is Butch Jones (Arkansas State), Danny Gonzales (New Mexico) and Tony Elliott (Virginia). Fisher is at 4/1 while Jones, Gonzales and Elliott all have 5/1 odds, courtesy of BetOnline.

Even though Brown is only fifth right now, the most important part of WVU’s schedule is coming up. Another loss to Pitt and failure to win critical conference games in the Big 12 could easily trigger Brown jumping back up the list.

Brown is no stranger to being high up on oddsmakers’ lists of coaches on the hot seat and was considered the most likely coach to be removed early in the season just a month ago before the games kicked off. At that time, Brown was at +250 last month.

Odds Suggest West Virginia’s Neal Brown to be First Coach Fired

In the midst of his fifth season as West Virginia’s head coach, the amount of people still trusting Brown’s climb has drastically decreased. Brown has a losing record, only two bowl appearances and only one bowl victory to his credit at West Virginia. He was also ranked as the worst coach in the Big 12 by Athlon Sports this off-season.

Brown’s tenure has been among the worst periods for the Mountaineers since the 1970’s. None of that is opinion or piling on, it’s just the fact of the situation right now. The schedule has been more difficult than some of his peers at similar programs, but no excuse will matter without collecting some wins.

In a related story, there’s also an opinion that Brown will last the season no matter what.

National Writer Feels Neal Brown Might Finish Season at WVU No Matter What