Wren Baker Details When He Decided to Fire Neal Brown, Why Fans Had No Influence

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The decision to fire former WVU football coach Neal Brown was made late Saturday night after the team had returned home from a blowout loss to Texas Tech.

WVU athletic director Wren Baker spoke to members of the media on Tuesday and confirmed that the decision to fire Brown was not predetermined before Saturday’s game.

“I know there are people that say I had to know before then, but I think it’s important you keep your mind open and let every data point arrive,” Baker said Tuesday. “I’m not someone who’s built to walk into a locker room and be fake or phony and know that I have arrived at a conclusion and not give them a chance to get every data point in.”

Baker said he returned home from Lubbock, Tx. and spent Saturday night into Sunday morning considering what would be the best for the WVU football program moving forward. He said the blowout loss to the Red Raiders was not the determining factor and that he considered the results from the entire season.

“They all matter,” Baker said. “It’s about each data point and how they fit together…The way college athletics is now, your path to success is to get into the (College Football Playoff) and to do that you have to compete within your league. I think all of those league games mattered for that reason.”

WVU was 6-6 under Brown this season and 5-4 in Big 12 conference play. The Mountaineers were technically alive to make it to the Big 12 Championship as late as Friday night but had not controlled their own destiny for several weeks. Baker met with Brown after lunch on Sunday to inform him of the decision to part ways and the pair told the team during a meeting later in the day.

In addition to the result of Saturday’s game, Baker said fan sentiment had no influence on his decision.

“I love fans. I have loved and felt endeared to the people…but, fans are not necessarily rational or reasonable people,” he said. “I want the fans to be happy after every game, but you can’t run an athletic department by fan sentiment on any particular day. After a big game, you’d give everybody a raise and an extension and after a bad loss, you’d fire everybody and be so far into the red financially.”

There had been negative fan reaction towards Brown for most of this season and billboards were purchased around town calling for his firing.

“I do a good job of blocking that stuff out,” Baker said. “You have to set that aside. As an AD you let fans be fans and you try to make sure you’re making decisions based on data, facts and a thorough thought process.”

Baker has spoken glowingly of Brown both when announcing his firing on Sunday and during the press conference on Tuesday.

“It was a difficult decision,” Baker said. “Coach Brown is a tremendous colleague and in many, many ways everything you would want for a leader. He did a great job building the infrastructure of this program.”

Brown released a statement Tuesday morning thanking WVU and saying he has full confidence in Baker.

“If I was to script out how you would want a couple of hard days to go, I couldn’t have scripted him to be any better or any classier than he’s been,” Baker said. “I want to say on behalf of everybody here, thank you to him and we’re very appreciative.”

For a related story, several programs are interested in hiring Neal Brown.