WVU HC Neal Brown Asks Fans to Have Faith Despite Penn State Performance

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Despite WVU’s poor performance in their 34-12 season opening loss to Penn State, Neal Brown has one clear message to fans doubting the Mountaineers.

Brown, who knows there are plenty of West Virginia fans who now regret buying in throughout the offseason, does not want to lose the faith of Mountaineer Nation just yet. During his weekly press conference on Monday, Brown told the fans to not lose faith after just one game. Brown then added that he still has a good team and they’re going to go out and show it.

Brown’s rallying cry to fans came after reiterating a lot of what he said immediately following the game on Saturday. At that time, Brown said WVU “played bad football” before getting to any further analysis. And Brown did more of the same after watching film all Sunday.

“I’m not sure we could have beat a subpar team on Saturday. The product on the field is on me and I wasn’t very fired up about it,” said a clearly frustrated Brown.

WVU HC Neal Brown: “I’m not sure we could have beat a subpar team on Saturday. The product on the field is on me and I wasn't very fired up about it.” https://t.co/qni9UUsk62

— Mike J. Asti (@MikeAsti11) September 2, 2024

Brown also doubled down on being disappointed in his veteran players the most.

“We are a veteran group and my expectations for this group are extremely high,” said Brown after the game.

Overall, Brown believes his players shouldn’t have felt any anxiety due to their preparation all week and he’s most upset about the lack of execution from such a veteran group. He said he did not see his veteran players not being ready for the game coming.

WVU HC Neal Brown Expresses Disappointment After PSU Loss: ‘We Played Bad Football’

On how Garrett Greene performed on Fox’s “Big Noon Kickoff” national stage, Brown made it clear that everything else is difficult when your quarterback doesn’t play up to par. “Not good enough. And I love the kid. He’ll play better football,” said Brown while evaluating Greene’s play as the leader of the Mountaineers.

But with all of that said, Brown also said he’s turning the page on Penn State and he remains confident his team will rebound strong, much the same way they did in 2023.

“Our season is still in front of us. There’s a lot of good West Virginia teams that have gotten beaten by Penn State and bounced back to have special years,” said Brown.

For a related story, WV Sports Now’s Mike Asti provided his takeaways from WVU’s loss to Penn State.