WVU Football
WVU HC Neal Brown Explains His Mindset for Properly Building a Program
Neal Brown has been honest about his WVU tenure teaching him a lot about how to properly build a program. Brown was even ready to deliver a detailed response at Big 12 Media Days when asked about finding players who best fit the West Virginia Mountaineers.
“I think speaking — I’ll speak from a program perspective more so than this team because this team I think is to be determined. I think the character piece is a lot of that happens through recruiting and making sure you have processes and systems in place to make sure that you’re bringing in the right type of individual and people with character, and then you try to develop that character once they’re on campus,” said Brown.
Brown even explained how he adjusted his thought process some about what he needs to do to be successful at WVU.
“The identity piece for us is something that we really spent a lot of time on really over the last 19 months of who we need to be to be successful in West Virginia. Feel like we found that. And our team has bought into it. And more importantly the leadership of our team is we’regoing to be a tough unit that is really disciplined. They play smart football, and we do those things with an underdog mentality with a chip on our shoulder.”
Head Coach Neal Brown fist bumps offensive lineman Doug Nester at Milan Puskar Stadium. (WVSN photo by Kelsie LeRose)
On Wednesday in Las Vegas, Brown talked about embracing being an underdog once again after WVU clocked in at No. 7 in the Big 12 preseason media poll.
“We’re coming off 9-4 and I look at some of the preseason Top 25s and we’re not in it.” said Brown on Wednesday at Big 12 Media Days. “We’re picked seventh in the league. We’re not in some of these preseason Top 25s. Garrett Greene is not getting talked about as much as some others. His production speaks for itself. Wyatt Milum is as good as any left tackle in the country. We could go on and on. I think our players are being underrated as well.”
WVU HC Neal Brown Embracing Underdog Role, Feels Slighted by Polls
Brown now looks to continue his team’s climb as West Virginia hopes to move from nine wins to double digits and maybe even securing the program’s first Big 12 title and an appearance in the College Football Playoff.
Only time will tell if WVU achieves those lofty goals, but retaining most of the key contributors from 2023 and adding a few other notable pierces through the transfer portal should help the Mountaineers have another successful season.
