close
close

first Drop

Com TW NOw News 2024

It’s year six… There are no more free passes
news

It’s year six… There are no more free passes

Surprise, surprise. The West Virginia Mountaineers lost again Saturday night to a ranked team, dropping their record against such opponents during the Neal Brown era to 3-17.

Thanks for reading, we’ll see you next week!

All joking aside, I or anyone else doesn’t need to say much more about that. The record speaks for itself.

All over college football you see example after example of turnarounds happening in year one, two or three, but it’s year six and WVU continues to thrive with the results you saw last night.

Did the injuries to Garrett Greene, Jahiem White and Wyatt Milum play a role in the game? I mean, it didn’t help matters, but I’m not sure there’s much change with them on the field. The game turned the moment WVU mishandled its fourth down attempt late in the first half.

Why is no one talking about this?

Neal Brown took far too long to get the play call in, think a timeout, leaving Garrett Greene very little time to relay the call, line up, see what the defense you present and make a play. There was absolutely no time for adjustments or time for WVU to try to jump Kansas State offside and gift them a first down.

No one has a problem with going for it on 4th and 1st. The problem is that you get the play call so late that you never give your quarterback or offense a realistic shot.

Even before that, Greene struggled in the passing game against what was the 15th-ranked pass defense in a 16-team Big 12 league. He made several poor decisions throwing the football and by the end of the half, running the ball was the only offense the Mountaineers had.

They couldn’t get Jahiem White going. They couldn’t get CJ Donaldson going. It was a mess. White and Donaldson, by the way, rushed for 2.7 yards per carry on the night. So no, I don’t think a healthy Jahiem White or Garrett Greene would have made a difference in this game.

My main point regarding the injuries is that Neal Brown doesn’t get any approval for this loss because a handful of key guys go down. What has he proven in these games against ranked teams to convince everyone watching last night that after a terrible first half they would win that game?

I don’t give him a pass for it. No way.

Folks, barring a miraculous end to the season where WVU wins, wins a few games convincingly, wins the bowl game AND gets some help along the way, the Mountaineers are in line to go six full seasons without either just one week in the AP Top 25, putting them in the same conversation as Rutgers, Vanderbilt and Texas Tech.

Serious? Is that the company you worked in for six years?

Very few coaches in college football get the leadership that Neal Brown has had because there are no results to be seen. A nine-win season against an extremely light schedule shouldn’t “buy more time” to turn the schedule around. The Mountaineers are in danger of experiencing their fourth (!) losing season in six years. Fourth. That doesn’t happen in West Virginia.

I’m showing my age here, but since the year I was born, 1996, West Virginia has had six losing seasons. Neal Brown is responsible for three of them.

Frank Cignetti had a brutal four-year run, from 1976 to 1979, from age 17 to 27, but to find a six-year run that rivals that of the Mountaineers currently, you have to go all the way back to the tenure of Gene Corum from 1960. -65 when he went 29-30-2. Neal Brown is currently 34-33.

I leave this room the same way I did last week: At some point, the results, the record, and the product on the field will be too loud to ignore.

MORE WEST VIRGINIA STORIES ON SI

Mountaineer Postgame Show: Kansas State 45, WVU 18

What Neal Brown said after the loss to No. 17 Kansas State

Have fun? First thoughts on West Virginia’s embarrassing loss to Kansas State

West Virginia hammered in Homecoming against No. 17 Kansas State