By Jennifer Jett Prezkop
In celebration of those who have adopted our Mountain Mama as their own, “Talent Transplant” recognizes the Mountaineers who were born elsewhere but relocated here, embraced our beloved state and now help us work toward a brighter future.
“I think we are always a collection of the people and places we have been.”
Neal Brown, the 35th head coach at West Virginia University (WVU), followed a long and winding road to Morgantown, collecting experiences and insights along the way that have propelled him toward success.
Take, for instance, the offense the Mountaineers run. It goes back to Brown’s roots as a wide receiver at University of Kentucky (UK) and his first coaching job as a graduate assistant coach at University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 2003. A year later, he accepted his first full-time coaching job at Sacred Heart University, where Paul Gorham taught him about managing by trial and error. He learned to be a player’s coach from Larry Blakeney, a former head coach at Troy University who always had the players’ best interest at heart. Under Tommy Tuberville at Texas Tech, Brown learned how to be a CEO, run all aspects of a football program and have a big-picture mentality, and UK’s Mark Stoops taught him about recruiting. With a foundation built on lessons taught by program leaders like these, Brown is well prepared for all that the role of WVU head coach entails.
It also doesn’t hurt that he’s from a small Appalachian town where pride runs thick, much like in West Virginia. Brown grew up in Bardstown, KY. In high school, he played baseball, basketball and football, and after graduation, he went off to UK, where he was a wide receiver for three years under Head Coach Hal Mumme.
“We were really fortunate because of the people we had on our athletics staff,” says Brown. “Mumme was kind of the architect of what is now known as the air raid offense, so we threw the football a lot. We also had Guy Morriss, who was later the head coach at UK and Baylor; Mike Leach, who is now the head coach at Washington State; Sonny Dykes, who is the head coach at Southern Methodist University; Chris Hatcher, who is the head coach at Samford University in Birmingham; and Tony Franklin, a long-time offensive coordinator. I had the opportunity to be around some really good football coaches during my time there.”
The best part about playing for UK, though, was that he was able to represent his home state. He understands the importance of hometown pride, and he is committed to teaching WVU’s players that they are not just playing a game—they are representing an entire state on a national stage.
“We are mindful of educating our players on what that Flying WV represents and, more importantly, who it represents,” Brown says of himself and his staff. “I hear it all the time—1.8 million people are behind the Mountaineers. Our players represent people who are part of a blue-
collar state—really hard-working people who have a lot of state pride. I think it’s important that our players—and our staff—remember who we represent.”
WVU wasn’t a hard sell for Brown. There were a lot of positives about the opportunity to move to Morgantown that not only aligned with his professional goals but with his family’s needs as well.
“The first positive was WVU’s geographic location,” he says. “At Troy, we were about nine hours away from home. Both my parents and my wife’s parents live in Danville, KY, so we cut travel time down by about half in coming here. Another positive was the people. I think the people in Kentucky and West Virginia are very similar. I also thought being in Morgantown was a great opportunity for our kids from an educational standpoint. From a work perspective, WVU is the 14th winningest school in college football and has had a ton of success. The coaches here have had long tenures, and that’s something I felt was important. There are no professional teams or Power Five schools here, which means the fanbase and level of importance put on the football program here were definitely intriguing. Also, the Big 12 Conference was a factor. I’ve been an offensive coordinator at Texas Tech, so I have been in this league for three years and have an understanding of it.”
All of these reasons combined made for a great sales pitch, but the deal closer was Brown’s visit to Mountaineer Field on January 6.
“I remember meeting Coach Nehlen first,” he recalls of the visit. “I thought it was really cool of him to come and greet me. Seeing the welcome graphic that was put up on the scoreboard and knowing WVU has a ton of tradition and is one of the rowdier atmospheres in college football, I stood there and tried to imagine what it would be like on game day. That first time on the field was definitely something to remember.”
While his family—his wife, Brooke; daughters, Adalyn and Anslee; and son, Dax—are adjusting to life in Morgantown, Brown is in preparation mode for the 2019 season. His focus is on reinventing the program, a process the staff and players are calling the climb.
“Climb is kind of our motto this year,” he explains. “I’ve been saying this for a while: we are going to be great here. It’s a matter of when, not if. We are climbing and trying to get better every single day and achieve higher results. I’ve talked to the players this summer about just trusting the climb. It’s really hard for this age group of 17-23 year olds to understand there is a process for everything you go through, and for most things in life, you are not going to get instant gratification. I want them to understand that there is a process of work and there are steps you have to take to achieve where you want to get to.”
Brown has built his career around football because he believes football is the best team sport. He credits most good things in his life to the sport and sees the importance of the lessons to be learned by the players.
“Football is where you accrue the most adversity,” he says. “Some of that is because it is a physical sport in nature, and some of it is because some of your hardest practice times are when it is the hottest. Football players learn to overcome adversity and develop mental toughness. The best aspect of the sport, though, is teamwork. Regardless of the position you play, you have to be dependent on someone else.”
Using those life lessons as well as his wealth of experience, Brown and his staff are building a new program around three objectives: developing men, graduating student-athletes to place in the workforce and winning.
“The things we are changing are not just for the sake of making changes or to say how things done in the past were wrong,” he says. “We are making changes culturally more than anything so we can go in the direction of our goals. The most important job I have as the head coach is to create an environment where our staff and players can be successful, so I’m probably spending more time on that than anything right now.”
He’s also looking forward to building a relationship with the students, much like he and his wife did at Troy.
“When Brooke and I went into the program at Troy, we created a lot of positive change,” he says. “Not only did we win games, but we set attendance records. We spent a lot of time on campus and really got to know the students, and in turn they came out and supported us and created a fun environment that even more people wanted to be a part of. My hope is that we can do the same here. The student section has the opportunity to set the mood for the entire stadium.”
The season opener on August 31 is just around the corner, and Brown is excited about what is to come. He’s eager to experience for himself the contagious excitement of the Mountaineers’ fanbase, watch months of teamwork come together and see the climb commence.
“I am really looking forward to the climb—getting this program to where we want it to be,” he says. “We are developing men who will be leaders, we are building a program that is consistently winning and, more importantly, we are building a program our fanbase and the people of West Virginia will be really proud of.”
