Photo by: AP
Brown Ready To Deliver His Winning Message to Mountaineer Nation
January 05, 2019 12:15 PM | Football
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – A little more than four years ago, Neal Brown stood in front of the Troy football team for the first time and the message he delivered to them that day was very clear – he was there to win football games.
And win football games he has - 31 in the last three years, including three straight bowl victories. Brown is one of just six coaches in major college football today to win at least 10 games in each of the last three seasons.
The other five?
Oh, guys named Saban, Swinney, Meyer, Petersen and Boise State coach Bryan Harsin.
CBS Sports college football writer Barrett Sallee called Brown "a home run hire" for West Virginia University.
The Athletic's editor in chief, Stewart Mandel, tweeted that West Virginia "despite being last to come open, may have won this coaching carousel."
At the beginning of the 2018 season, Sports Illustrated's Andy Staples spent a week with Troy to document its preparation for the season opener against Nebraska in Lincoln.
Despite facing overwhelming odds, Troy upset the Cornhuskers 24-19, enabling Staples to produce a fascinating piece on how David had slayed Goliath. As team chaplain Lonnie Cochran explained to the Troy players the day before the game, "These giants that you're going to see tomorrow, are they too big to kill, or are they too big to miss?"
Obviously, Brown had them believing those Cornhusker giants were too big to miss.
It was the same message he had his team believing the year prior when the Trojans came out of their horse and ambushed LSU 24-21 in Death Valley.
Brown nearly made it a sweep of Death Valleys. In 2016, the Trojans trailed second-ranked Clemson 13-10 heading into the fourth quarter before the Tigers erupted for 17 fourth-quarter points to pull out a 30-24 victory.
That year, he won 10 games and defeated Ohio University in the 2016 Dollar General Bowl. By the way, that Clemson team Troy nearly knocked off went on to beat Alabama to win the national championship.
A year later, he won 11 games, finished first in the Sun Belt Conference and routed North Texas in the New Orleans Bowl.
This season Brown won 10 more, finished first again in the Sun Belt and defeated Buffalo in the Dollar General Bowl.
So, how did it take four years before a bigger school stole him away from Troy?
Well, Troy, Alabama, has become very special to Brown and his wife, Brooke. It was the first place they moved to after they got married, it was where their first child was born and it was also his first opportunity to become a Division I football coach at age 25.
He then became the youngest Division I offensive coordinator in the country at Troy, helping the Trojans to three bowl bids and four conference championships before spreading his wings, first at Texas Tech under Tommy Tuberville and then back to his native Kentucky under Mark Stoops.
Tuberville gave Brown the freedom at Texas Tech to develop as an offensive coach. In 2012, we saw first-hand what Brown's offenses can do when the Red Raiders marched up and down the field in a 49-14 victory over West Virginia.
Tech quarterback Seth Doege passed for 499 yards – 156 of those going to tight end Jace Amaro – and the Texas Tech offense produced 676 yards in a stunning 35-point victory, which came one week after the fifth-rated Mountaineers upset No. 11 Texas in Austin.
A year later, Brown branched out a little bit more by spending two seasons at Kentucky with Stoops where he was part of the initial overhaul of the Wildcat program that led to a 10-win season and victory over Penn State in this year's Citrus Bowl.
Now, Brown is about to bring his winning ways to West Virginia.
He's the son of a coach and a high school principal in a family full of educators. Both parents were teachers; his wife is a teacher and three of his four grandparents were teachers as well.
"That's who I am," Brown said when Troy introduced him as its new football coach on Dec. 1, 2014.
That day, he mapped out his plan for the Trojan football program. He said there were three things the head football coach is supposed to do - win, graduate players and develop young men.
How did he plan to do it?
He said he was going to build a player's-first program full of positive energy with the guys wanting to look forward to coming to the football complex each day. He said they would be held accountable for their actions and a system of discipline would be put in place.
He said it was important for his players to have fun, mentioning that you "play football" instead of "work football." He said a good football program can have discipline and fun.
He discussed the importance of competition and how that was going to be vital to everything they did, from on-field success to academics to personal growth.
He talked about recruiting and developing players who were willing to work hard and fit his style of football. The areas he said he was going to focus on in recruiting were Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi and Louisiana.
He said Troy was going to play fast, hard and physical. He talked about throwing the ball to players in space and having them make defenders miss. He wanted a sound, aggressive defense with the No. 1 goal of getting the football back so the offense can score more points.
He viewed special teams as another opportunity to score.
He talked about his guys playing with an edge and a chip on their shoulders, explaining, "video tells your story – it's who you are. You can't hide from it."
He wanted a staff full of quality people who were dedicated to serving the university and were willing to develop young men. He said he wasn't afraid to hire people who were smarter than he was.
"I'm more focused on getting it right than simply getting it done," he mentioned.
Four years later, it's abundantly clear that he accomplished everything he set out to do at Troy.
So now comes his next challenge at West Virginia University and another opportunity to spread his wings a little bit further and grow some more.
When West Virginia University director of athletics Shane Lyons officially introduces Brown to Mountaineer Nation, you will likely hear many of the same things he once told the fine people of Troy, Alabama.
Neal Brown is a winner. And who doesn't love a winner?
And win football games he has - 31 in the last three years, including three straight bowl victories. Brown is one of just six coaches in major college football today to win at least 10 games in each of the last three seasons.
The other five?
Oh, guys named Saban, Swinney, Meyer, Petersen and Boise State coach Bryan Harsin.
CBS Sports college football writer Barrett Sallee called Brown "a home run hire" for West Virginia University.
The Athletic's editor in chief, Stewart Mandel, tweeted that West Virginia "despite being last to come open, may have won this coaching carousel."
At the beginning of the 2018 season, Sports Illustrated's Andy Staples spent a week with Troy to document its preparation for the season opener against Nebraska in Lincoln.
Despite facing overwhelming odds, Troy upset the Cornhuskers 24-19, enabling Staples to produce a fascinating piece on how David had slayed Goliath. As team chaplain Lonnie Cochran explained to the Troy players the day before the game, "These giants that you're going to see tomorrow, are they too big to kill, or are they too big to miss?"
Obviously, Brown had them believing those Cornhusker giants were too big to miss.
It was the same message he had his team believing the year prior when the Trojans came out of their horse and ambushed LSU 24-21 in Death Valley.
Brown nearly made it a sweep of Death Valleys. In 2016, the Trojans trailed second-ranked Clemson 13-10 heading into the fourth quarter before the Tigers erupted for 17 fourth-quarter points to pull out a 30-24 victory.
That year, he won 10 games and defeated Ohio University in the 2016 Dollar General Bowl. By the way, that Clemson team Troy nearly knocked off went on to beat Alabama to win the national championship.
A year later, he won 11 games, finished first in the Sun Belt Conference and routed North Texas in the New Orleans Bowl.
This season Brown won 10 more, finished first again in the Sun Belt and defeated Buffalo in the Dollar General Bowl.
So, how did it take four years before a bigger school stole him away from Troy?
Well, Troy, Alabama, has become very special to Brown and his wife, Brooke. It was the first place they moved to after they got married, it was where their first child was born and it was also his first opportunity to become a Division I football coach at age 25.He then became the youngest Division I offensive coordinator in the country at Troy, helping the Trojans to three bowl bids and four conference championships before spreading his wings, first at Texas Tech under Tommy Tuberville and then back to his native Kentucky under Mark Stoops.
Tuberville gave Brown the freedom at Texas Tech to develop as an offensive coach. In 2012, we saw first-hand what Brown's offenses can do when the Red Raiders marched up and down the field in a 49-14 victory over West Virginia.
Tech quarterback Seth Doege passed for 499 yards – 156 of those going to tight end Jace Amaro – and the Texas Tech offense produced 676 yards in a stunning 35-point victory, which came one week after the fifth-rated Mountaineers upset No. 11 Texas in Austin.
A year later, Brown branched out a little bit more by spending two seasons at Kentucky with Stoops where he was part of the initial overhaul of the Wildcat program that led to a 10-win season and victory over Penn State in this year's Citrus Bowl.
Now, Brown is about to bring his winning ways to West Virginia.
He's the son of a coach and a high school principal in a family full of educators. Both parents were teachers; his wife is a teacher and three of his four grandparents were teachers as well.
"That's who I am," Brown said when Troy introduced him as its new football coach on Dec. 1, 2014.
That day, he mapped out his plan for the Trojan football program. He said there were three things the head football coach is supposed to do - win, graduate players and develop young men.
How did he plan to do it?
He said he was going to build a player's-first program full of positive energy with the guys wanting to look forward to coming to the football complex each day. He said they would be held accountable for their actions and a system of discipline would be put in place.
He said it was important for his players to have fun, mentioning that you "play football" instead of "work football." He said a good football program can have discipline and fun.
He discussed the importance of competition and how that was going to be vital to everything they did, from on-field success to academics to personal growth.
He talked about recruiting and developing players who were willing to work hard and fit his style of football. The areas he said he was going to focus on in recruiting were Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi and Louisiana.
He said Troy was going to play fast, hard and physical. He talked about throwing the ball to players in space and having them make defenders miss. He wanted a sound, aggressive defense with the No. 1 goal of getting the football back so the offense can score more points.
He viewed special teams as another opportunity to score.
He talked about his guys playing with an edge and a chip on their shoulders, explaining, "video tells your story – it's who you are. You can't hide from it."
He wanted a staff full of quality people who were dedicated to serving the university and were willing to develop young men. He said he wasn't afraid to hire people who were smarter than he was.
"I'm more focused on getting it right than simply getting it done," he mentioned.
Four years later, it's abundantly clear that he accomplished everything he set out to do at Troy.
So now comes his next challenge at West Virginia University and another opportunity to spread his wings a little bit further and grow some more.
When West Virginia University director of athletics Shane Lyons officially introduces Brown to Mountaineer Nation, you will likely hear many of the same things he once told the fine people of Troy, Alabama.
Neal Brown is a winner. And who doesn't love a winner?
Welcome @NealBrown_WVU to the Mountaineer family! #HailWV pic.twitter.com/Bl9zBZN0xH
— West Virginia Football (@WVUfootball) January 5, 2019
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