MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia will not to be in the mix for a new football coach this offseason.
Hours after Wren Baker was named as the new WVU Director of Athletics, Vice President for Strategic Initiatives Rob Alsop released a statement saying Neal Brown will remain as West Virginia’s head football coach.
“Over the past several weeks, President Gee and I have discussed the future of WVU Athletics and our football program with a number of individuals and talented athletic administrators from across the country. We were also impressed with the effort of our team the last few weeks. Additionally, we have also had discussions with Coach Brown and our new Director of Athletics, Wren Baker, about our next steps as a department. In fact, Wren and Coach Brown have already connected relating to the future of the program. As a result of all of these efforts and discussions, it is clear that Coach Brown should continue to lead our football program,” Alsop said.
“With new energy that comes with new leadership, it is time to rally around Wren’s leadership as we move forward quickly to recruit more top student-athletes to our program and continue to develop the incredibly talented group of returning players who are an integral part of our Mountaineer family. I know that Wren will be focusing a lot his time and attention on how we improve our results on the football field and across a number of our programs.
“I will continue to work with Wren, Neal, and the rest of our Athletics program to ensure a smooth transition to the next era for our Athletics Department. Let’s go!”
In Brown’s fourth season at WVU, the Mountaineers finished 5-7.
It marked Brown’s third losing season at West Virginia and brought his career record with the Mountaineers to 22-25. It was also the second straight losing season for West Virginia — the first time that’s happened since 1979.
Brown is under contract through the 2026 calendar year and would be owed more than $16 million if he were to soon be fired.
Brown was thought to be in a perilous position after the Mountaineers lost to Pitt and Kansas to start the season and then suffered three consecutive losses to Texas Tech, TCU and Iowa State, the last of which left West Virginia 3-6 overall.
While the Mountaineers responded by beating Oklahoma and Oklahoma State for the first time in the same season down the stretch, there was a lopsided home loss to Kansas State in between that disqualified WVU from becoming bowl eligible.
Brown and the coaching staff have used this week to meet with current players ahead of Monday, when the NCAA Transfer Portal opens.