Culture, vision, passion lead Brown to WVU

SUBSCRIBE today to stay up on the latest in Mountaineer sports and recruiting.

It’s officially the start of a new era in Morgantown.

Neal Brown, the former Troy head football coach, was officially introduced as West Virginia’s 35th head football coach Thursday morning.

Brown led the Trojans to a 35-16 record in four seasons which also included three straight double-digit win seasons and three consecutive bowl victories. All of this success at Troy as well as successful stints as an offensive coordinator at Texas Tech and Kentucky would lead him to Morgantown.

“We’ve had a lot of success over the last few years at Troy,” Brown said. “That’s why I’m here.”

There are three things that are very important to Brown and his wife, Brooke, that have factored into each move and opportunity they have evaluated over the past few years.

Culture, vision and passion.

To Brown, one person that symbolizes all three criteria is legendary West Virginia head coach Don Nehlen, who leads the program all-time in wins with 149 over 21 seasons as the program’s head coach.

“Over two decades of success and I appreciate the time he spent welcoming me to town, to this university on Sunday afternoon,” Brown said. “He provided great insight and I appreciate that.”

What’s something else that fits Brown’s criteria?

Well, it’s the program itself, but it also stretches far beyond that to the people of West Virginia and what the program, university and state all represent.

“I think about the 14th winningest program in all of college football,” Brown said. “I think about 15 conference championships. I think about the flying ‘WV’ and the hardworking, blue collar people of West Virginia that that ‘WV’ represent. I think about Country Roads and I think about one of the best environments of all of college football.”

It was also the passion, vision and consistent message of both West Virginia athletic director Shane Lyons and university president, Dr. E. Gordon Gee that helped lure Brown to Morgantown.

“I look forward to working with both Dr. Gee and Shane (Lyons) to make the people of this great state proud at how we represent them on a daily basis,” Brown said.

Brown has been described by many as a coach who can relate well to players and get the most out of them.

It’s those same three values that Brown himself has brought with him to various schools throughout his coaching career and have helped him excel in his profession.

“He’s kind of the best of both worlds,” Troy play-by-play broadcaster Barry McKnight said of Brown. “He’s a young coach...young, energetic, relates extremely well to young people, but (he’s) also an old soul. He acts as though his plan and his approach and his values are of an age that’s much older than 38 years of age.”

Culture, vision and passion have now landed Brown with a program that embodies those same three things.

“West Virginia is culture. It is vision and it is passion,” Brown said. “It fits my DNA.”

Enter the contest by clicking on the following link and choosing to subscribe to the channel: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=VideoGlide