The lowdown on Brown

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Troy head coach Neal Brown is set to be hired to the same position at West Virginia.

Brown coached at Troy for four seasons and led the Trojans to a 35-16 record and three straight double-digit-win seasons and three bowl victories. Prior to that, he served as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Kentucky and Texas Tech.

In an effort to bring you in-depth insight on this new coaching hire, WVSports.com spoke with Troy Athletics in-game host and sideline reporter, Melanie Newman, for more information on Brown including his background and what he'll bring to the West Virginia football program.

1. How would you describe Brown in one word?

“I guess you just have to go with class because that applies to every area of his life. He’s an all out family man and he’s always well spoken and that’s not just in front of the media, that’s when he’s down on the field, behind the scenes, in the room. Everything he does is with absolute grace and dedication. He may have one of the best moral compasses I’ve ever seen of anybody in athletics as a whole.”

2. What are Brown’s specialties, strengths and weaknesses? What does he bring to the table?

“I definitely say as far as his background is concerned, his offense is his strength. Being an offensive coordinator under Tommy Tuberville and then with his time in Kentucky, he understands that well and of course he played, too, but I think the thing that is most admirable is even though that’s his background you’re in an era where coaches are fighting to either have full control themselves of their offense or defense instead of having a coordinator, but with Brown, he trusts who he hires to do that job themselves. He knows what he has to focus on and he’s comfortable delegating and I think that’s what works out so well, not having to deal with a spider with too many heads or going in too many different directions and he can really sit down at the end of the day and focus on the in-game aspect of it. He’s ahead of the curve in the similar way that Arizona State brought in Herm Edwards for. He knows his job and he’s not trying to overstep his boundaries.

“I know this year with Troy, I would consider it an anomaly, but his bigger focus was trying to clean up and have more fundamental football. They had a lot of penalties, a lot of unnecessary flags where they shouldn’t have and he tried to clean that up all year and of course he fought through several key injuries with the team, but if you look at other seasons he’s had with Troy, that hasn’t been the case. Whether it was that group of athletes or not, I don’t think that’s something that’s going to continue to follow him next season in Morgantown.”

3. What was key to Brown helping turn around the Troy football program?

“I think it was his level of expectation and what he would and would not accept. You knew coming in he demanded respect and he would give that back. But you’re an adult, you’re in college, you have to figure it out for yourself so show up to your classes, make curfew, step up and be the man you’re supposed to be...”

"It’s like that parent where the kid is growing up and they’ve never had to be told but they just grew up with that fear of the parent like ‘what if I get in trouble? What if I lose this?’ To a degree, he’s kept the guys on the ropes and that might be a reflection of it as well. It’s not your job ever, you can come into camp and compete for it and even if you win it in camp you can still lose it after game one if you’re not stepping up the way that you should.”

4. Did any other schools pursue Brown before this?

“This offseason specifically, the school that closest matched as far as chatter was Kansas State. But if you look at it, just from knowing Brown, I don’t think it would’ve been a fit for him in regards to moving his family out there. I think he can succeed wherever he was placed, but I think at the same time he knows what kind of culture he’s looking for as far as what he wants to be a part of, what he can contribute to and what he can bring up...He doesn’t consider himself a success if West Virginia goes undefeated and wins the national championship but his student athletes aren’t behaving like men. That’s his goal at the end of the day is he’s developing adults and he wants them to be leaving that program successfully and that’s off of the football field.”

5. Can we expect any of his assistants to join him in Morgantown. If so, who?

“The only thing that I have picked up and this is solely off the rumor mill is the (offensive coordinator) (Matt Moore) heading out with him but other than that I have not heard and he had a slew of GAs and other guys who I think they’ll end up staying at Troy or finding a job elsewhere but I haven’t heard anything past that as of now.”

6. What are some of Brown’s recruiting specialties/strategies?

“That comes back to delegation for him. Obviously he does some of the recruiting himself but he also trusts his coaches to be well developed in their ability to recruit. You can see it on national signing day, every other signing was him congratulating one of his other coaches on ‘what a great find,’ (and) ‘we’re super psyched for this guy,’ so he almost lays out a blueprint of this is the type of guy we want as a tight end or this is the type of guy we want as a strong safety and then trusting his coaches to find someone who fits that mold not just physically but again in character to stand up to the Troy standards and they go out and get him."

"With his experience, he was in Texas which is a huge recruiting hotbed and then his time in Troy, Florida turns out guys left and right especially at the JUCO level so it’s been such a strong suit for him to be down in such a rich area for the last four years because it wouldn’t surprise me if West Virginia has an uptick in the Georgia, Florida, Alabama region of recruiting just because it’s now a name they familiarize themselves with and then you pull him back up to Kentucky and that puts you right by Ohio so he can really bring a strong east of the Mississippi recruiting scheme to the Mountaineers, I don’t think that’s going to be a weak side for him at all.”

7. What is something about Brown that others may not know?

“For as meticulous and detailed and serious he is about his job, he’s still a very humble guy who enjoys having fun. He’s a family guy and he treats his student athletes like that."

8. How do you think Brown will fit in at West Virginia?

“It’s about as seamless of a fit outside of him taking an SEC job as you could ask for. The culture just lines up as far as the family that comes into that stadium, what is expected out of the program itself...I think he’ll have a great time connecting with the fans, the boosters. He’s such a very thoughtful individual he and his family will assimilate into that flawlessly.”

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