[ community ]
Talent
Transplant
Neal Brown
Neal Brown, head coach at West Virginia University.
Photo by Jenny Shepherd.
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, basket-
ball and football, and after graduation,
he went off to UK, where he was a wide
receiver for three years under Head Coach
Hal Mumme.
Brown with UK Head Coach Hal Mumme.
Photo by Kentucky Athletics.
“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 Birming-
ham; and Tony Franklin, a long-time of-
fensive 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 im-
portance 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 play-
ers 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.”
WWW.WVEXECUTIVE.COM
SUMMER 2019
23