Report: West Virginia Set to Replace Neal Brown

Barry Odom – a hot name in the coaching world. Now in his second season at the helm of UNLV, he has a 17-7 record with a program that had not won more than seven games in a season since 2000 before his arrival. This is an amazing achievement and worth celebrating.

This comes after he previously served as Missouri’s head coach from 2016 to 2019 and compiled a 25-25 record. Although it didn’t end well, Coach Odom quickly resumed his career in Las Vegas.

It’s been a rollercoaster ride for West Virginia with Coach Brown. He started the 2023 season at the hot position, but the temperature cooled a bit after the Mountaineers went 9-4 on the season. However, things went wrong again this season, putting Coach Brown in the position he is in now.

The season began with losses to Penn State and Pittsburgh in the first three games, and after the team eased to a 2-0 mark in the Big 12, the Mountaineers lost three of their last five games, including a loss at home with a score of 49–35. at Baylor on Saturday. West Virginia needs one more win to claim the bowl with games remaining against UCF and Texas Tech, but will that be enough to save his job?

Probably not, as his relationship with fans is extremely negative, which wasn’t helped by his comments earlier this season:

“I understand that they (the fans) want to win. But I would say: did they have a good time? Did they like it? It was a pretty good atmosphere. I’m guessing they had a good time, so if they’re making a deal for fun, I’d go back.”

Fans are no longer having a good time, so a coaching change is likely no matter how the final two games of the regular season go. And when the Mountaineers return to the market for a head coach, hiring Coach Odom would make sense since he has proven he deserves another chance at the P4 level.