West Virginia had high hopes for the 2024 college football season but its first six games have been an overwhelming disappointment. Head coach Neal Brown, who was already on the hot seat, trends closer to unemployment with every additional loss.
Mountaineers fans spent their hard-earned money to try and get him fired!
Brown took over for Dana Holgerson in 2019. He eclipsed the .500 mark in only two of his first five years in Morgantown. One of them was 2020, which does not really count because of the pandemic.
It felt like Brown was going to get fired going into last season but West Virginia played its way through an easy schedule and finished the year at 9-4. As a result, the Mountaineers were right on the cusp of a top-25 ranking when the AP Poll dropped its preseason rankings back in August. They considered themselves to be legitimate College Football Playoff contenders.
Although the Big 12 is technically still wide open, there is a very slim chance that a three-loss West Virginia program will play its way into the field of 12. Brown would be a hero if he can somehow pull off a 9-3 regular season record and, believe it or not, the remaining schedule provides a glimmer of hope. Kansas State, Arizona, Texas Tech, Baylor, Cincinnati and UCF are winnable games.
The fanbase does not think so.
115 donors raised approximately $5,000 to hire a pilot and fly a plane around Morgantown on Saturday. It will pull a banner that reads: “Are you having fun? Fire Neal Brown.”
Should all things go according to plan, the flight is scheduled for three hours. The banner will fly over Milan Puskar Stadium before and during the game. Its message is a direct mockery of Brown’s recent comments about the game day experience.
He encouraged fans to keep showing up despite the losses because tailgating is “fun” and the weather is nice. Hence the banner, which calls for the administration to finally make a coaching change.