Virginia

Having Fun? Initial Thoughts on West Virginia’s Embarrassing Loss to Kansas State

Published

1 year ago

October 20, 2024

Having Fun? Initial Thoughts on West Virginia’s Embarrassing Loss to Kansas State

Once again, West Virginia fans left Milan Puskar Stadium furious and rightfully so as the Neal Brown-led Mountaineers were clobbered by Kansas State, 45-18. The loss drops WVU to 3-4 on the season and 2-2 in Big 12 Conference play.

As always, I have a few thoughts from what just played out, so here we go.

We heard all offseason about all of the PROgression that Greene made since the Mayo Bowl win last winter, but in the eyes of just about everyone, he has experienced major REgression.

No one will ever question the kid’s toughness and ability to run the football, but as a passer, it’s just not there. He is what he is. A 50-some percent completion percentage guy who needs the run game to be established to get anything going through the air.

This is a big red flag for this coaching staff, especially since he’s been the starter since the tail end of the 2022 season. Why is it that BOTH Jarret Doege and Garrett Greene, Neal Brown’s only multi-year starting QBs regressed during their tenure?

Oh yeah, remember when Brown was upset that Greene wasn’t a top 100 player in the country?

West Virginia was driving, threatening to score and tie the game up at the end of the first half, electing to go for it on 4th & 1. No one blames Neal for going for it. That’s not the issue.

The problem is keeping Garrett Greene with you on the sideline so late in the play clock that you don’t have enough time to get lined up, see the defense’s alignment, and make any adjustments at the line. Not to mention, WVU could have tried to draw Kansas State offside, but they didn’t have enough time because Brown took way too long to get the play call in, and that’s coming out of a timeout, mind you. That attempt never had a chance.

Brown is now 3-17 versus ranked opponents during his tenure as the Mountaineer head coach. I mean, do I really need to go much more in-depth with that? It’s astonishingly bad. How do you have so much returning talent from a nine-win team and can’t build upon it? WVU has been extremely patient with him and they’ve yet to get a return on their investment. How much longer does he need?

A coaching change doesn’t guarantee things will turn around, but continuing to roll with what you have is the purest form of insanity. The buyout is something WVU doesn’t want to deal with, but it’s going to be more costly by keeping Brown around and not winning games.

The Mountaineers are 0-4 on the “big stage,” for what it’s worth.