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Neal Brown Describes What WVU Football Means to West Virginia on National Show

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Neal Brown Describes What WVU Football Means to West Virginia on National Show


With anticipation building on kickoff of a season, WVU head coach Neal Brown made an appearance on a popular national college football show to talk some Mountaineers in 2024.

And while talking to Mary Smith and Ryan McGee on their “Marty and McGee” show, Brown touched on what West Virginia football means to the state.

First, Brown told a story about WVU fans staying all night after his Mountaineers beat Virginia Tech in Blacksburg in 2022 to sing Country Roads. He then compared WVU to Arkansas and Nebraska as major programs as the only Power Four school in states without any professional teams within the major leagues.

“It probably took me a couple years to fully understand that the makeup of our team and how we played…and the culture and identity of who we are really needed to match the people. And we gotta be a physical, mentally and physically tough team, because that’s who our people are. Man, college football is special,” said Brown.

After waxing poetic on WVU and West Virginia, Brown reiterated some comments he’s made throughout the offseason about feeling his team and players are being overlooked nationally, how the new format of the College Football Playoff provides easier access and how his team needs to be ready for their regional rivalry matchups with Penn State and Pitt prior to the start of conference play.

Both hosts agreed that Brown’s team could surprise people this season and win the Big 12.

Much to Brown’s chagrin, the Mountaineers were left out of the top 25 of both the Coaches Poll and the Associated Press’ poll.

WVU HC Neal Brown after Mayo Bowl win

WVU head coach Neal Brown talking to reporters after winning the Duke’s Mayo Bowl at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, N.C. on Dec. 27, 2023. (Mike Asti / WV Sports Now)

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“If you just look at our resume, how we finished the year, quality wins we had last year with what we had coming back, that resume is going to get in the Top 25. So what gives? I don’t know. Our top players are being undervalued,” said Brown when prompted for his reaction to entering the season on the outside looking in.

But regardless, Brown is fired up. In fact, WVU’s head coach admitted to being more fired up at the start of fall camp this year than any other year since he’s been in Morgantown.

“I’ll start with this, I’m fired up about this group. So this is year 22 for me as a coach, year 10 as a head coach, and probably as excited as I’ve been,” said Brown while kicking off fall camp.

“I really feel comfortable with our staff, and it’s layered. Everybody can coach, which I think is a good rule. I think that’ll help us especially in fall camp, and within our development guys once we get into season. Our support areas are really strong right now, academic strength conditioning, nutrition, sports psych, athletic training, our medical group. I feel like they were really strong in those support areas. I really liked the leadership of this team. If you look at the guys that have been here and grown through our culture, really pleased where that’s at,” he added.

For a related story, another national media member says WVU can make the College Football Playoff without winning a Big 12 title.

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Could WVU Make the College Football Playoff Without Big 12 Title?





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West Virginia

Photos: 2024 LIV Golf Greenbrier in West Virginia

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August 18, 2024

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Photos: 2024 LIV Golf Greenbrier in West Virginia


The first round of the 2024 LIV Golf Greenbrier event in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, was the 100th round in the tour’s history.

Nobody on LIV Golf has played all 100 rounds, but Richard Bland, Matt Jones and Peter Uihlein have each played in 99.

The return to Greenbrier means a chance to revisit the 58 shot by Bryson DeChambeau in this event one year ago. He won the event by six shots after finishing 23 under over the three days.

Check out some photos from the 2024 LIV Golf Greenbrier.

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Wriston reflects on Roads to Prosperity – WV MetroNews

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16 hours ago

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August 17, 2024

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Wriston reflects on Roads to Prosperity – WV MetroNews


CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A number of high profile road projects in West Virginia are winding down in the final months of Gov. Jim Justice’s Roads to Prosperity Program.

Jimmy Wriston

The program was launched soon after the start of Justice’s first term. Voters approved a statewide bond to move forward on highway work in many cases which had been talked about for years, but never pushed off the drawing board.

State Transportation Secretary Jimmy Wriston, talked about the progress in a recent episode of the Department of Transportation’s “WV On the Dot” Podcast. Wriston said the Justice Administration made those long delayed projects a priority.

“We were able to take projects which just lingered and lingered and lingered forever and actually get them under contract and get them to construction,” he explained.

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One of those projects was widening I-64 to six lanes between Nitro and Teays Valley. The project included construction of an entirely new interstate bridge over the Kanawha River and retrofitting the existing span with a new deck to match. In fact, Wriston said it was several projects molded into one because of many other smaller bridges and overpasses which needed to be built in the stretch. The project is in the final stages and should be finished in just a few weeks.

“What a project and how many decades would it have taken to do that? We know because it’s taken decades to do it,” he said

Other projects which had been on the drawing board for years are now reality. The Wheeling Bridges project was one of the first under the plan. It rebuilt and renovated every bridge heading into Wheeling on I-70 east of the Wheeling Tunnel. There’s a new exit being added at Culloden at the Putnam-Cabell County Line, the Scott Miller Hill Bypass in Roane County was recently completed and is another of those projects.

“The travelling public may think, ‘My gosh they’ve been doing this forever,’” said Wriston. “But you know what, if you’re going to bake a cake, you’ve got to break some eggs and we’ve been breaking some eggs out here.”

According to Wriston, Roads to Prosperity is aptly named. With each ribbon cutting private development followed. He said that was the idea.

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“They were coming anyway and we’ve got to accommodate them. If you build it, they will come and if you maintain it, when they get here they’ll stay,” said Wriston.



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New West Virginia Assistant Sydney Pickrem Has a Base $50,000 Per Year Salary

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23 hours ago

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August 17, 2024

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New West Virginia Assistant Sydney Pickrem Has a Base ,000 Per Year Salary


New West Virginia assistant swim coach Sydney Pickrem will receive a base salary of $50,000 per year in her new role. That is significantly higher than the entry-level salaries we’ve seen for elite athletes with limited coaching experience in prior years, likely driven at least in part by changes in federal law.

Pickrem’s contract includes a relocation stipend of $5,000, tickets to home sporting events, annual dues to relevant professional organizations, the potential to share in camp money, and annual performance incentives.

The term of the original contract is one season, which is common for assistant coaching contracts.

Bonus Potentials

  1. NCAA National Team Championship $ 2,500.00
  2. NCAA National Championship Top 10 Team Finish $ 1,000.00
  3. NCAA National Championship Top 20 Team Finish $ 500.00
  4. Conference Postseason Team Championship $ 1,000.00

West Virginia has finished in the top 20 at the NCAA Division I Championships once in program history, when the men tied for 20th in 2007. Sergio Lopez, current head coach at Virginia Tech, led the program at that time.

The Mountaineers have never won a Big 12 team title in swimming & diving, though the departure of the Texas Longhorns and the arrival of teams from Utah, Arizona, and Arizona State will reshape the conference going forward.

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Pickrem’s Background

Pickrem was announced as a new assistant coach under the program’s new head coach Brent MacDonald in July, before competing at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. At the time, she told SwimSwam that she is still planning to continue training while coaching.

Pickrem, 27, also has seven World Aquatics Championship medals. Earlier this year, she won silver in the 200 IM; in 2019 she won bronze in the 200 IM; and in 2017 she won bronze in the 400 IM. Her other four World Championship medals were in relays.

She also has five World Championship medals in short course, including two gold medals.

Pickrem previously completed at the 2016 and 2020 Olympic Games, which included a bronze medal as the breaststroker on Canada’s women’s medley relay. She also placed 6th in the 200 IM in Tokyo and Rio individually.

In Paris, Pickrem placed 9th individually in the 200 breaststroke and 6th individually in the 200 IM.

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New Overtime Exempt Rules

Beginning on July 1, 2024, the threshold for employees in most states to be exempt from overtime pay increased to $43,888. On January 1, 2025, that threshold will again increase to $58,656. Most college assistants at the NCAA D1 level are paid above that level because of the assumption that they will work more than 8 hours on some days and more than 40 hours weekly.

Pickrem is part of a wave of elite athletes jumping right into assistant coaching positions at Power 4 programs in recent years. Last season, Olympic medalist Annie Lazor was hired at the University of Florida with a starting salary of $45,000.





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