Week 5: Neal Brown's Weekly Hot Seat Rating
By Joshua Petry
Welcome to what we now hope to be a weekly series at HailWV: The Neal Brown Hot Seat Rating. This will be a weekly occurrence to look forward to for both those who "Trust The Climb" and for those who do not. So please buckle up, as this will be an ever so bumpy ride!
For now, many of the fair weather fans have made it around loop-filled roller coaster that is the Neal Brown tenure at WVU, and are now back in line waiting for another turn at the biggest of Morgantown thrill rides.
So let's take a look at the scale we're operating on. The scale runs from 1-10, with a 1 representing the safest his job could be and 10 demonstrating an imminent danger of earning a pink slip.
As you may know, people were all in on the firing of Neal Brown after the team lost to Pitt, but most recently, cooler heads have prevailed since pulling out a victory against Kansas at home in similar fashion to the way the Mountaineers lost in the final seconds to Pitt. What would this weekly rating look like if WVU hadn't pulled off this win? It would indeed be at an all-time high of 9 out of 10. Mountaineer Nation cannot and will not accept a 1-3 start heading into a road game at Oklahoma State after a bye week.
However, the Mountaineers did pull off the win against Kansas, so that point is moot now. After this win, it is reasonable to assume we can drop Brown to a 6 out of 10 -- still not having gained back the good will of the fanbase, but trending closer to re-establishing the confidence the fans had to begin the season.
Now, let's take a peak towards Oklahoma State. Currently sitting at 3-1, we will learn more about the Cowboys as they travel to play another 3-1 Kansas State team this weekend with both sitting at 0-1 in the Big 12. What if WVU can escape Stillwater with a victory, moving us to a game over .500?
Well, this would cool the temperature of said rating some more. I would project our hot seat rating to dip to 5 out of 10, but a lot would be dependent on how the win plays out. But the grind of the Big 12 doesn't get any easier by any means. After the Cowboys, Iowa State will be WVU's next opponent heading into Morgantown, more than likely sitting at 5-0. Kansas State will be next in line as a hungry team the following week. But as I have stated before, regardless of what happens in the next three weeks, WVU doesn't typically conduct business by making moves during the season.