This morning, Morgantown woke up to a message from West Virginia football fans -- and it's certainly causing a fair bit of controversy.
Multiple billboards calling for the termination of WVU head football coach Neal Brown appeared across the city on Monday, seemingly sponsored by a group referring to themselves as "The Wolfpack." This group is also behind the launch of recent website 'firenealbrown.org' and a thus-far failed attempt to fly a 'Fire Neal Brown' banner over Milan Puskar Stadium during a home game.
I went to bed early. I woke up to text messages with these in them. It appears the plane was grounded, but three billboards will be running this ad for the next month. pic.twitter.com/gCFmwLCSnR
— EERSNATION (@EERSNATION) October 28, 2024
— Wolfpack (@firenealbrown_) October 28, 2024
Despite a 31-26 win against Arizona helping the team bounce back to 4-4 on the season, the campaign to see Brown handed a pink slip is still ongoing. Fans cite a laundry list of stats when calling for Brown's job: among them are a 35-33 overall record, a 23-26 Big 12 record, a 3-17 record against ranked opponents, zero wins against teams that have finished the season ranked, and zero regular season wins against FBS opponents that finished the season with more than seven wins.
Mountaineer football fans across social media seem to be split on the billboard campaign. Some are arguing that it is a bad look for the program and the school to have fans sponsoring such ads, that it may be a bit too harsh on Brown and his family to have the billboards plastered across the city, and that is does nothing to help the current team succeed or to make future recruits and potential coaches want to come to Morgantown.
Others, meanwhile, think a message needs to be sent that a large portion of the fanbase is unhappy with the current state of the program, and that the louder that message is delivered, the better.
This is pathetic and no one who is involved in this actually cares about West Virginia University or how our alma mater is perceived https://t.co/s0wxrWHCvn
— Spage Enthusiast (@SpageEnthusiast) October 28, 2024
Wren Baker in future HC Interviews:
— Huddy Tuddy (@HuddyTuddy3) October 28, 2024
“Yeah we are really interested in you. But just a heads up if you don’t meet expectations your HS aged daughter will be bullied in school and our fans will pay to have planes with banners and billboards shaming you.”
i get that people are frustrated as hell that football is forever stuck in neutral and i want the guy fired but the billboards are just kinda lame
— The Smoking Musket (@smokingmusket) October 28, 2024
like, he has kids. being a kid is hard even when your dad makes a ton of money to be a mediocre football coach.
This isn’t the way. Gross. Put your money into the NIL. This doesn’t make decisions it just embarrasses people. https://t.co/aVQKWWsmYp
— Whitey Williams (@MountainGrown71) October 28, 2024
From a coaches wife perspective (well former now 😉) I always said criticizing my husband was fair game.
— Amanda Ross Mazey (@AmandaMazey) October 28, 2024
But I NEVER condone bringing coaches kids & family members into the conversation.
#IDontWantToOverreactBUT West Virginia fans have pulled off one of the best moves in history putting billboards up in Morgantown that were previously owned by the university. @firenealbrown_ pic.twitter.com/qb41uNvUXj
— No Huddle WVU (@NoHuddle_WVU) October 28, 2024
I may be in the minority, but I’m NOT against the billboards. Apply constant pressure, he has to go.
— Not Tony Caridi (Never Trust Climbs) (@fauxcaridi) October 28, 2024
#wolfpack #FireNealBrown
— hoops szn (@MarshallSucks) October 28, 2024
Hope you saw these @wrenbaker https://t.co/NFQUJkq6hn
Too many people in WVU Twitter acting like the Fire Neal Brown movement should stop after beating a 3-5 Arizona team that is giving up 34 ppg over their last 4 games
— Tom Fink (@finkdontstink) October 28, 2024
As you can see, there is a heated online debate as to whether the billboards are the right move or not. Let us know how you feel about the ad campaign on social media, and stay tuned to HailWV for further developments.