After AD hired, West Virginia gives Neal Brown another chance

Ben Queen-USA TODAY Sports
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West Virginia football coach Neal Brown will keep his job for the time being, a decision made soon after new athletic director Wren Baker’s hiring was announced.

Brown has a 22-25 record, the worst four-year stretch at West Virginia since the football team went 17-27 under Frank Cignetti from 1976-79.

The Mountaineers won two of their final three games to finish 5-7 season, the second time they failed to become bowl eligible under Brown and the fourth time since 2000. Brown’s West Virginia teams have never cracked the AP Top 25 poll or finished higher than fifth in the Big 12.

But Baker, West Virginia President Gordon Gee, interim athletic director Rob Alsop and others decided to spare Brown, for now. A statement issued by the university gave no specific timetable. Brown has four years remaining on his contract that included about a $17 million buyout if he were fired.

Alsop said he and Gee were impressed with the team’s efforts in the final weeks of the season. Alsop said Baker and Brown “have already connected relating to the future of the program. As a result of all of these efforts and discussions, it is clear that Coach Brown should continue to lead our football program.”

West Virginia named Baker, the North Texas athletic director, to the same position with the Mountaineers. He replaces Shane Lyons, who was fired earlier this month. Baker was given a six-year contract that will pay him $1.1 million annually, plus incentives, the university said in a statement. Baker will start on Dec. 19.

“With new energy that comes with new leadership, it is time to rally around Wren’s leadership as we move forward quickly to recruit more top student-athletes to our program and continue to develop the incredibly talented group of returning players who are an integral part of our Mountaineer family,” Alsop said.

Lyons, who hired Brown in 2019, gave him a contract extension after his only winning season in 2020. Lyons took heat from fans for both the extension and its pricey buyout.

When West Virginia started 0-2 this season with close losses to Pittsburgh and Kansas, Lyons took a wait-and-see approach to Brown. But West Virginia had seen enough of Lyons after nearly eight years on the job. Gee then said that no other changes would be made until after a new athletic director was hired.

West Virginia finished next-to-last in the Big 12 both in scoring at 30.6 points per game while allowing 32.9. A defense that grabbed just four interceptions had been patched together after several key veterans entered the transfer portal early this year.

Baker has been at North Texas since 2016 and Mean Green athletic programs have won 17 conference and division titles since he took over. North Texas plays for the Conference USA football championship on Friday at No. 23 UTSA. The Mean Green will join the American Athletic Conference in July.

Baker, who is from Oklahoma, previously worked at Memphis and Missouri. His North Texas biography touts him as having led record fundraising with the Mean Green and at three other schools.

Baker said he was “incredibly grateful” for the opportunity and that West Virginia “boasts a powerful brand reputation and a storied academic and athletic history. My family and I can’t wait to get to Morgantown to build relationships and help take Mountaineer Athletics to even greater heights.”

Baker will oversee 18 varsity sports and a department budget of more than $90 million.

“When we began this search, we were determined to find someone who could lead in the modern realities of intercollegiate athletics and build on the legacy of his predecessors,” Gee said. “We wanted someone who clearly understood the dynamics of a fast-changing athletics environment and had found success being at the forefront of this new world that includes managing NIL and the portal. We looked at a number of well-qualified candidates and, at the end of the day, Wren met every one of our needs.”

West Virginia hires North Texas AD Baker under 6-year deal

Oklahoman-USA TODAY Sports
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West Virginia named North Texas athletic director Wren Baker to the same position with the Mountaineers, giving him the task of deciding whether to retain football coach Neal Brown.

Baker replaces Shane Lyons, who was fired earlier this month. He was given a six-year contract that will pay him $1.1 million annually, plus incentives, the university said in a statement. Baker will start on Dec. 19.

“I am thrilled to welcome Wren Baker to the West Virginia University family as our new athletic director and I have no doubt his personality and energy will connect with our student-athletes and coaches, as well as our campus community and alumni,” West Virginia President Gordon Gee said in the statement.

Baker has been at North Texas since 2016 and Mean Green athletic programs have won 17 conference and division titles since he took over. North Texas plays for the Conference USA football championship on Friday at No. 23 UTSA. The Mean Green will join the American Athletic Conference in July.

Baker, who is from Oklahoma, previously worked at Memphis and Missouri. His North Texas biography touts him as having led record fundraising with the Mean Green and at three other schools.

In the statement, Baker said he was “incredibly grateful” for the opportunity and that West Virginia “boasts a powerful brand reputation and a storied academic and athletic history. My family and I can’t wait to get to Morgantown to build relationships and help take Mountaineer Athletics to even greater heights.”

Baker will oversee 18 varsity sports and a department budget of more than $90 million.

“When we began this search, we were determined to find someone who could lead in the modern realities of intercollegiate athletics and build on the legacy of his predecessors,” Gee said. “We wanted someone who clearly understood the dynamics of a fast-changing athletics environment and had found success being at the forefront of this new world that includes managing NIL and the portal. We looked at a number of well-qualified candidates and, at the end of the day, Wren met every one of our needs.”

First, Wren will have to address Brown’s future. When Lyons departed, Gee said his replacement would immediately evaluate the football program.

Brown has a 22-25 record, the worst four-year stretch since the football team went 17-27 under Frank Cignetti from 1976-79. The Mountaineers just completed a 5-7 season, the second time they failed to become bowl eligible under Brown and the fourth time since 2000. Brown’s West Virginia teams have never cracked the AP Top 25 poll or finished higher than fifth in the Big 12.

Yet Lyons, who hired Brown, gave him a contract extension through 2026 after his only winning season in 2020. Lyons took heat from fans for both the extension and its pricey buyout, which currently is $16.7 million.

West Virginia fires AD Shane Lyons as football team falters

Ben Queen-USA TODAY Sports
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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia announced the firing of athletic director Shane Lyons on Monday, a move that comes amid the worst stretch for the football team in more than four decades.

President Gordon Gee said there were no immediate plans to make changes under coach Neal Brown.

Lyons is gone after nearly eight years. Gee said in a statement that Rob Alsop, WVU’s vice president for strategic initiatives, has been named interim athletic director while a search is ongoing for Lyons’ replacement.

Brown has a 21-24 record in his fourth season, including 4-6 this year. It’s the worst stretch since the football team went 17-27 under Frank Cignetti from 1976-79.

In September, after West Virginia started the football season 0-2 and fans turned up their criticism of Brown, Lyons said he would take a wait-and-see approach for the remainder of the season.

Fans also had criticized Lyons’ move to give Brown a contract extension following a 6-4 record in 2020, his only winning season.

“We are supporting coach Neal Brown and our team as we complete our season over the next few weeks,” Gee said in a statement. “We are aware there are some deficiencies, but we have not given up on the coach and the team, and they have not given up on each other.

“The evaluation of the football program will be the first task of our new athletic director and no changes will be made until that review has been completed.”

Lyons was hired in January 2015 to succeed Oliver Luck. He previously served as deputy athletic director at Alabama and as associate commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Lyons is a Parkersburg native who earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in sport management at West Virginia. When Lyons was hired, Alabama football coach Nick Saban, another West Virginia native, said that Lyons “understands that passion and what the Mountaineers represent.”

But with the fan base in an uproar over the football program, patience in the administration waned.

“I deeply appreciate Shane’s leadership over the past eight years and I wish him well,” Gee said. “But with the ever-changing landscape of intercollegiate athletics, I believe this is an opportunity to bring a fresh perspective to our program.”

The football team under Brown has yet to be ranked in the AP Top 25 poll and has failed to finish higher than fifth in the Big 12.

“I know there’ll be some speculation that this is the first shoe of two shoes to drop,” Alsop said at a news conference later Monday. “But I just want to disavow that. This is an independent decision.”

He said the football players “have not given up on each other or on this season, and they have not given up on their coaches, and neither have we.”

Football isn’t the only sport undergoing tough times at West Virginia. The men’s basketball team finished last in the Big 12 a year ago. The women’s basketball team finished 15-15 and coach Mike Carey retired after 21 seasons. A few weeks later Lyons hired South Dakota women’s coach Dawn Plitzuweit.

Alsop said he was not a candidate for the permanent athletic director’s position.

“The past few years of college athletics have seen a lot of change,” Alsop said. “We’ve seen from the portal to name, image and likeness, to another round of conference realignment. President Gee in thinking about this decided that with this ever-changing landscape that it will be a good opportunity to find a fresh perspective for the program.”