West Virginia is fresh off a nine-win season and for the first time since Neal Brown took over, there is hope that the Mountaineers are on track to return to their winning ways…for good.

I was as hard on Neal Brown as anyone over the course of his first four years at the helm, mainly because there seemed to be little to no progress being shown on either side of the ball. I understand that they suffered massive hits from the transfer portal and they didn’t have the “right guys” in the locker room, but just about any new-ish coach to a program is going to experience both of those bumps in the road.

In 2023, he wiped out many of my concerns. The run game was better than advertised and they found something with Garrett Greene operating the offense. But it’s not just about the top tier talent.

For me, it was the development of players like Nicco Marchiol, who came in and virtually played the whole game against Pitt and won and then followed that up with a win over Texas Tech. It’s a guy like Hudson Clement who came out of nowhere to become one of the top freshman receivers not only on the team or the conference, but the country. To be able to not panic in the regular season finale when Zach Frazier goes down and time is working against you…to be able to thrown Brandon Yates out there and have no hiccups en route to a game-winning drive is impressive.