Reports: West Virginia hires Troy's Neal Brown to replace Dana Holgorsen
West Virginia wasted little time finding a replacement for football coach Dana Holgorsen, replacing him with Troy’s Neal Brown, according to reports from Yahoo Sports and ESPN.com.
Brown, 38, is one of only six FBS coaches with 10 victories in each of the past three seasons, He was 35-16 in four seasons at Troy, winning the Sun Belt Conference in 2017 and capturing the Sun Belt East co-championship this season.
Brown was offensive coordinator at Kentucky for two years before being hired at Troy as one of the youngest head coaches in FBS. Before his two-year stint with the Wildcats he served at offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Texas Tech (2010-12) and Troy (2008-09). He is part of the Air Raid offense tree that stems from former Kentucky coach Hal Mumme and Washington State coach Mike Leach. Brown played receiver at Kentucky under Mumme from 1998-2000.
Brown made a name for himself and his team the past two seasons by knocking off prominent Power 5 programs. First, LSU in 2017, with a 24-21 victory that ended LSU’s 49-game non-conference winning streak at Tiger Stadium.
This season, Troy beat Nebraska, 24-19. In 2016, eventual national champion Clemson escaped Troy’s upset bid with a 30-24 victory.
Holgorsen was introduced Thursday as Houston’s next coach.
Associated Press contributed. Jerry DiPaola is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Jerry at jdipaola@tribweb.com or via Twitter @JDiPaola_Trib.
Jerry DiPaola is a TribLive reporter covering Pitt athletics since 2011. A Pittsburgh native, he joined the Trib in 1993, first as a copy editor and page designer in the sports department and later as the Pittsburgh Steelers reporter from 1994-2004. He can be reached at jdipaola@triblive.com.
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