Between The Eers: Do You Trust the Climb Now?
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 [MUSIC]
00:10 Are we trusting the climb yet?
00:12 That is my question for you today here folks on between the years.
00:17 I'm Skylar Callahan.
00:18 We do one of these shows each and every single day throughout the week.
00:23 And today that's gonna be our theme, our topic here is,
00:28 are we going to believe that Neil Brown is actually turning this thing into
00:33 something special?
00:35 A nine win season, you go eight and four, and the regular season you win the bowl
00:40 game.
00:41 I don't care if Carolina had Drake May, if they had Connor Harrell out there,
00:46 it doesn't matter.
00:47 And I've stated so many times before, on this very program,
00:53 if you win nine games, you can take that to a recruits house.
00:59 You can take that to a transfer portal recruit, and it will sell.
01:06 And I'll break it down for you again really quickly.
01:10 No one's going to look at West Virginia's strength of schedule.
01:13 They're not gonna look at their strength of record.
01:15 They're not gonna look at who they played and who they didn't play and
01:18 how they got a lighter load because they got the four newbies and
01:21 they didn't have Texas, they didn't have Kansas State,
01:24 they didn't have Iowa State and so on and so forth.
01:27 When they are being recruited to go to West Virginia,
01:30 they're gonna look at this thing and say, damn, they just won nine games.
01:34 They've got their starting quarterback coming back.
01:36 They got a freshman All-American at running back in Jaheim White.
01:40 They've got an experienced offensive line coming back.
01:43 You've got a really dynamic player at tight end in Cole Taylor.
01:46 He has some intriguing pieces on the defensive end.
01:49 This is a team that is built to win in 2024.
01:55 So they're not gonna look at that and say, yeah, I'm gonna just,
02:01 I think if they would have done this with a stronger schedule,
02:06 maybe I would consider playing at West Virginia.
02:09 That's not how this is gonna go down.
02:11 I can already tell you that there are multiple players
02:17 that were either in the portal or are in the portal that are very
02:23 intrigued by what Neil Brown and his staff did this past season.
02:29 And this goes back to my main question.
02:35 Is this where we finally start to see the fruits of his labor and
02:41 we see this program really trend upward?
02:45 Instead of just this little bit of middling,
02:48 in some years you're underwhelming, disappointing.
02:52 Is this gonna be the year?
02:55 It's 2024 the year.
02:57 And arguably you could say 2023 was maybe a part of that because it's a 9-1 year.
03:04 Not very many teams around the country can say they won nine games,
03:08 especially in the power five.
03:11 Now the power four in 2024, but you get the point.
03:16 I don't know if this is going to be the stepping stone, if you will,
03:21 to getting to the big 12 championship.
03:24 I don't know that.
03:26 I think you can certainly build upon what you did this year.
03:29 All those pieces you have coming back,
03:31 the guys they've already added in the portal,
03:33 the guys that they're going to add through the portal.
03:36 Player retention is a huge part of this.
03:39 But it still doesn't necessarily guarantee that West Virginia is going to go
03:47 from a 9-1 team in '23 to say a 10-win regular season win team in '24.
03:54 There's a lot of variables that go into this.
03:57 Of course, health, retention post-spring ball, all the way up into fall camp.
04:03 You've got to have player development.
04:06 You've got to have some of these guys that are coming in either from the portal
04:12 or from the high school ranks ready to play and make an impact right away.
04:16 It doesn't have to be starters.
04:18 It doesn't have to be a guy that comes in day one and he's your starting cornerback.
04:22 Now, that's probably a bad position to pick because they probably do need a guy
04:26 to come in and step in and be that guy right away, a cornerback.
04:29 But you don't need a day one starting guy at running back
04:34 or a day one starting guy at receiver or tight end, offensive line.
04:39 You get the point.
04:41 They need those guys to be able to come in and contribute in some form or fashion.
04:47 But it's also going to depend on the rest of the league as well
04:51 because in order to get to the Big 12 Championship, not only do you have to be good,
04:56 but everything has to kind of fall your way.
04:59 And I think when we get the schedule, I think that'll kind of help at least give us
05:05 a better picture as to what this thing could look like.
05:09 We know the opponents.
05:10 We don't know when these games are going to be played outside of the non-conference games.
05:14 So when does the bye week come?
05:16 Is there a Thursday night game or are there Thursday night games or Friday night games?
05:22 Is there back-to-back West Coast trips?
05:25 Is there a quick turnaround where you're having to go out to, say, I don't know,
05:35 Arizona on a Saturday and then you come back and play on a Thursday at home?
05:41 They have not done that in years past, but with this new scheduling format,
05:46 nobody knows what's going to happen.
05:49 So here's what I'll say.
05:54 I'm not fully on board, and I'm not trying to be someone that is just full of skepticism.
06:02 I'm not trying to be that guy.
06:05 I'm just trying to give you my actual feelings on this because I don't want people
06:10 to kind of get ahead of themselves or put the cart in front of the horse.
06:14 They need to pump the brakes just a little bit.
06:17 You can be excited.
06:18 We have all offseason to be excited.
06:20 There's going to be freaking five, six, seven, eight months of this stuff where we
06:24 can just talk nonstop about WV football and now the great season that they're about
06:29 to have.
06:30 We can do that, and we will do that.
06:33 But, but, Neal Brown, in his five years, has had one winning season.
06:47 One.
06:49 Technically, two, if you count the COVID year.
06:52 That was six and four.
06:54 In a full season, a full 12-game regular season year, this was his first winning season.
07:04 I'm not ready to just go ahead and anoint him as the next big up-and-coming coach in
07:15 college football.
07:16 I'm not ready to put his name or West Virginia's name in the mix for a big 12 title.
07:23 I'm not saying they can't compete for that.
07:26 I'm not saying that that shouldn't be the expectation because when you take into consideration
07:31 what you've got coming back, plus what you're bringing in, you should be in the mix.
07:38 Are they a favorite?
07:40 Are they a top two, top three?
07:42 I don't want to go that far.
07:46 But, he's had one true winning season in five years.
07:52 I guess if you just want to throw the COVID year out, one in four.
07:57 One winning season in four years.
08:02 So, it's very hard for me to get on board thinking that '24 is going to be the year.
08:14 I'm not saying it can't be, but this was a good stepping stone for Neal to showcase.
08:22 Like, "Hey, I can win here.
08:25 I can win here.
08:26 We just won nine games.
08:28 We've got a star quarterback.
08:30 We've got an all-American freshman running back.
08:34 We've got some good pieces on defense like I mentioned earlier.
08:37 We can do this.
08:38 We can have success here."
08:41 But, that doesn't necessarily mean that just because he has shown that they can have success,
08:48 that they're just all of a sudden going to be the big 12 champions, or they're going
08:52 to be in a New Year's Six game, or they're going to be playing next year down in Orlando
08:58 in the Pop-Tarts Bowl.
08:59 There's no certainty with that.
09:01 For me, and I've always been this way, and I just gave the man his flowers yesterday
09:07 on my Thursday morning Thoughts article when I said, "Neal, take a break.
09:11 Take a breather, brother, because you have absolutely deserved it."
09:16 After all the challenges that he has been through in his tenure at West Virginia, from
09:22 the portal to COVID to NIL to all the pressure from the fan base, the losing seasons, the
09:30 injuries, the change in AD, he doesn't know his job status, and he's coaching his way
09:36 off the hot seat.
09:39 I mean, give the man all the credit in the world, and I did yesterday, because he has
09:44 coached his ass off to get this team to where it is.
09:52 However, I'm somebody that needs to see it twice in order to believe it's a thing.
10:01 I don't know that, I mean, could this just be a one-year anomaly?
10:06 Things could have fell right this year.
10:08 Maybe we do look back on it.
10:10 I'm saying this from a recruiting perspective, that the nine-win season doesn't really matter
10:18 when you look at the strength of schedule and the opponents and stuff.
10:21 When you go and talk to that and pitch that to recruits, they don't care.
10:27 They just see the wins.
10:28 They just see the losses.
10:29 They see the trajectory of the program.
10:32 They see their playing time.
10:33 That's all they see.
10:35 They don't do a deep dive on this thing.
10:37 They don't do a full anatomy of the West Virginia 2023 schedule.
10:42 But us, in the media, and you, the fans, we can look at it differently a year from now.
10:52 If things don't shake out as good as you would expect, and say they win seven games next year,
11:00 they take a step back a small one because they won eight in the regular season.
11:04 Say they go seven and five in the regular season next year, lose the bowl game.
11:09 Seven and six.
11:11 All of a sudden, this 2023 season starts to have a completely different outlook, right?
11:18 Especially if you lose some games you should lose, or you lose the games that weren't on the schedule a year ago,
11:31 like we had in Arizona, who's a decent football team.
11:35 And some of the others I don't have off the top of my head right now, but the '23 season will be completely viewed different,
11:47 depending on what happens in '24.
11:50 And I think the same can be said about Neil Brown, because if they take a step back,
11:56 all of a sudden we have the same situation that we had riding into this year.
12:01 And I'm not saying it's going to be full throttle.
12:03 Neil Brown's on the hot seat if they go seven and five, or seven and six in '24,
12:08 and then he's going to be squarely on the hot seat in '25.
12:12 I'm not saying that, but I'm going to say from the fan base, that anger, that frustration,
12:18 that disappointment, that impatience is going to exist just as much as it did heading into this year.
12:27 Neil has to capitalize on this season.
12:30 You have a senior quarterback, you have studs all over the place on the offense,
12:35 you've got a veteran offensive line, you better win some damn football games.
12:40 And he knows it, and I think he feels confident that his team can do it, and he should.
12:46 He just did it with these guys, and they were pups, they were true freshmen, redshirt freshmen, underclassmen.
12:53 So there's no reason as to why he shouldn't be comfortable.
12:58 But if he does take that step back, it's going to bring that curiosity and that wonder
13:06 as to whether or not he's going to be the guy long-term.
13:10 If he goes -- I think even if he wins -- if they duplicate what they did this year,
13:16 and they go 8-4, win a bowl game, they're 9-4, you're 18-8 in two years.
13:22 It's West Virginia, OK?
13:25 It's not Nebraska, where -- and I know people are going to bring up the Bill Stewart thing,
13:31 but it's not a place where you're going to get fired for winning nine games a year.
13:37 Bill, that whole situation, in my opinion, was an outlier, OK?
13:46 West Virginia is not a program that is going to historically fire people for winning nine games a year.
13:53 If you win nine games a year, you're doing pretty good.
14:00 The thing with going 8-4, 9-4, that starts to bring the question up,
14:10 is this the peak under Neal and this staff?
14:14 Is that the best they can do?
14:17 My opinion on that would be no, because it all largely depends on the quarterback play.
14:26 Garrett Green was somebody that sat for multiple years, and throughout much of the 2023 season,
14:32 he completed a little over 50% of his passes.
14:36 He was not a high completion percentage guy.
14:40 He's going to have to take this offseason and obviously really work on hitting those little passes out
14:47 and the slants and all that other stuff to kind of get that percentage up.
14:51 He's going to want to live very close to 60%, if not higher.
14:56 But I think he can definitely win more than that.
15:01 I don't think it would be a sign of peaking.
15:04 I think it was just a sign of peaking with this group, if that's the case.
15:08 If you take that step back, you win six or seven games,
15:14 it's not only going to spark concern from the fan base,
15:19 it's also going to put the thought into the heads of people like me that,
15:26 well, '23 may have been a benefit of the schedule.
15:31 Could have been.
15:33 But again, that's going to depend on the teams that are on West Virginia's schedule next year
15:39 and how they perform.
15:41 Is it a loaded league next year, or is it similar to what it was this year?
15:47 There's so many questions that we won't have really the answer to until this time next year.
15:52 So there's really not a whole lot of reason to be sitting here wondering about that.
15:56 But I think the reason you can trust the climb -- and again, I'm somebody that I have to see it twice, okay,
16:06 before I'm fully convinced -- or maybe not fully, but very convinced --
16:13 that something is going to work or someone is going to work.
16:19 But I really do think that you can trust that this staff can keep players -- that keep players,
16:28 now that this foundation has been set up with the trust, they're in a much better position,
16:33 they're only going to get stronger as the more memberships that they bring in.
16:39 So I think that's only going to get better.
16:45 The opportunity to build on a 9-1 season, if they go in and win nine games again,
16:50 that's, again, something that Neil and his staff can recruit to.
16:53 We've won 18 games over the last two years.
16:57 Now, a lot of people can say that.
17:01 So I do think the realness, the humbleness, the down-to-earth-ness to Neil Brown is something
17:15 that will win over a lot of recruits, portal guys, and maybe even coaches that are looking to come
17:24 and coach here at West Virginia.
17:26 So I think there's a lot of reasons to believe that this could be the ascent.
17:34 I do.
17:36 We're going to dive more into it each and every single week between now and the start of the 2024 season.
17:45 But you've heard me enough today.
17:47 I want your thoughts in the comments section on YouTube.
17:50 Is it time to start trusting the climb in Neil Brown?
17:54 Do you believe this is the turning point for Neil and this program to get the Mountaineers back to their winning ways
18:00 on a consistent basis where they're contending for a league title year in and year out?
18:05 Look, Oklahoma and Texas, they're not in the league anymore.
18:07 They're gone.
18:09 So someone's going to have that opportunity to step up and fill in their shoes.
18:14 History says it should be West Virginia.
18:18 We'll see what happens.
18:20 Also, by the way, I thought we'd show this bad baby off today, the Duke's mayo bowl, jar of mayonnaise.
18:29 This thing will hang in the backdrop of my new office that will be coming somewhat soon, hopefully.
18:36 And we'll have this in there until it gets old, and then we'll wash it out and find something to fill it up with.
18:43 We're going to keep this bad baby in the background.
18:45 This was from the game, from the press box.
18:49 As you know, I decided not to work the game, but I was able to snag one from the press box.
18:56 So a lot of fun in Charlotte.
18:58 It was a lot of really cool things to see all the Mountaineer fans just flooding the city and being up in the alleys,
19:08 the streets, going to all the different restaurants and bars and seeing all the old gold and blue.
19:12 It was a really cool sight to see.
19:14 So West Virginia finishing the season on a high note, 9-4 with that win in the Duke's mayo bowl over North Carolina, 30-10.
19:24 We'll be back tomorrow.
19:26 Actually, just kidding.
19:27 No, we're not.
19:28 It's the end of the week.
19:29 See, my days are already mixed up with this game being the middle of the week.
19:32 We will be back tomorrow with the post-game show of West Virginia and Ohio State.
19:38 I won't be back here on Between the Years until Monday.
19:41 Hit that subscribe button on YouTube at MountaineersNow.
19:43 Follow us on X at the same handle and we'll talk to you then.
19:46 [outro music]