WVU football coach Neal Brown’s vacation disrupted by news of Big 12’s preseason poll

ARLINGTON, Texas — The Big 12 Conference’s preseason poll for football didn’t paint West Virginia’s program in a positive light.

The poll, which was voted on by members of the media who cover the league, ranked the Mountaineers below the nine other returning schools. The poll, which was released last week, ranked the Mountaineers below the four incoming schools. Among the 14 teams that will make up the conference in 2023, West Virginia was predicted the finish last.

But Mountaineers head coach Neal Brown didn’t hide from that prediction Thursday, while speaking on stage inside AT&T Stadium in Arlington. Looking out at reporters who cover the conference, he addressed why it made him upset. And, according to Brown, the moment he learned about it came while he was on vacation.

“I was sitting on the beach last week, whenever Mike Montoro, who’s the best in the business, who’s our sports information director for football — he sent me a text and I made the mistake of looking at it,” said Brown, who disagreed with the last-place prediction. “From that point on, my vacation was over. I went into football mode.”

Brown took West Virginia to back-to-back bowl games during the 2020 and 2021 seasons, and won the one in 2020, but last year proved unable to earn a third-straight postseason appearance. The Mountaineers finished 5-7 overall and 3-6 against the Big 12. In his four seasons at the helm, his program is still looking for its first campaign with a conference record that finishes better than .500.

Brown explained his confidence in his 2023 squad comes from how West Virginia won two of its last three games last season, topping Oklahoma and Oklahoma State in that span. He added the Mountaineers are coming in with an experienced offensive line and multiple players on the team in general who can be All-Big 12 caliber players this year. The five players he brought with him to media days, junior offensive lineman Zach Frazier, senior offensive lineman Doug Nester, junior defensive lineman Sean Martin, senior linebacker Lee Kpogba and junior safety Aubrey Burks all fit that description in Brown’s mind.

Brown took some solace that the preseason poll hasn’t predicted the conference champion correctly in recent years. Kansas State won the title in 2022 after being picked to finish fifth, and beat a team in the championship game in TCU that was picked to finish seventh. Baylor won the title in 2021 after being picked to finish eighth, and beat a team in the championship game in Oklahoma State that was picked to finish fourth.

“Looking forward to proving everybody wrong on that front,” said Brown, who discussed the preseason poll during a team meeting earlier in the week. “We won’t finish there.”

Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. He is the National Sports Media Association’s sportswriter of the year for the state of Kansas for 2022. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: WVU football coach Neal Brown disagrees with Big 12 preseason poll