West Virginia head football coach Neal Brown received a one-year contract extension earlier this week, keeping him in Morgantown through 2027.
However, Brown did something very unusual in his re-worked contract - take a pay cut. Brown is forgoing $400,000 in increases over the next three years to reinvest more money into the program. That money will be allocated between the assistant coaching staff and support staff that played a big part in the team's success in 2023.
For the first time since the announcement of the extension, Brown discussed the reason for the new deal and why he thought it was important to take a pay cut in a recent appearance on 3 Guys Before the Game.
"We've got really good momentum going and I think the goal of everybody involved was to continue the momentum. I'm excited about it. I'm really excited about what our future looks like here. I talk about my kids and Brooke, we're really happy here in Morgantown. It's been a great spot to raise our three kids. They're at an age where transition is not something we're interested in. And it's really close to both of our families. And just to create some stability, not for myself but for our program. I think it's important for you to have skin in the game. It was important for me to have some skin in the game because it says the right things. Our assistant coaches and our support staff - we have a big organization. We've got a lot of people that make this organization go and I wanted to make sure that they got rewarded."
Brown also mentioned how he would love for the program to become a launching pad for coaches. He'd love to see grad assistants/analysts become position coaches, position coaches to become coordinators, and coordinators to become head coaches - all signs of a program having a tremendous amount of success. But in order for something like that to happen, you have to be able to pay those assistants a competitive salary and be able to offer a good compensation to candidates when assistants do leave.
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