The decision for Neal Brown's future has no clear path

Oh, we’re sure they aren’t the 14th team in the 14-team Big 12, as the media predicted, but didn’t we all really know that coming into the season?

Coach Neal Brown masterfully created a campaign for his team to prove that ... but that really never was the question this season was about.

This wasn’t about how bad is West Virginia.

It was about how good the Mountaineers were.

How much progress were they making, which ultimately would determine if Brown would be back next season?

That has not yet been determined — at least not publicly.

There are those who maintain that the final two regular season games, this Saturday’s 2:30 p.m. renewal of its “rivalry” with Cincinnati as it enters the Big 12 at 2:30 p.m. Saturday to be shown on ESPN+ will decide his fate. Two wins and he has eight in the regular season and a bowl game ahead.

But will those two games determine it?

In the beginning, athletic director Wren Baker said his evaluation would not be based on the number of wins but the direction of the program under Brown, which remains very much up in the air. It looks better with two wins, naturally, but are they on a march toward national respect?

Brown has done everything right with the program except earn it the place it the respect it used to have around the country. How else do you explain that No. 14 pick in the conference; the fact that it has not been ranked since Brown was named coach?

What’s more, it seems to be a long way from being considered an elite team.

Of course, you need a measuring stick for this, so let’s try this one.

WVU has played two ranked teams this season — opening with Penn State and playing their last game against Oklahoma.

You can twist and bend things any way you want, but they were outclassed in both.

How do you know? The numbers tell you so.

WVU has been outscored, 97-35, in the two games. There’s no way to present that in a positive light.

They have given up a total of 1,022 yards in the two games while gaining 638 yards.

That is a deep hole.

This is not to question whether progress has been made. Last season WVU beat Oklahoma for the first time in the Big 12 and the year before barely lost.

That left them believing they could go into Norman this year and walk out with a win.

I think when they finally get through totaling up Oklahoma’s points and yards from that last game — sometime early Saturday morning, maybe — you’ll find they came up short.

Short like Sammy Davis Jr. standing alongside Wilt Chamberlain.

Make no doubt, Wren Baker was hoping that this year would make his decision easier than it is, that things would play either with undisputed progress or with clear signals that a change should be made.

Hasn’t happened. This has been a team with highs and lows, one that showed flashes of progress, but not necessarily potential because, in college football today, your team next year may not look anything like it does this year.

This is a core of solid young players and players like Zach Frazier, the All-American center, who could come back next year, but as it is with Baker, those players are evaluating whether to stay or go.

It’s a tenuous situation and the next two games — home against Cincinnati and at Baylor — are winnable.

While Baker isn’t counting wins, be assured he’s counting on wins to make it easier to bring Brown back.

It is important for him to let it play out, for to decide to change coaches after the Oklahoma game would be as wrong as it would have been to decide to keep him off the two previous weeks when the Mountaineers won at UCF, 41-28, and at home, 37-7, over BYU.

Certainly, by now, Baker has compiled a list of candidates should he opt to move that way, but the conclusion to this story has not yet been written.