Turn the clock back to 2018 for a second. A freshman phenom quarterback named JT Daniels was tearing up the Pac-12 at USC. Offensive coordinator Graham Harrell was an up-and-coming star play-caller at North Texas and on his way to joining Daniels in Los Angeles. And West Virginia was finishing up its 16th winning season in 17 years. Soon, it would hire an exciting young coach named Neal Brown, who was coming off three straight 10-win seasons at Troy.
Fast forward to the present day and these moments feel like distant memories. Daniels transferred to Georgia as the presumed starter following a season-ending knee injury in 2019, but former walk-on Stetson Bennett IV eventually pushed him out en route to a national title. Harrell was fired with Clay Helton’s staff at USC last year. Brown sits with a 17-18 record at WVU, the program’s worst three-year stretch since 2014.
On Wednesday, the three officially partnered up in Morgantown after Daniels committed to the Mountaineers as a transfer. Now, Brown, Harrell and Daniels all have a rare opportunity to rewrite their stories on the same stage.
West Virginia has been wildly inconsistent on offense under Brown despite running a quarterback-friendly, Air Raid-inspired system. After ranking No. 8 nationally in total offense in Dana Holgorsen’s final season, the ‘Eers have never finished higher than 50th in any of Brown’s three seasons. In 2021 alone, WVU scored fewer than 20 points six times and quarterback Jarret Doege ranked among the three least-efficient passers in the Big 12.
Perhaps the biggest letdown was that Brown’s passing offense sputtered right as the rest of the program came together. Running back Leddie Brown rushed for 1,000 yards in each of the past two seasons. Defensive linemen Dante and Darius Stills led top-40 defenses, including the No. 4 unit in 2020. Regardless, the passing offense left WVU in the…
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