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Kansas State Football should hire Neal Brown as their head coach

By John McCarty

LINCOLN, NE - SEPTEMBER 15: Head coach Neal Brown of the Troy Trojans watches the team warm up before the game against the Nebraska Cornhuskers at Memorial Stadium on September 15, 2018 in Lincoln, Nebraska. (Photo by Steven Branscombe/Getty Images)
LINCOLN, NE - SEPTEMBER 15: Head coach Neal Brown of the Troy Trojans watches the team warm up before the game against the Nebraska Cornhuskers at Memorial Stadium on September 15, 2018 in Lincoln, Nebraska. (Photo by Steven Branscombe/Getty Images) /
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The next coach for Kansas State football should be Neal Brown, who is currently the head coach at Troy. Brown has done wonders for Troy and could do the same for a K-State team that is going to be rebuilding these next few years.

Coaching searches take twists and turns, sometimes with expected results and sometimes things can go awry at the last moment. After days of looking like Kansas State Athletic Director Gene Taylor targeted and would hire North Texas coach Seth Littrell, negotiations fell apart seemingly at the last hour, resulting in Littrell removing his name from consideration.

With remaining candidates mentioned to be Memphis head coach Mike Norvell and North Dakota State’s Chris Klieman along with Neal Brown, the three names present an interesting view of the approach at Kansas State. While both Norvell and Brown are young (neither is yet 40) and offensive minded coaches, Kleiman is 51 and has a coaching background on defense.

Brown’s Troy squad, with a bowl victory, will secure their third consecutive ten win season. While Brown’s background is offense, it has been the Troy defense that has helped win the day for the Trojans. In the past three seasons, the Troy defense has ranked in the top 25 nationally in points allowed.

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That is significant and what separates Brown from Norvell at Memphis. The Tigers defense under Norvell has never ranked higher than 69th nationally. That ranking was in 2016, and the Memphis defense has been worse the past two seasons.

Troy has also shown an ability of rising the occasion. Winning games on the road at LSU in 2017 and at Nebraska in 2018, along with consecutive bowl wins and consecutive conference championship game appearances, and the program comes ready and able to play.

If we point this out for Neal Brown, we have to point out Chris Kleiman at North Dakota State has won games at both Iowa and Iowa State and his career winning percentage is over 90. Kleiman has also won three National Championships at the FCS level with the Bison program.

The concern with Kleiman is simply he’s coaching at the FCS level, a significant step down from the Big 12. While the NDSU program may compare nicely on an early season Saturday, it’s far different from having the necessary talent and preparation needed to  compete week in and week out.

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How much did Craig Bohl, Kleiman’s predecessor, have on the program’s success? Kleiman took over a program coming off three straight national titles. Regardless of the level, that is very impressive.

The situation at Troy also has similar parallels to the Kansas State job. The field at Troy bears the name of Brown’s predecessor, who retired as the winningest coach in the program history despite a slip in performance in his last couple seasons. Those were big shoes to fill and Brown has done an exemplary job.

The reason why Brown is a better choice is simply that he is winning games, recruiting and competing at a higher level. Brown has coached, albeit as an assistant, at major programs in the Big 12 and the SEC. He has that experience.

Kleiman spent one season in 1997 at Kansas. Beyond that, Kleiman has never coached at any point any the top levels of the game.

Neal Brown has had far more success than Mike Norvell at similar conferences. Troy is in the Sunbelt while Memphis is in the American conference. Memphis had a ten win season in 2017 bracket by two eight-win outings.

Troy has been better and has won more impressive games against bigger names. Memphis was blown out by a solid, but not dominating Missouri program this season.

Simply put, Troy is a better program than Memphis. Simply put, Neal Brown is the best man for the Kansas State football head coach job.

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