SHEPHERDSTOWN — Neal Brown’s 8-4 season earned him another season of coaching at WVU. Mack Brown’s 8-4 season at North Carolina earned him the ho-hums of a partially dissatisfied fan base that was expecting more after a 6-0 start to the season.

West Virginia’s Brown can almost feel the eyes of many WVU season ticket holders watching his every off-field and on-field move. His five seasons have brought the squirms of an always restless fan base whose expectations can be a bit much for a coach whose state has a scant population, an even skimpier high school player supply and has the surrounding states of Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia full of football-loving colleges and high octane programs.

His competition is not only fierce, it is even capable of luring the few substantial in-state athletes to their schools.

Neal Brown must go to states like Florida to find his useful players. And he must then compete against all the football-loving schools that state has from Tallahassee to Miami in order to bring them to rural West Virginia from the swaying palm trees, sandy beaches and 70-degree December days of the Sunshine State.

And Neal Brown must outweigh his competitors in the now important transfer portal.

Mack Brown

Every major college now loses players to the enigmatic transfer portal. But many don’t lose players they would rather retain.

Little-used reserves, disgruntled freshmen, players already redshirted because they weren’t talented enough to play and those lower on the depth chart leave from every corner of the football universe. It’s actually recruiting the players you want to retain that becomes as important as getting athletes from the high school or transfer ranks.

Neal Brown has to outrecruit the world. He can’t just be equal in his recruiting because his in-state base of quality players is so small.

By showing an 8-4 regular season record, he literally saved his job . . . just so he can do it all over again next season.

What will the often loud fan base say if the Mountaineers lose to North Carolina? They won’t rush out and get their checks in the mail to Mountaineer athletics on Dec. 28. They won’t knock down the walls at Puskar Stadium to get in line to buy season tickets.

They’ll continue to push for better records in the bloated Big 12 and a bowl game in the expanded 12-team national championship field beginning next season.

West Virginia’s Brown has made known that center Zach Frazier won’t play in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl. Neither will running back CJ Donaldson. Both are injured.

Justin Johnson has entered into the transfer portal and won’t be available.

Freshman Jahiem White, who rushed for 337 yards on 38 carries in the season’s final two regular season games, will start.

Two players — Sullivan Weidman and DJ Oliver — who will be redshirted and have already appeared in four games will play because their redshirt status is not affected by participating in a bowl game.

Brandon Yates will start at center in place of Frazier.

North Carolina will have to do some scrambling of its own. It’s likely starting quarterback Drake Maye will not play because he wants to be healthy for the NFL draft. Connor Harrell, who only played in four games, is the likely replacement for Maye.

A win over the Tar Heels will earn Neal Brown a day or two of eased pressure — at least until the 2024 season is ready to be considered and its possibilities carved up by conjecture.