West Virginia University head coach Neal Brown looks across the football field at a recent game. Courtesy photo

MORGANTOWN — Neal Brown seems to be a football coach graced with a subdued composure, useful recruiting acumen and knowledge of the ever-complicated NIL portion of nowadays college sports.

He has somehow negotiated the “transfer portal” and given a responsible account in keeping his best players safely tucked away in Morgantown.

Brown is not a boastful person nor one whose aim is to bring the spotlight solely on himself. Those last two human traits are able to give him a home-state fan following that gives him their trust.

His 9-4 record in the 2023 season relieved many minds that had begun to wonder whether he was in over his head.

Coaching in the now-stuffed Big 12 Conference is far from easy and far from uncomplicated.

Texas is gone and so is Oklahoma. But of all the recent newcomers to the league, the Mountaineers will play only Arizona.

West Virginia won the Duke’s Mayo Bowl in Charlotte. “Mayo” is not the Sugar Bowl or Orange Bowl, but it sure beats spending all your winter days in Morgantown wondering whether it will be snowing that day.

Brown doesn’t brag on his team, doesn’t rile any opponent with disrespectful comments or demand the spotlight just to cast his own shadow.

After his upbringing in Kentucky, he seems comfortable and satisfied and in his element here in “Almost Heaven.”

West Virginia’s only three nonconference games this season are against Penn State, Albany and the prickly “Backyard Brawl” against Pitt.

West Virginia people carry the effects of the West Virginia-Pitt game on their shoulder and in their psyche for more than a little while.

The nine-game conference schedule consists of Kansas, Oklahoma State, Iowa State, Kansas State, Arizona, Cincinnati, Baylor, Central Florida and Texas Tech.

Should anybody expect an outright conference championship this season? Should anybody expect an invitation to the expanded NCAA playoffs or a New Year’s Day bowl?

Realistic expectations should revolve around keeping your best players out of the enigmatic “transfer portal,” winning enough games to qualify for another mayonnaise bath for the head coach and moving forward toward possibly establishing a future where winning seasons are not surprises.

Coach Brown has a likeable personality. Likeable personalities don’t win games — but they make enduring unremarkable seasons so much easier.