Everything Neal Brown does is fast. He became an offensive coordinator at 28 in 2008, at the time the youngest in college football. His offenses have been among the fastest in college football since then; his Texas Tech offense led the nation in plays per game in 2011. And after it made him college football's youngest play-caller seven seasons ago, Troy officially made Brown the nation's second-youngest head coach at a Monday morning press conference.
Back where his FBS coaching career began, Brown expects to hit the ground sprinting with his Ricky Bobby offense. "The system here is very similar to when I was here, they've made some tweaks as everybody has, Brown said. "The receiver play has been solid, the quarterback has been very good. The pieces are in place."
The speed with which and his offense and career trajectory operate apparently rubbed off on his new boss, because Troy athletics director John Hartwell ramped the expectations up to warp speed at a program that went 3-9 this season and is 17-31 since 2011.
"They're going to talk about Troy football in the same breath as they talk about Boise and Northern Illinois," Hartwell said. "They're going to say, 'We don't want to play them because they're going to kick our tails.'"
Hartwell explained why he zeroed in on Brown after a four-hour plus conversation in Brown's Lexington basement where Brown sold himself as a guy who's done more with less his entire life, first as an undersized receiver from a small Kentucky town, then as a player at underdog programs at Kentucky and Massachusetts, and then as a coach in the FCS ranks and Troy, and later at Texas Tech and Kentucky, middle-class schools in upscale conferences.
"There were three things that stood out that we felt were the most important things. One, a recruiting machine. Someone who can go out and find us the very best players," he said. "Not only what that person does, but the staff they assemble around them. Number two, certainly bringing a proven history of accountability and discipline to our football team. I know some of our staff members were in Neal's first meeting with the team this morning and I'll tell you what, there was a Come to Jesus in there.
"And then the third item is kind of a nebulous term: the fit. We were looking for someone that fit Troy. It wasn't a requisite that you had been here before, but it certainly was a plus with Neal."
"We will be a player's first program," Brown said, repeating a proverb he learned working on Larry Blakeney's staff. "We're going to be fast, we're going to play hard, and we're going to be physical. When people talk about Troy football, they're going to say, 'Those guys played hungry.'"
Brown said his experiences uniquely prepared him for the job he's stepping into at Troy. He followed a legend at Texas Tech in taking over play-calling duties from Mike Leach, and had a front-row seat in what it's like to be a first-time head coach in working for Mark Stoops the past two years. "I thought I was ready then. I know I'm ready now," he said. "Troy's won at every level, and we will continue to do that here."
Brown will earn $660,000 a year on a four-year contract that rolls over to five as long as reasonable expectations are met and he doesn't "go out and rob a bank" as Hartwell put it, and the salary pool for Brown's assistants will be $1.2 million. Blakeney earned $518,788 in 2014 according to the USA Today coaching salary database.
As an offense first-head coach that will retain play-calling duties, Brown acknowledged his defensive coordinator hire is absolutely critical.
But unlike everything else in his career, don't expect Brown to go fast on this one. "It's important for me to get it right than get it done," he said.