West Virginia promotes for offensive coordinator

West Virginia offensive coordinator Graham Harrell decided to leave for the offensive play calling opportunity at Purdue back in mid-December.

Now, over a month later and after weighing some options, Neal Brown has his new offensive coordinator in Morgantown.

Chad Scott, who has been alongside Brown for well over a decade and coaches the Mountaineers running backs, has been announced as the team's new offensive coordinator. He has worked under Brown at Kentucky, Texas Tech, and Troy, and was a teammate of Brown's at Kentucky.

"Chad knows what our strengths are, and he has earned this opportunity. I have coached with him for 13 years, and I trust him and the positive energy he brings every day to our team," Brown shared in the school's release.

"Coach Scott has been a part of elite offenses in the past at Troy, Texas Tech and North Carolina and that experience has prepared him for this leadership role. The fact that he has built strong relationships with our players and is a tremendous teacher of the game will have a positive effect on our entire offensive unit."

2023 will mark Scott's fifth season on staff at West Virginia, and he held the offensive coordinator title for the first three seasons before stepping into the run game coordinator role this past fall. He will continue to coach the running backs for the team.

Before coming to Morgantown, he served as the tight ends / hybrids coach at North Carolina from 2016-18.

The promotion, which still leaves a vacancy for Brown's staff at quarterbacks coach, comes as Neal Brown enters a crucial year five with the program.

He is coming off a disappointing 5-7 finish last fall and is 22-25 overall in Morgantown, with a 6-4 finish in 2020 his best season with the Mountaineers. That year ended with a win over a nine-win Army squad in the Liberty Bowl.

According to reports back in December, Marshall offensive coordinator / quarterbacks coach Clint Trickett was among the candidates being considered for the role, but he ultimately opted to remain with the Thundering Herd.

See the clip of Brown delivering the news of Scott's promotion below.

"I was thinking about, when I started this search, here's what I was looking for," he opens by telling the team.

"I was looking for a teacher. Someone that could go into a classroom, in front of a large group of people and be able to deliver a message and be able to motivate, and teach. Then I was looking for someone that could develop relationships, and then someone who was centered around development and knew that we had to develop guys."

"The guy that earned this opportunity, and will make the most of it, is Chad Scott."  

So far, there have been 45 offensive coordinator changes in major college football.

Stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.