North Texas is expected to hire former West Virginia and Troy head coach Neal Brown to lead the Mean Green football program, sources confirm to Dave Campbell’s Texas Football. Brown, 45, is currently the special assistant to the head coach at Texas after spending six years in charge of the Mountaineers in the Big 12 Conference. We reported on Sunday that Brown was the favorite to land the job. 

He led West Virginia to a 37-35 record over that time, winning nine games in 2023 and leading the program to bowl games in four of his last five seasons. He was excellent the last time he led a G5 program, elevating Troy to three double-digit seasons from 2016-18, winning a Sun Belt Conference championship in 2017. 

Brown, 45, played for Air Raid pioneers Hal Mumme and Mike Leach at Kentucky, his home state, before transferring to UMass. He worked at Troy under Tony Franklin as a wide receiver coach and spent three years in Texas was the Red Raiders’ offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach from 2010-12. 

North Texas is in the job market because current head coach Eric Morris is moving on to Oklahoma State after the conclusion of the 2025 season. Morris and the Mean Green are 11-1 and play Tulane for the AC championship on Friday night in New Orleans. The winner gets an auto-bid into the College Football Playoff. Morris is in Year 3 at North Texas and this will be his only winning season. 

Brown was hired because he fit a similar profile to Morris: an offensive-minded coach with head coaching experience. He’ll need to hit the ground running to salvage a recruiting class and work on hitting the transfer portal. The Mean Green expect to lose most of their coaching staff, including defensive coordinator Skyler Cassity, to Oklahoma State. A mass exodus of starters is also expected. 

Brown’s first game as head coach at North Texas will be a trip to Indiana to face a Hoosiers squad that is about to reach the CFP for the second straight year. The rest of the non-conference schedule includes home games against UNLV and Houston Christian, as well as a road game against Texas State. 

Dates are unavailable for the American Conference games, but the opponents are known. The Mean Green will host UAB, Charlotte, FAU, and Rice while playing away games at Tulane, Tulsa, UTSA, and Navy. 

ESPN was first to report. The deal is expected to be for five years.