In recent years, high school athletes have increasingly found viral ways to announce their college commitments. Offensive tackle recruit Kevin Brown may have had the hottest of them all with his announcement on ESPN’s “The Pat McAfee Show” Tuesday.
After revealing his commitment to West Virginia, Brown took his phone camera outside to display a burning couch.
4-star OL recruit Kevin Brown just committed to West Virginia on Pat McAfee’s show by revealing a WVU shirt and then burning a couch in his yard. pic.twitter.com/A0A8p41YJl
— Chris Vannini (@ChrisVannini) November 18, 2025
“I’m bringing couch burning back to Morgantown, baby,” Brown exclaimed. “Let’s do it!”
“Kevin, I like that,” McAfee, a former Mountaineer himself, responded. “Kevin, I respect that.”
Brown is a four-star recruit who had originally committed to Penn State before announcing he was moving on after the firing of James Franklin. The Harrisburg, Pa. native was deciding between Ohio State, UNC and West Virginia. ESPN slated Brown as the No. 78 recruit in the class of 2026. He is the first four-star prospect in the class of 2026 for coach Rich Rodriguez.
Pat McAfee and his fellow hosts sang “Take Me Home, Country Roads” by John Denver to Brown after the announcement, a popular song among Mountaineers fans for its references to West Virginia. McAfee was a punter and kicker for West Virginia from 2005 to 2008.
Brown’s father, Tim Brown, was an offensive tackle for the Mountaineers from 1999 to 2004, during Rodriguez’s first stint as West Virginia’s coach.
Couch burning became a popular post-win tradition for West Virginia fans in the late 1990s. According to 2004 Morgantown Fire Department data, the city led the U.S. with 1,129 nuisance intentional street fires between 1997 and 2003. Between 2008 and 2012, it ranked second behind Columbus, Ohio.
However, Morgantown law enforcement has cracked down on the practice in recent years. City fire marshals gained the authority to arrest offenders in 2015, and the minimum fines for starting intentional street fires increased to $1,000.
Brown is the No. 9 offensive tackle recruit in the country, according to 247Sports. He also fielded offers from Alabama, Auburn and Boston College.