WVU AD’s Football Coach Search Mission: Find a Winner | Magazine News

In his search for West Virginia University’s next football coach, athletic director Wren Baker said there is one criteria that will most impress the fan base.

“In the 20 years I’ve been doing this, you know what I think inspires fans? “Winning,” he said on Tuesday. “I’m not worried about winning the press conference or necessarily getting people excited when they read the press release. I want someone who gives me the most confidence to come here and win.”

Baker addressed the media for the first time since Neal Brown was fired on Sunday — and likely the last time until a new head coach is named. Brown was relieved of his duties the day after WVU ended its regular season with a 52-15 loss at Texas Tech, leaving the Mountaineers at 6-6 on the season.

Now Baker is looking for a successor. He said he wasn’t looking for a specific profile, be it a dynamic personality, an offensive genius or a defensive guru. The right person will be someone who can help take WVU football to a plateau that Brown hasn’t been able to consistently reach in his six seasons as coach.

“I think we’re not limited to just head coaches or just coordinators,” he said. “We want a proven leader, someone who can understand and embrace West Virginia, someone who understands roster construction in this modern and changing world of college athletics.”

“As far as revenue sharing goes, we expect to be at or close to full revenue sharing,” Baker added. “So once we get that football number, there’s a significant RPM component and that’s a big part of the work. That wasn’t the case a few years ago, but understanding how to apply some sort of salary cap is a really important part of what you want.”

Baker said the right candidate will be someone who understands that the job goes beyond on-site coaching and extends to leading the way academically and enriching lives. He’s also looking for another coach like Brown who will lead with integrity.

“I think it’s non-negotiable,” Baker said.

Baker praised his former coach on Tuesday, praising his work as a leader in laying a strong foundation for the program. The 5th Quarter Player Development Program and the Chambers Elite Climbers Program within the 5th Quarter Program were Brown’s ideas.

“I have so much respect for him,” Baker said of Brown. “The class and integrity he displayed…If I were to dictate what a tough few days should be like, I couldn’t have made it any better or more noble than it has been.”

Baker is casting a wide net in the search for the next coach. He’ll narrow down that field over the next few days and have conversations, mostly via Zoom calls. Then he’ll narrow things down even further to look for the right group of finalists to bring to campus.

He is not speaking publicly about a timeline for the hiring. That, he said, causes people to become nervous if the search goes outside the announced schedule. However, he knows that there are events that make going slow a risk. The early signing period for football begins today. The transfer portal opens Monday and WVU players were already able to enter the portal under NCAA rules after Brown was fired.

Baker said time is of the essence when hiring a coach to give the new guy a chance to talk to recruits and players already on the roster before the windows close. But he won’t rush into anything.

“I always used the old, I think it was a John Wooden quote: Be quick, but don’t rush,” Baker said. “It is clear to me that the faster we can carry out this search, the better we can position the new employees. However, you can’t do something wrong just because you’re in a hurry, and that’s why we’ll take the time it takes.

“The reality is you want to retain as much talent as possible,” he continued. “We have some great players. We have some great people in the locker room that I would like to stay with. … I understand the faster we can go, the better we’ll be. But I just refuse to be pressured into it.”

Baker said he would hire a search firm for this search. His other criteria do not include ties to WVU or West Virginia. He didn’t have that requirement for his men’s and women’s basketball recruits. New men’s basketball coach Darian DeVries recently defeated two ranked teams in three games during the Battle 4 Atlantis. Second-year women’s basketball coach Mark Kellogg has an 8-1 record with his team and is ranked 15th in the latest Associated Press sportswriters’ poll.

Still, he has a need in the Mountain State. The new coach must understand what WVU football means to the people of West Virginia. It’s not a job that allows a shred of anonymity, and the new coach has to be ready for that.

“If you want to hold one of the most prominent positions in this institution, you will have one of the most prominent positions in the state, and you really have to embrace that,” he said. “You’ll never stop and refuel. You will never enter a supermarket. You will never go to the supermarket and buy something where people don’t know who you are.

“And that’s why I spend a lot of time talking about it and making sure that whoever we bring in understands that,” he added, “because…until you experience it, you probably don’t fully understand what it is.”