Baker Discusses WVU Football Job Opening – West Virginia University Athletics

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Unless you are Heather, Addisyn or Reagan Baker, and you might happen to have Wren Baker’s cell number, you won’t be getting any calls into him right away.
 
That’s because his phone is now in privacy mode and will remain that way until he completes his search for West Virginia University’s new football coach, the 36^th in school history. Baker spent nearly an hour Tuesday afternoon fielding questions from the media following his decision Sunday to make a leadership change in the program.
 
He confidently covered lots of ground without really tipping his hand, which is exactly what he did 11 months ago before he pried basketball coach Darian DeVries away from Drake. Baker managed to keep that process discreet until nearly all the heavy lifting was completed.
 
Baker mentioned the initial profile of potential suitors is wide open. He also indicated the candidate pool will not be limited to just head coaches or coordinators.
 
“We’ve been doing some work on it right now, and the net that we’ve cast is really wide,” he said. “We will narrow that down and start to have some conversations. Initially, those will be Zoom-type conversations and then really getting that down to a handful that we would want to see in person.
 
“I won’t establish a timeline because people will freak out when you are not on that timeline and there are a lot of things that affect the timeline. We have potential candidates who will be coaching in championship games and that kind of stuff,” Baker said.
 
In addition to on-field coaching acumen, Baker said he will be evaluating candidates based on their ability to construct rosters and manage them, as well as revenue and “salary cap” considerations. 
 
The new term he used to describe this process was capology.
 
“That’s a big part of this job now and having a plan for how you are going to staff those talent evaluators and staff the economic folks that are helping you make decisions on how much you are going to spend on a position group and how much to spend on a player in that position group because all those numbers are connected,” Baker explained. “That’s not something I am an expert in, but all of that will roll up to me. That now exists at every school, so that’s something to work through.”
 
With the early signing period beginning today, the transfer portal window opening soon and other power conference jobs potentially coming open, not to mention a bowl game appearance for the Mountaineers later this month, Baker has a lot on his plate.
 
“That was a big concern of mine going into this,” he admitted. “We have signing day (today), the portal opens on (Dec. 9) and we are hoping we can play in an earlier bowl game because I think our kids are pretty excited to stay together and play in a bowl game.
 
“If it’s a late game, the portal becomes a bigger factor for 20 days or so. Those are all factors, but you finally get to a place where you realize, ‘Hey, I can’t control any of those factors,’ and what is important is that I put us in the best window I can to make a good decision. The other jobs that have come open, if you would have asked me a month ago which jobs could come open, all of them except for maybe UCF could come open. I have a job to do to make sure all the puzzle pieces are on the table for whomever we hire and that we hire the best person to assemble those puzzle pieces.”
 
As for signing day, Baker has already lent a helping hand by answering questions from concerned prospects.
 
He appointed Chad Scott interim coach to oversee on-field activities leading up to the bowl game, while longtime strength and conditioning coach Mike Joseph will handle all the “non-football stuff.”
 
His message to Brown’s current staff is that all of them will be treated fairly during the transition period. He wants them to continue doing the job they are getting paid to do to get the team prepared for the bowl game and to keep him in the loop on any potential job opportunities.
 
“We are not going to throw anyone out,” Baker said. “My ask to them was do what’s right for our kids as long as you are an employee here, and I’ll do what’s right by you.”
 
As for the next football coach, Baker is confident the West Virginia position is appealing because of the school’s passionate fan base and a wide-open Big 12 Conference that no longer has Texas and Oklahoma.
 
WVU, being a geographic outlier in the newly expanded Big 12, provides challenges and opportunities. He cited Arizona State’s impressive turnaround this season as a motivating factor for next season.
 
“This is an attractive job, one, because of the fans,” he explained. “People know the passion of our fans, and that was important when I came here. You want to be somewhere where it matters. Then, when you look at the Big 12, everybody knows it’s wide open. What I’ve heard from people is they know this is a history-rich program, they know the Big 12 is wide open and those are really good selling points.
 
“Are there challenges to this job? Yes, but every job has its challenges. There are enough (advantages) here to be highly successful.”
 
He indicated West Virginia’s goal is to be in college football’s top third of revenue, despite some of the department’s continued resource disadvantages due to a lack of premium seating at Milan Puskar Stadium. He indicated that will be addressed publicly in the coming months.
 
Ultimately, Baker said his mission is to find the best overall candidate to do the job.
 
“If the best candidate has WVU ties, great,” he said. “If they’ve lived or worked or been in West Virginia, great, but if they are not the best candidate, that’s still the wrong decision. For me, you take all that in, but what’s really important here is that you hire somebody that has a desire and a heart to really embrace West Virginia. That is really important to people here.

“It’s important for the new coach to realize this is the state’s pro team, this program and University means a lot to the state, and you are going to have one of the most prominent positions in the state and you have to embrace that everyone in this state wants you to know a little bit about where they live and how important it is to them,” Baker added.

 

Some coaches are not suited or comfortable to living their lives in a fishbowl, which is what the head football coach at West Virginia University can represent.

 

“If you are the football coach at West Virginia University, you are the most recognizable person in this state,” he noted. “You are never going to stop and get gas or walk into a grocery store and buy anything where people don’t know who you are. You can feel the eyes following you. For some people, they can handle the pressure on game days, but they can’t handle that you can’t ever get away from it.

 

“I spend a lot of time talking about that to make sure whoever we bring in understands that because until you experience it, you don’t fully comprehend what it’s all about,” he said.

 

Baker indicated that a very competitive compensation package will be offered to the next coach, despite the buyout obligations to outgoing coach Neal Brown and his staff.

 

“It’s relative to who your target is, and you have to be competitive,” he said. “I think we’ve done a really good job here when hiring people of being fair.”

 

Baker said he will be using Parker Search to assist with the process.