By Kyle Golik
Following West Virginia’s 31-21 win over UCF that clinched bowl eligibility for the 41st time in Mountaineer history, head coach Neal Brown attempted to be David Letterman when he was asked about the weather advantage, “Last time I talked about the weather y’all blew it up.”
It wasn’t the ideal tailgating weather in Morgantown for the UCF game, it was the cold November rain with grey skies that had an ominous feeling for where the Mountaineer program is right now.
West Virginia concluded arguably its worst home slate in decades earning its second win at Mountaineer Field. The announced attendance for Senior Day was 40,722, a far cry from the 60,000 it can officially hold.
As athletic director Wren Baker canvassed the sights for the 2024 finale, he has to reflect on how a program spiraled from great expectations and a campus that was booming with Pat McAfee for Penn State week to the point he can’t drive in Morgantown without seeing a billboard either supporting or firing Neal Brown.
The decision will come soon enough, economics will play a factor, but ultimately when Baker blows it up and Brown departs, whether it is to his alma mater in Massachusetts or Baker doing, he needs to hit a home run with his replacement.
West Virginia hopes Fairmont native Nick Saban will do the program a “solid,” but that is very unrealistic.
More Sports News
Instead, it needs to look at Clarksburg native, who is part of the Nick Saban coaching tree, in Jimbo Fisher as head coach.
With me already introducing the Mountain State connection, let’s not waste any more time on this reason as Baker is to get this Fisher but it certainly helps.
Why does Jimbo Fisher work for West Virginia?
The last time an athletic director had to make a seismic selection of this nature, you could look at what Shane Lyons did with the Dana Holgorsen departure and where Neal Brown is as one or when Oliver Luck handled the Bill Stewart/Dana Holgorsen saga. Those were certainly acts of consequence, but Baker should look at Ed Pastilong’s major decision on the hardwood.
After West Virginia won the NIT in 2007, men’s basketball head coach John Bielein departed for the same position at Michigan. While Rich Rodriguez would do the same thing at the end of the 2007 football season and Pastilong would promote Stewart into the role, I feel how Pastilong approached Bielein’s departure is similar to the Brown situation of having a big-name coach with a West Virginia connection available.
It always seemed Bob Huggins was destined to be West Virginia’s men’s basketball coach after he had to resign from Cincinnati. Kansas State was a rehabilitation to Huggins’ image and Pastilong realized he had an opportunity to give the men’s basketball program a major boost.
While the nature of Huggins’ departure from Cincinnati involved substance abuse, nothing remotely close to what Fisher’s baggage contains, Fisher does have to answer for the tailspins at the end of his times at Florida State and Texas A&M.
Fisher clashed with Florida State administrators at the end, he almost orchestrated his own departure from Tallahassee leaving a bare cupboard that Willie Taggart and Mike Norvell had to deal with. When you look at what happened at Texas A&M, following landing arguably one the greatest recruiting classes by metrics in the Class of 2022 that had 8 five-star and 19 four-star recruits in it, Fisher could not perform after his infamous “God Rant” about Nick Saban.
What Baker has to get is a commitment from Fisher of this is where he wants to be, and when you look at Fisher’s resume, he has coached throughout the SEC and ACC, won a national championship, and appeared in a slew of New Year’s Six bowls, I feel Fisher is in it more for being a coach.
It is the sort of resume that Baker needs for a home run.
If Baker were to look at Barry Odom, who’s already listed as a candidate, it is Neal Brown 2.0 all over again.
Odom had an opportunity at Missouri to be successful and yielded no better results than Brown. If you think Odom had restrictions at Missouri, look no further at Odom’s successor Eli Drinkwitz and see he has Missouri firmly as a Top 20 program. If Drinkwitz can close out 2024 with wins, he can join Gary Pinkel as the only Missouri coaches with consecutive 10-win seasons in program history. Drinkwitz also joined Pinkel and Dan Devine as the only Missouri coaches with New Year’s Six bowl wins.
I applaud Odom’s work at UNLV, but much like Brown he isn’t a Power 4 coach and it would be another Group of 5 retread for Baker that if it did not work it would cost him his job later.
For Fisher, if he just wants to coach, West Virginia has direct access to the College Football Playoff without the rigors of the SEC and Big Ten. If Fisher can navigate the travel schedule, with conference games from Orlando to Tempe, that will certainly enhance his odds. What Fisher will contend with is limited budgets, West Virginia while it pours all it can in its Country Roads Trust, it isn’t at the levels of Division Street (Oregon) or Boulevard Collective (SMU), but they aren’t afraid to go bold.
At this junction, Baker has no alternative but to go bold and needs to make a bold hire. I don’t see a fast-rising assistant that would be that equivalent like when West Virginia got a Don Nehlen from Michigan, Rich Rodriguez from Clemson, or Dana Holgorsen from Oklahoma State. Getting a retread like Odom will come back to bite Baker and stymie his own career, Fisher brings inherent risks but it is the spark West Virginia needs. They can ill afford stadiums two-thirds full like they did against UCF, after the Brown debacle they need a home run.
