During his time speaking with the media on Tuesday afternoon, WVU Athletic Director Wren Baker was asked an important question and one that many candidates for the WVU Football head coach position are also wondering.
Baker was asked that after several season of the Mountaineers not being in any sort of national contention, what makes the WVU an attractive job and why. The AD had plenty of reasons he believes the job is a great one.
“I think it’s an attractive job, one, because of the fans…People know the passion of our fans and that’s really important. It was important to me when I came here. You know, you want to be somewhere where it matters to people.”
Going outside of the team, Baker went further into where WVU stands in the Big 12 conference. In the new college football, the Big 12 seemingly gets an automatic bid into the CFB even in a down year like this year.
“Then I think when you look at the Big 12, everyone knows it’s wide open. And being a geographic outlier has some disadvantages, travel is an issue and such. But it also has some advantages, right? You’re not stuck recruiting the same kids as those. You’re recruiting footprint is different.”
UCF and Auburn currently sit as the only other two major P4 programs that have a head coach vacancy. With WVU’s fanbase and growing financial resources for athletes, partnered with the opportunities to compete in the conference, Baker made a closing pitch that sums it all up.
“So what I’ve heard from people is they know this is a history rich program. They know the Big 12 is wide open, as evidenced by this year. You look at Arizona State where they were last year and where they are this year. And they know the fan support here is great and it means a lot to people. So I think those are really good selling points.”
