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List of Candidates to Be Next WVU Football Head Coach

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WVU Football Milan Puskar Stadium

Now that it’s time for the WVU football program to find its next head coach, who are some of the possible candidates for the job?

WV Sports Now compiled a list of the names being thrown around. This list includes coaches who are either in rumors, being constantly brought up, have been actually reported or can be confirmed as a legitimate candidate.

This list is in no particular order

Coaches with West Virginia or WVU Tiesย 

Jimbo Fisher – Unemployed

Rich Rodriguez – Jacksonville Stateย 

Rich Rodriguezโ€™s WVU tenure was obviously elite, but heโ€™s basically had only one great season within the Power Four (then Power Five) level at both Michigan and Arizona combined. He won 10 games and led Arizona to an appearance in the 2014 Pac-12 Championship Game (thanks to winning a division, a format and path that wonโ€™t exist in the Big 12).

And when looking more recently at what heโ€™s doing at Jacksonville State, yes, heโ€™s having success and deserves credit for that, but itโ€™s not like heโ€™s steamrolling that schedule and his big turnaround is due to dropping three-straight games to open the season, something that if happens at WVU, fans would freak out before even allowing him to fix the year.

Tony Gibson – North Carolina State DC

Anthony Becht – St. Louis Battlehawks HC in UFLย 

Anthony Becht discussed his aspirations to coach in college football over the NFL while talking with Mike Asti of WV Sports Now in the press box prior to kickoff on Saturday night.

After hearing Becht bring up his plans to โ€œget where I want to beโ€ as far as furthering his coaching career, Asti then asked if he was alluding to wanting to coach in the NFL. Becht replied by correcting that thought and saying heโ€™s actually striving to coach in college football.

โ€œNo, Iโ€™ve had opportunities to go the NFL and Iโ€™ve passed. Right now for me, college coach is where I want to be. I want to be a head coach in college.โ€ He then gave a โ€œweโ€™ll seeโ€ when asked if heโ€™d be willing to go the assistant route and work his way up within the college ranks.

Group of 5 Coaches

Barry Odom – UNLV

Charles Huff – Marshall (coaching in West Virginia)ย 

Bob Chesney – JMU

Jon Jumrall – Tulane

Ryan Silverfield – Memphis

Jason Candle – Toledo

Tim Albin – Ohio

Power Four Coordinators

Andy Kotelnicki – Penn State OC

WVSN can confirm Kotelnicki s on the interview list.

Shannon Dawson – Miami OC

Glenn Schumann – Georgia DC

Others

Dan Mullen – Unemployedย 

Kliff Kingsbury – Washington Commanders OC in NFL

Names Mentioned Not in the Runningย 

Nick Saban – Retired

The day after WVU announced the firing of Neal Brown, Pat McAfee reiterated that he is willing to help the program find their next head coach, but that coach is just not going to be his friend and ESPN colleague Nick Saban.

โ€œCoach Saban isnโ€™t getting back into coaching but I do believe he is interested in helping West Virginia,โ€ said McAfee.

For a related story, Mike Asti and Cody Nespor talked with fans about the Neal Brown firing and possible candidates to become the next WVU football head coach.

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