Nespor: When Faced With Uncertainty, Wren Baker Turns to the Familiar

They say three times is a pattern, but just twice might be enough in this case to see a trend with WVU athletic director Wren Baker.

Twice during Wren Baker’s tenure in Morgantown, the Mountaineers lost a head coach after just one season and both times, Baker replaced them with someone he had already worked with before. Two years ago it was Mark Kellogg replacing Dawn Plitzuweit. Now, it’s Ross Hodge replacing Darian DeVries.

Barker did not hire Plitzuweit, his predecessor Shane Lyons did, but he was still left to pick up the pieces after she bolted to Minnesota after just one season in 2023. The ensuing search led Baker to Kellogg, whom he had hired at Northwest Missouri State a decade earlier.

The process for hiring Hodge is very similar. Baker hired DeVries last season following the dreadful 2023-24 season under interim head coach Josh Eilert. After a promising performance this season, DeVries was hired away by Indiana despite a strong attempt by Baker to retain him. In response, Baker has hired Hodge, another coach he had hired previously. Baker’s history with Hodge is more recent than it was with Kellogg, having hired Hodge as a member of Grant McCasland’s staff at North Texas in 2017.

While the processes for making each hire are similar, the glaring difference between Kellogg and Hodge is their experience.

Kellogg looked like a strong hire for WVU at the time and has looked like a grand slam in the two seas since. After being hired to Northwest Missouri State by Baker in 2012, Kellogg was a head coach in Division I just three seasons later at Stephen F. Austin. He averaged over 24 wins per season in eight years at SFA, making two NCAA Tournaments and three WNIT appearances.

Since coming to Morgantown, Kellogg is 50-16 and has turned the Mountaineers into a perennial Top 25 team. WVU has made the NCAA Tournament in both seasons under Kellogg and won a game each time, most recently losing in the second round to North Carolina on Monday.

On paper, Hodge is not as good of a hire for the Mountaineers as Kellogg was. After being hired by Baker at UNT, Hodge spent six seasons as McCasland’s associate head coach. He was promoted to head coach when McCasland went to Texas Tech two years ago. In two seasons at the helm of North Texas, Hodge is 46-23 with two NIT appearances. The Mean Green are still currently playing this season, scheduled to play in the NIT Final Four on April 1.

Hodge also has five seasons of head coaching experience at the junior college level, where he was 146-24. Kellogg spent 10 years as a Divison II head coach, compiling a 250-65 record. Kellogg had been a head coach, at any level, for 18 seasons when Baker hired him at WVU. Hodge only has seven years of head coaching experience in total.

The hope for WVU fans now is that Hodge can replicate the quick success Kellogg has had with the women’s team. Given his limited resume, the excitement for Hodge’s hire isn’t there right now but if he wins like Kellogg has, no one will care how the hire looked on paper.

For a related story, opposing coaches from around the country shared their thoughts on WVU hiring Ross Hodge.