Possible Candidates for WVU’s New LB/ST Coach

This week is was reported that WVU special teams coordinator and inside linebackers coach Blake Seiler will be leaving West Virginia to be the defensive coordinator at Old Dominion.

Seiler’s departure creates the second vacancy on WVU’s coaching staff this offseason with outside receivers coach Xavier Dye leaving for South Florida last month.

While Seiler was an outside hire this season by way of Kansas State, head coach Neal Brown has a pattern of hiring personnel he has worked with previously. When Brown became WVU’s head coach in January, he brought with him several assistant coaches from his last job at Troy, including co-offensive coordinator and offensive line coach Matt Moore and defensive coordinator Vic Koenning.

Just like at the outside receivers coach position, there are several coaches Brown has experience with that could fill the vacancy left by Seiler.

Jon Sumrall – Inside Linebackers, Kentucky

Sumrall was a part of Brown’s first staff while at Troy in 2014. With the Trojans Sumrall was the assistant head coach, serving as special teams coordinator and focusing on linebackers. Sumrall was with Brown for almost his entire tenure at Troy, becoming the linebackers coach at Ole Miss in 2018. Sumrall was named the inside linebackers coach at Kentucky in 2019. Prior to Troy Sumrall coaches at Tulane and the University of San Diego.

Brandon Hall – Defensive Coordinator/Safeties, Troy

Hall joined Brown’s staff at Troy in 2017, as the special teams coordinator and outside linebackers coach. After Brown and then-Troy defensive coordinator Vic Koenning left for WVU last year, Hall was elevated to defensive coordinator. Before Troy Hall was the co-defensive coordinator at Jacksonville State for four seasons and coached under Guz Malzahn at Arkansas State and eventually Auburn prior to that.

Ron West – Senior Analyst (Defense), West Virginia

Rather than Brown, West has prior history with Koenning. West coached linebackers while Koenning was the defensive coordinator at North Carolina in 2013-14. He was also the outside linebackers and special teams coach at Illinois while Koenning was there in 2010-11. Before coming to WVU as an analyst before this season, West spent three years as the co-offensive line coach at Georgia Tech. Before North Carolina, West coached for ten years at Clemson and made stops at Tulsa and Arizona State in addition to Illinois.

Shayne Wasden – Head Coach, Faulkner

Wasden is a longtime Trojan coach, he was at Troy during both of Brown’s stints there. Wasden coached wide receivers for 11 seasons before taking over the tight ends positions. He also coaches Troy’s special teams. Before Troy Wasden was a high school coach for 11 seasons. In 2018 Wasden was named the head coach at Faulkner and then stepped down from the position one year later.

Brandon ‘Bam’ Hardmon – Outside Linebackers, Troy

Hardmon was another member of Brown’s original staff at Troy. Hardmon began his coaching career at Illinois after a number of seasons in the NFL as a graduate assistant at Illinois, under Koenning. From there Hardmon coached two seasons at Idaho before joining the Trojans’ staff as a linebackers coach.