Pros, Cons of Top Candidates to Become Next WVU Football Head Coach

Names of possible candidates have been flying around ever since the WVU football program announced the firing of Neal Brown, and some have even been out there for weeks and months prior to the news becoming official on Sunday evening. But now that we are knee deep in this coaching search, it’s time to cut down that list and dive further into the names we feel make the most sense or we believe are a serious candidate for the job.

These are in no particular order 

Jimbo Fisher – Unemployed

Jimbo Fisher certainly doesn’t have the perfect track record and his previous school did throw tons of money his way to get rid of him. However, Fisher feels like the most realistic name that would inject an instant national buzz.

Fisher’s Texas A&M tenure provides reasonable pause – he only went 45-25 with the Aggies with all of their resources. And while he did win a national title with Florida State and compiled a much better 83-23 overall record in double the amount of time, his Texas A&M experience stands out since it’s more recent.

But with all of that said, he’s always been a great recruiter, he would get elicit national interest, including from the major TV networks, he would be a great story as a successful coach from the state coming home and he has won before.

“You don’t ever say never in this business. Home is Home,” said Fisher in September of 2022 when asked if he would be interested in coaching WVU one day.

Rich Rodriguez – Jacksonville State 

Because there will always be WVU fans who bring up Rich Rodriguez and want him back coaching the Mountaineers, the total picture of his coaching career needs discussed to show why there’s no guarantee his return would lead to success.

Rodriguez’s WVU tenure was obviously elite, but he’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 won’t exist in the Big 12).

Asti: Keeping It Real on Rich Rodriguez, Why His Return to WVU Wouldn’t Guarantee Success

And when looking more recently at what he’s doing at Jacksonville State, yes, he’s having success and deserves credit for that, but it’s not like he’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.

It’s also fair to bring up that he’s not exactly playing a schedule anything close to what he would have in the Big 12/WVU’s usual OOC slate. Say what you want about the Big 12 lacking any great or elite team that can contend for a national title, there are still four teams ranked in the current College Football Playoff and the Associated Press’ poll. Rodriguez will never have four ranked teams to worry about in a conference like Conference USA. Period.

For the positives, Rodriguez would excite many notable alums and obviously has won big before at WVU, granted in a different era of the sport. He would recruit to his style, a style led by a dual-threat quarterback, something many WVU fans want to be the norm anyway. Rodriguez’s teams would no doubt be exciting and donations would likely flood in.

Andy Kotelnicki – Penn State OC 

West Virginia is expected to interview Penn State offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki for the now open WVU head coaching job.

WV Sports Now has heard through a source that Kotelnicki is a candidate to take over the Mountaineers.

This news was confirmed to WVSN shortly after the WVU program officially announced the firing of Brown.

Source: Penn State OC Andy Kotelnicki expects to interview for the now open WVU head coach position.

— Mike J. Asti (@MikeAsti11) December 1, 2024

Kotelnicki, 43, is days away from coaching in the Big Ten Championship Game, which would be quite an accolade to have for his first season in Happy Valley.

Penn State is 11-1, and the offense, for the most part, has performed well, averaging 33.3 points per game. Under Kotelnicki’s watch, Penn State’s offense has become known for its excitement, something that the unit lacked from 2021-23 under Mike Yurcich.

Kotelnicki would be familiar with the Big 12 based on his experience at Kansas, where he led the Jayhawk offense for three seasons. However, he would be a different type of choice for Wren Baker since he does not have head coach experience.

Barry Odom – UNLV

While Barry Odom’s name may not sound as attractive as the others, he’s the top Group of 5 coach on the market. And just because it didn’t work with Brown when elevating a successful Group of 5 coach to the Power Four level, that doesn’t mean Baker won’t consider the possibility of trying it again.

Odom, 48, has UNLV, a an athletic program that’s only been on the national stage in basketball but never football, on the verge of possibly making the College Football Playoff. The Rebels have been the surprise story of the season, both for early drama and then becoming a true contender.

Odom deserves tons of credit for not letting the Matthew Sluka drama derail his team, granted he did preside over a staff accused of potential lying to a player about NIL money – a possible red flag for an athletic director like Wren Baker, who cares about finding a coach who can connect with the modern player and run a roster like a professional general manager as well as coach.

In addition to it being similar to when WVU fired Brown as the sexy Group of 5 coach who had Troy ranked by the Associated Press, detractors could point to Odom having already failed once at a major program. Odom led Missouri to a very average 25-25 mark from 2016-19, even vacating some of those wins due to NCAA violations. He was 0-2 in bowl games with the Tigers.

These are just our top candidates from our overall list as of now and can change at any time. As stated earlier, this is both made up coaches we can report are candidates and coaches we think should be.

WVU director of athletics Wren Baker made it clear he’s casting a wide net and it’s very possible someone not on this list, or maybe even not on our big board, could emerge as well.

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.