WVU Football
WVU Football Wraps Interviews in Head Coach Search, Decision Soon
WVU fans don’t have their answer or an announcement yet, but they now do have a timeline. West Virginia’s search for its next head coach will officially conclude this week.
According to a report by ESPN’s Pete Thamel, WVU is finished conducting interviews and is now firmly in the decision making phase of the process. WVU director of athletics Wren Baker and other school officials will now meet and make their decision over the next 24-48 hours.
Sources: West Virginia has completed in-person interviews for the school's next football coach and school officials are expected to make a decision in the next 24-48 hours.
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) December 11, 2024
This news closes a day in which fans were expecting the program to announce the return of Rich Rodriguez for his second tenure as head coach of the Mountaineers.
The anticipation for the Rodriguez even caused some to speculate that Pat McAfee was going to break the news during his show. That didn’t happen.
Instead, McAfee simply hosted a typical version of show full of mostly NFL talk after another week’s worth of games, granted he did wear West Virginia gear throughout, and only addressed the rumors at the end of the program.
“West Virginia is a massive part of this whole discussion about college ball going forward,” said McAfee.
But after hyping up WVU, he then popped the balloon of the fans hoping for McAfee to announce the return of his old coach Rich Rodriguez, at least for now.
“I think whoever Wren Baker hires is gonna be great for West Virginia. I do not know who is getting hired at West Virginia,” added McAfee to end the speculation that he’s harboring the news until WVU gives him the green light to reveal it all.
McAfee also made it clear the announcement is not scheduled to happen live on his show, although he would obviously be open to doing that.
WVU president Gordon Gee spoke candidly about the situation on Tuesday night at the Sports Business Journal Awards.
“I think he would be well received by a large set of our population. He left in a very unruling matter. If he were to come back it would have to be as a prodigal son. Can he come back? I don’t know. I’ve come back twice,” said Gee when asked the possibility of Rodriguez returning to West Virginia.
So far this week in the midst of more rumors and reports, the only thing we know for sure is Penn State offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki has taken his name out of the running after many in the media, including WV Sports Now, reported that he was a leading finalist for the job.
