My gut says absolutely not no matter the consequence we cannot have another crappy season with Neal Brown, but….. based on some conversations i had earlier today… this is how it is shaking out… Wren doesn’t really like any coaches out there that we can reasonably obtain. He doesn’t love the idea of a coordinator and would prefer a head coach who has won at multiple stops. I’ll run down a list of some names that were thrown around and my thoughts on them.
1. Cignetti. Donors are beside themselves that he is having the kind of success he is having at Indiana in year one. Wren looks awful for passing on Cignetti, coaches with his kind of winning history at three different schools are basically unheard of and for him to be a former player? sheeeesh. It may be more possible that wren could raise neal’s buyout AND Cignetti’s buyout than just Neal’s buyout and a random coach (if that makes sense). Personal opinion is that Cignetti goes somewhere bigger after this year anyway, but rumor is he would be interested in wvu.
2. Jimbo. He is really the only other coach that donors would pony up the dough for. I don’t think Wren wants to go down that path , but it seems most probable if Neal face plants the rest of the way.
3. Chadwell/Traylor/Kinne. Was told that none of them would be interested in the wvu job.
4. Sumrall. Most likely candidate if Wren chooses to not go the donor route. It would be interesting to see the backlash on this since he is pretty tight with Neal Brown.
5. Silverfield/Candle/Clark/Helton/Odom/‘Shot in the dark OC’. I just grouped these guys all together because I don’t really like think anyone (me included) is clamoring for our new coach to be one of the guys listed.
6. Mike Jacobs. Some FCS guy.
I’m not really sure what an extra year buys you in terms of getting a better coach but I’m not so sure i want to jump out of the frying pan into the fire with any of these dudes.
What are y’all’s thoughts? And before you say “anybody but neal” lol ..,, please give it some thought , who ever we get will probably be the coach for at least the next 4-5 years.