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West Virginia made a significant move this weekend, moving on from head coach Neal Brown after six seasons.
"It was a difficult couple of days, difficult decision. Coach Brown is a tremendous, tremendous colleague in many, many ways. Everything that you would want from a leader. Did a great job helping build the infrastructure of this program. A tremendous job just making sure we’re enriching the lives of young people, that they’re being academically successful... I’ve got so much respect for him. The class, integrity that he showed. If I was to script out how you’d want a couple of hard days to go, I couldn’t have scripted him to be any better and any classier than he’s been. I’ve had a chance to talk to him several times," Baker said.
While Brown's record (37-35) did not meet many people's expectations, his contributions off the field for his players exceeded them. Brown helped create many programs and initiatives at WVU to help continue the progression of the person, not just the player.
Baker certainly didn't rush to make a decision on Brown, saying he took time throughout the season to gather all the data he could. He added that overall, it was the inability to get the big win once Brown started to build momentum.
"I think Coach Brown and I would both say every time we felt there was a chance to get some momentum, we just couldn’t get there. We didn’t play as well as we thought we could and should in that opener against Penn State. Now Penn State is very talented, and they’re going to be in the playoffs, they might win a national championship, who knows. But I think we didn’t play as well as we’d like.
"That Pitt loss certainly hurt, and then you have opportunities to get it back, a couple big opportunities here at home weren’t able to seize those. So I think really those were hard because when you had chances to get yourself back to some momentum and get back in the race for the conference championship, you couldn’t," Baker said.
While Brown was out the door, his staff was still in place throughout the past week and will be in place at least until a new coach is hired and makes his own staff decisions. This means Chad Scott will serve as the interim head coach for WVU's bowl game on Dec. 17 against Memphis.
"Want to thank Chad Scott. He has an infectious enthusiasm about him. I think he’s particularly suited for this role. You’ve got young people that have a tough thing that happens to them, then they have to rebound and get ready for a bowl game. He very quickly has rallied those guys, and the staff has been tremendous," Baker said.
Baker on Tuesday said he hopes the staff is good to West Virginia and they will be good back to them, and they were certainly giving it their all the past few days.
"So far what I told everybody is one we’re going to treat people the way we want to be treated with class, and we’re not going to just throw anybody out all of the sudden. There’s different types of contracts and different lengths on those contracts. My ask of our staff is do what’s right for our program and our kids as long as you’re an employee here, and I’ll do what’s right by you. I’m very honest about that, and they’ve all been very honest about that. I think we’re going to have a good signing day tomorrow, and that took a bunch of people reaching out to kids and their families and assuring them that this program is in a good place and we’re all working together," Baker said on Tuesday.
Baker was correct, as WVU had a great signing day, inking almost all of their class while also adding two new recruits.
"We have some really talented people here they may be getting a chance to interview or take jobs. I just ask them, as long as you’re employed by us, come in and do the best job by WVU and our kids every day and keep us updated on other opportunities. I get it, but we have a lot of really good quality people. I don’t know the exact number, but we probably have 50-60 people in this building, so when a new coach is identified, if they want to keep a lot of those people, it’s great," Baker said.
Scott has been aided by head strength and conditioning coach Mike Joseph as the two have them have taken point on most things surrounding the Mountaineers since Brown's departure.
"I did ask [Brown] for his opinion on interim leadership, and he thought Coach Scott would be great, and we have Mike Joseph. He told Coach Scott to focus on the football stuff we want to simplify this. Mike Joseph, who’s been here a long time, is very highly regarded and respected, we’ve got him on the non-football stuff. I got a text from him as I was walking in letting me know who was here today for weights and how things are going academically and those things, so we’ve asked Mike to kind of have that holistic view and Coach Scott on the football view," Baker said.
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