Wren Baker understands that his job is to put whoever he hires in the best position to succeed.
The Mountaineers are currently searching for the 36th head football coach after moving on from Neal Brown and while that is the primary focus the program also is looking toward the future. That’s because West Virginia expects to be at full or near full participation in revenue sharing once that number is determined.
That is critical with the way that college football is heading due to the House vs. NCAA settlement where schools will have the ability to pay student athletes directly. That makes finding somebody who understands how to use that salary cap a key part of the job moving forward.
“I have a job to do to make sure all the puzzle pieces are on the table for whoever we hire. And then we hire the best person to assemble those puzzle pieces,” Baker said.
Hiring a head coach now is more than simply understanding schematics and requires that person to understand how to manage that cap when building a roster. That extends to staffing talent evaluators and having a plan for the economic side to help make decisions on how much to spend on certain position groups as well as how much to spend on a player in that position group.
The numbers are all connected.
West Virginia currently ranks in the bottom half in some of the key metrics across the league which doesn’t meet the expectations of the fan base in the top half. When West Virginia made the transition to the Big 12, the Mountaineers encountered a league that for the most part was full of well-funded schools largely located in the state of Texas. That meant that the program had to play catch up.
“Unfortunately, they aren’t sitting there waiting for us to catch up, everybody else is growing,” Baker said.
But that’s where the revenue sharing piece could be a major development for the program moving forward with the commitment in that department.
“One of the things we’re making sure we really do, particularly when it comes to rev share is making sure we’re in that top third because all of those things are important, but rev share has moved to the top the list by far in terms of most important if you want to consistently be competitive and to be able to retain those rosters,” Baker said.
The Mountaineers also currently have the lowest number of suites and club areas in the Big 12 and there is set to be a focus on developing renovation plans and raising money to increase that in the New Year.
“And those premium seats it isn’t just so you have something shiny and new there’s big dollars that come in with those,” Baker said.
But for now, the focus is on the revenue-sharing piece in order to put the program in the best spot.
“We have a really good plan to be full participants in the rev share which will give us the best chance to compete that we’ve had in quite some time,” Baker said.
-----------
Get a FREE subscription to WVSports.com until the spring! Follow along with the coaching search, recruiting, basketball, and more!
Sign Up Now ☞ https://westvirginia.rivals.com/sign_up?promo_code=WVUSEARCH
----------
• Talk about it with West Virginia fans on The Blue Lot.
• SUBSCRIBE today to stay up on the latest on Mountaineer sports and recruiting.
• Get all of our WVU videos on YouTube by subscribing to the WVSports.com Channel
• Follow us on Twitter: @WVSportsDotCom, @rivalskeenan, @wesleyshoe
