DeVries Didn't Give WVU a Chance to Make a Counter Following Indiana's Offer

Wren Baker lays out how the last few days of talks went with Darian DeVries.

Contract terms of Darian DeVries' deal with Indiana are reported to be nearly $5 million per year through the 2030-31 season.

West Virginia athletic director Wren Baker told reporters during a press conference on Wednesday that he and the administration were prepared to have the necessary things in place to make staying at West Virginia, a possibility. He called their pursuit of retention, "aggressive."

“From a resource perspective, we’re prepared to stretch what we have, but there are certainly people in college athletics who have more money. I think you’re always thinking about competition. We sat down, and I think I first talked to his agent (in) early February that, hey, we want to make sure we reward his success, and I sat down with him several times over the last few weeks to talk about his contract, his compensation, what we could do there. I think we had a really good shared vision of what we needed to do to continue to build on the program. I mean, pretty much every job that was open inquired to see if he would have interest in talking. To my knowledge, he only talked to one, so I don’t think it was a situation where he didn’t feel good about here.”

Unfortunately, WVU didn't get to make one last pitch in an effort to give Indiana the stiff arm.

“I made it clear to him that we would like a chance to counter if there was an offer that came from Indiana. Just the way it unfolded, we didn’t get that chance.”

Baker said that West Virginia's offer to DeVries was "competitive" and felt like there was a realistic chance he would have stayed had there been a chance for a counter. Instead, Indiana will now pay West Virginia north of $6 million to buyout DeVries' contract, which can be used toward the hiring/buyout of the next WVU head coach.

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