Move Over, Bubba! Pat McAfee Calls DeVries 'Public Enemy Number One in West Virginia'

West Virginia fans are furious with Darian DeVries' decision to leave for Indiana.

Feb 5, 2025; New Orleans, LA, USA; Pat McAfee on the Pat McAfee Show set at the Super Bowl LIX media center at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

West Virginia fans have been extremely upset and frustrated with coaches leaving the university before, namely Rich Rodriguez, but Darian DeVries bolting for Indiana after one year has a little different feel to it.

The Mountaineers had a long run of success between three coaches - Gale Catlett, John Beilein, and Bob Huggins, spanning from 1978-2023. Since Huggins resigned two years ago, the basketball program has hit some turbulence. They went 9-23 a year ago under interim head coach Josh Eilert, were snubbed from the NCAA Tournament just a couple of days ago, and now, lost their rising star of a coach after just one season.

Although it was a small sample size, it looked like Darian DeVries was well on his way to getting the program back on track and could be eventually thrown into that group of coaches that helped WVU basketball be so successful over the years.

West Virginia alum Pat McAfee gave his reaction to DeVries leaving for Indiana during his show Wednesday afternoon on ESPN.

“He is maybe public enemy number one right now in West Virginia. Bubba Cunningham maybe got dropped down a bit. DeVries is now public enemy number one. That’s going to happen. This guy became the head coach at West Virginia less than a year ago. I thought he was going to do some special things with West Virginia. Then him saying it was going to take something special for him to leave Drake to go to West Virginia and then in his opening press conference, he’s talking about building something special and all of that type of stuff. Leaving after one year, especially with what just happened by the NCAA to the West Virginia basketball team and how West Virginia people are feeling, to begin with, not very well received in the state of West Virginia.”

Darian DeVries is public enemy number one in West Virginia right now..

He's a really good basketball coach which is why EVERYBODY in West Virginia is so mad #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/6tbiybTs7t

— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) March 19, 2025

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