Should Ross Hodge Be a Serious Candidate for West Virginia?

The North Texas head coach has been linked to the Mountaineers.

Mar 15, 2025; Fort Worth, TX, USA; North Texas Mean Green head coach Ross Hodge reacts against the UAB Blazers during the first half at Dickies Arena. Mandatory Credit: Chris Jones-Imagn Images / Chris Jones-Imagn Images

Some of the biggest names in West Virginia's coaching search are now officially unavailable. Ben McCollum landed with Iowa, Niko Medved to Minnesota, Ryan Odom to Virginia, and Will Wade to NC State. Yes, McCollum and Medved were more likely than the others, but still, some of the top names on Wren Baker's have been crossed off.

So, where does West Virginia go from here?

Utah State's Jerrod Calhoun remains very much in the mix and is still viewed as a favorite, but who else is there?

North Texas' Ross Hodge and Wake Forest's Steve Forbes are a couple of names that have been floated around on social media, but Hodge is the candidate fans need to take seriously.

Hodge was the associate head coach at North Texas for six years when Wren Baker was the school's Vice President and Director of Athletics before moving to West Virginia in 2022. Baker knows how instrumental Hodge was in the Mean Green's run under now-Texas Tech head coach Grant McCasland and has continued that momentum in his first two years as the head man.

Earlier this season, Hodge broke the program record for most league wins in a coach's first two years with 19 but added five more to that, bringing the new mark to 24. Four of the Mean Green's eight losses this season came to NCAA Tournament teams - McNeese, Utah State, High Point, and Memphis. Despite being ranked 65th in the NCAA's Net rankings, North Texas was left out of the tournament. His team is set to play in the quarterfinals of the NIT against Oklahoma State on Tuesday night.

While Hodge isn't viewed by the fan base as a top-tier candidate, you have to keep in mind that this time next year, assuming he has another stellar season, he would be one of the handful of guys Power Four schools will get into a bidding war for. Hiring him this cycle would be getting ahead of that.

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