Ranking the Best Candidates for the WVU Head Coaching Job

Studying some of the best options for the West Virginia Mountaineers.

Dave Hyatt / Special to the Gadsden Times / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

West Virginia needs a new head football coach, and I've got a few suggestions for athletic director Wren Baker. Let's not fluff this up more than we need to.

Here are my top five candidates for the WVU job.

5. Barry Odom, UNLV

Odom may not be a popular choice amongst the fan base, but I believe he's worth a long look. His tenure as the Missouri head coach didn't go as planned, but I don't think that's a true indicator of the type of coach he is. I see it more as he wasn't quite ready for a big job like that and probably needed a Group of Five head coaching gig first.

Once Gary Pinkel stepped down, Odom was offered the promotion, and when you have the chance to be the head man at your alma mater, that's hard to turn down.

Odom has done a remarkable job at UNLV and has them perhaps one game away from punching a ticket to the College Football Playoff. UNLV is a tough place to win at. The Runnin' Rebs haven't had back-to-back winning seasons since 1983-84, haven't won 10+ games since '84, and had never been ranked in the AP Top 25 until he showed up.

UNLV's starting quarterback left three games into the season, and the offense never skipped a beat. That's impressive, especially for a defensive-minded head coach.

4. Rich Rodriguez, Jacksonville State

Rich Rod is a tricky one to rank. How would a return to West Virginia be received by the fans? Would it anger a larger portion of the fan base? His departure may have taken place 17 years ago, but no one will forget those couple of dark weeks in December of 2007.

However, there is no one on this list who better understands what Mountaineer football means to the people in the state and what it takes to win here. That's mainly because he's the only one who's experienced it firsthand as a player and a coach. While Wren Baker stated that having ties to WVU or the state isn't a must, it does hold some weight, especially as the search narrows.

Rodriguez has won everywhere he's been, and the job he has done at Jacksonville State can't be glossed over. That was a program transitioning from FCS to FBS, and he's led them to a bowl in each of their first two seasons at the higher level, making them the first program to ever achieve that feat.

Not to mention, he has the full support of some of West Virginia's biggest donors/supporters.

3. Jon Sumrall, Tulane

I know, I know. When you glance over his resume and see "Head Coach at Troy," you are probably triggered. That said, Sumrall is different, although he comes from a very similar background as Neal Brown. He's a proven winner at two Group of Five schools and can win games in multiple ways. He runs a truly balanced offense, with his running backs putting up massive numbers. The leading rushers of his last two offenses have combined to rush for 2,900 yards.

A 32-7 record over three years is damn impressive. He is going to be in the mix at several other spots, too, so it will be interesting to see how interested WVU is in him and if they're willing to get into a bidding war to land him.

2. Andy Kotelnicki, Penn State OC

Kotelnicki is the only non-head coach on this list that I believe is worth considering. Sure, there are several out there that have impressive resumes and will eventually be good head coaches, but the timing seems best for Kotelnicki. He's proven himself in the Big 12 at what has been notoriously known as the worst Power Four program this century in Kansas and then followed that up by leading another top-ranked unit at a big-time program at Penn State.

He runs really good stuff, and for an up-and-coming coach like him, a school like West Virginia has to jump on him a cycle or two before others start to get heavily involved. A year or two from now, there will be several schools in a bidding war for him. I'm not sure that happens this year. Now is the time to go after a young, brilliant offensive mind like this.

1. Jimbo Fisher

While Jimbo never played or coached at West Virginia, he is from the state (Clarksburg) and has expressed interest in the job. Any time a national championship coach is interested in your coaching vacancy, you have to have a conversation with him.

Yeah, things didn't quite work out at Texas A&M, but the expectations there were through the roof, and I guess that's fair game when they handed him the massive contract. But to be fair, it is the SEC, and when he was there, the conference was split into divisions, and A&M was in the much more difficult SEC West.

Coming to a school in the Big 12, which is very wide open, feels like a good spot for Fisher. He doesn't have to reel in top-10 recruiting classes like he did at his two previous stops, but if he can recruit well enough, he should have the Mountaineers as an annual contender in the Big 12.

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