Wren Baker details what he’s looking for in next West Virginia head coach

West Virginia made the decision to part ways with coach Neal Brown after six seasons at the helm, leaving open a quality job opportunity with the Big 12 program.

Athletics director Wren Baker plans to lean on analytics to help identify a new coach.

“I think there’s several analytics programs that will tell you, offensive efficiency, defensive efficiency and special teams efficiency as well,” Baker said. “So I think when you’re looking at head coaches you want to look at where their teams are now in all three of those categories, where they’ve been. So if they’ve lost coordinators, have they been able to backfill and replace them with equally talented people? Maybe even go back into if they were a coordinator and what they’ve done.”

West Virginia won’t only look to proven head coaches but could also entertain assistants from the coordinator ranks. There are often up-and-coming young coaches there that turn into excellent first-time head coaches.

So what would Baker be looking for in a coordinator?

“When you’re looking at people who are coordinators now, kind of the same thing,” he said. “If they’ve been at multiple stops, has there been a clear progression each step of the way? Obviously that interview process is a little different for them, because maybe they’ve been focused on one side of the ball. So you’re going to want to know philosophically what they envision and maybe even get into potential candidates they may have.”

Analytics, though, will be one of the primary drivers in the West Virginia hire.

“But yeah, I think for me data and analytics are very important,” Baker said. “They’re not the only thing that’s important. But I do think it’s a way to make sure you’re not getting into making decisions just based off emotions. Feel is a part of this process, but so is the data.”

In terms of the actual hiring process, there will be a lot of vetting that goes both ways with any potential candidates. It’s one thing to see a record on paper and decide you want a guy. It’s another to learn he might be a good fit.

To that end, Baker has an extensive array of contacts who can lend insight on that front for West Virginia.

“Being in this for 20 years now, know a lot of people, know a lot of coaches, know a lot of administrators,” the West Virginia athletics director said. “So generally I can get to somebody who’s worked with somebody or knows him and get different viewpoints. As we narrow this down right now, right, without giving an exact number, there’s a large number that’s in consideration. So talking to three or four people about each of those would be counterproductive to getting this across the finish line as quickly as we can.

“But once we narrow that down some I’ll want to talk to people that’s worked for this candidate, people who the candidate’s worked for, people who’s coached against them, people just all those different viewpoints.”

In total, Baker will look at all aspects of a potential coaching hire for West Virginia. It would be irresponsible not to use all the tools at his disposal.

“So those are all viewpoints that you want. It’s a big decision,” Baker said. “It’s important for the university and here it’s important, I think, for the health and well-being financially and morale-wise and other of the state. So I recognize the magnitude of it. So you want to make sure you did not leave a stone unturned when you get to that point.”