Report: Doug Gottlieb finalizing deal to be Green Bay's next coach, will keep FOX radio show

After reports came out Tuesday that Fox Sports radio host and former college basketball player Doug Gottlieb was a serious candidate for the Green Bay coaching job, Jeff Goodman confirmed the Phoenix are closing in on hiring him.

However, Gottlieb’s hiring comes with an interesting dynamic, as Goodman reports that Gottlieb will continue to do his daily radio show for Fox Sports even as he coaches Green Bay. Here was his tweet reporting that news:

“Green Bay is set to hire Doug Gottlieb as its next head coach, source told The Field of 68. Gottlieb will also continue to do his daily FOX radio show. Gottlieb was in the mix for the job a year ago and will take over for Sundance Wicks — who left after one season for Wyoming.”

Last offseason, Wicks was hired by Green Bay after several years as the top assistant at Wyoming under Jeff Linder. But following a few very successful seasons in 2021 and 2023, Wyoming struggled the last couple years and Linder decided to leave this offseason to take an assistant coaching job at Texas Tech.

So Wyoming decided to reach out to Wicks, who just led Green Bay to a 15-win improvement in 2023-24 with an 18-14 record compared to the three-win campaign the year prior. That’s a heck of a job for a first year head coach, and Wyoming was clearly impressed. His performance with the Phoenix, coupled with the experience at Wyoming, made him an obvious choice for the Cowboys’ job.

Background on Gottlieb

Gottlieb has never coached basketball at the college level in any capacity; however, he pined for the open Oklahoma State coaching job this offseason when the program fired Mike Boynton. He made the following pitch for himself as coach back in March during an interview with WWLS, an Oklahoma City radio station:

“You know I want that job. (I understand) what we have, what we need, what needs to be fixed, how to get the culture back in line, how to bring back the alumni, how we need to connect better with Stillwater and with the students and all of Oklahoma. I fully believe I can fill up the gym and I can get the NIL.”

Gottlieb knows he has practically zero track record as a coach, but still believed he would succeed at OSU:

“I understand anyone’s hesitance when you haven’t seen me draw up a play. I get it. It’s different. But if you want a different result, you have to try a different path. That’s life 101.”