West Virginia’s new wide receivers coach Gerard Parker has plenty of experience and will no doubt make an outstanding coach for the Mountaineers, but it’s an interesting hire for a couple of reasons.
First, back in 2017, Parker pled guilty to a drinking and driving charge and received 364 days probation and had to complete 28 hours of community service. Parker also was fined $500 and had to pay court costs.
Parker, who had a blood alcohol level of .11 at the time of his arrest, was out with his wife and friends and believed he wasn’t beyond the legal limit to drive in the state of Indiana.
Parker has a tremendous coaching background, having coached at Kentucky, Marshall, Purdue, Duke and Penn State. In fact, Parker was the interim head for the Purdue Boilermakers after they fired head coach Darrell Hazell following a loss to Iowa. Parker led to the team to an 0-6 record in the final six weeks of the season.
Parker was up for the the East Carolina wide receivers coaching position but the offer was rescinded following the DUI. He ended up at Duke for one year and then went to Penn State, where James Franklin, the Nittany Lions’ Head Coach, said, “A lot of people that I trust and respect in the industry spoke highly of him. And he crushed the interview, so I feel really good about what we’ve done.”
However, there seems to be a lot of question marks surrounding this hire.
1.) If in fact he has been hired as the Offensive Coordinator, he has no experience in this role.
2.) He had a DUI recently.
3.) He seems to jump from position to position rather quickly.
Neal Brown knows what he’s doing and Parker will likely be a home run hire, but at first glance there are some issues. Brown obviously trusts him and feels that he’s the right person for the job, but hiring a former teammate and someone with a questionable past is certainly an interesting decision.
