Morgantown, West Virginia – Although Hugh Freeze recently agreed to a massive new 8-year contract through 2030 that’s fully guaranteed and averages just under $5 million per year, West Virginia could, and should attempt to, lure him to Morgantown to be the next head coach of the Mountaineers.
In his 10 years as a head coach, Freeze, 52, has been successful everywhere he’s been. He is 83-41 overall and 6-2 in bowl games during his time at Arkansas State, Ole Miss and now at Liberty. In addition, he beat Nick Saban’s Alabama Crimson Tide twice while at Ole Miss.
This is a quality, proven, successful head coach who could immediately turn the West Virginia football program, and it appears that a place like West Virginia University would be the ideal situation for Freeze if the university is willing to pay him.
In a recent interview with Fox Sports’ Aaron Torres, Freeze had the following to say when asked if he would consider a Power 5 job if he was offered: “I don’t know that there will ever be a time where I leave. But if it does, it would be in Jill (Hugh’s wife) and my mind there is only a few that really would say, ‘we really want to listen to that.’ Because it fits our culture, it fits our location in mind,” Freeze said. “We are a small, college-town family. I’m not a big-city guy, I don’t belong there, I like living in the mountains. If that select few, I do have a list in mind that if they ever were to have an interest, it would be something that we certainly would listen to. There is very few that we would even take the calls from.”
Freeze didn’t mention any schools in particular, but it sure sounds a lot like West Virginia University would check off a lot of boxes for him. In addition, Freeze recently signed a big new contract, but the buyout if he decides to go to a Power 5 school is only $2.5 million.
Although Freeze is happy at Liberty, every coach – Freeze included – wants to win at the highest level. He can’t do that at Liberty. He can at West Virginia.
