MORGANTOWN, West Virginia — If I were to tell you that there was a candidate out there who has done it all in college football, who has won national championships, who loves West Virginia and who is still young and passionate enough to motivate young men, and he wants to be here, what would you say?
Jimbo Fisher, one of the most accomplished head coaches in recent history, is out there and has always wanted to come home to coach his hometown Mountaineers. If Jimbo Fisher is a realistic possibility – and I believe he is – you simply have to make the hire if you are Wren Baker.
In a recent poll asking conducted by The Voice of Morgantown, the largest and most popular West Virginia sports media platform on the planet, Fisher overwhelmingly was the choice of our followers. Fisher was the first choice, followed by Jacksonville State head coach Rich Rodriguez in a distant second. Rodriguez is an interesting candidate and would certainly bring back excitement to the football program, but he also carries a lot of baggage. I’ve admired Rich Rodriguez for a long, long time, but right now, he is Jimbo Fisher without the national championship rings and with a bunch of baggage. Rodriguez and Fisher are both native West Virginians and love this state, but again, one is far more accomplished and he comes with relatively no baggage. That’s a big deal when trying to start fresh after a miserable six seasons.
If Fisher has even an inkling of a desire to return home to coach the Mountaineers, Wren Baker should be on his hands and knees, begging him to make it happen. What more could Baker want than an experienced winner who loves the state and knows what it takes to get to the highest level? There simply aren’t any other candidates out there that come close to Fisher’s level of credentials and it would be be borderline malpractice to not have him at the top of the list as the #1 candidate right now. If Baker hires a young, up-and-coming candidate like Andy Kotelnicki or Jamey Chadwell, and it doesn’t work out for them, passing up on Jimbo Fisher would be looked at as the biggest mistake he’s ever made professionally.
Obviously, Wren Baker has to interview a bunch of candidates for a variety of reasons, mostly optics. Baker said that he has “cast a wide net”, but ultimately there will be a whole lot of minnows in that net. West Virginia needs to catch that one big fish and that big fish is none other than Jimbo Fisher.
As a reminder, here are a few of his accomplishments:
- Career record is 128-48 (.727 winning percentage)
- 8-2 in bowl games
- 3 ACC Championships
- 2 National Championships (one as an offensive coordinator at LSU, one as the head coach at Florida State)
