Between The Eers: Cause for Concern?
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00:00 [MUSIC]
00:10 Good Tuesday morning, everybody.
00:11 Skylar Callen here on Between the Ears.
00:14 And yes, there is more concern surrounding WVU athletics,
00:19 as if that hasn't been a theme here over the last year or two.
00:24 And this time it's not the coaching.
00:27 It is, at least as of right now, it's not.
00:30 It is the man in charge of fixing the current state of the athletic programs or
00:37 improving it, and that is Ren Baker.
00:40 As the Columbia Missourian has actually reported,
00:46 or not reported, but mentioned Ren Baker as a potential
00:51 hire as the AD at Missouri.
00:55 And anytime these things start to kind of populate a little bit,
01:00 you get a little worried.
01:02 And rightfully so, especially more so in this case because of Ren's connections.
01:10 To not only the Midwest, but the University of Missouri,
01:14 where he actually served as the Deputy Director of Athletics.
01:18 He then went into the interim AD role before moving on to take the job
01:23 at North Texas.
01:25 So there is history here.
01:27 And I think in most of these rumors or mentions of a coach or a player,
01:35 or AD in this case, you can more than likely just dismiss it.
01:39 Because a lot of them just, they're out of the hat.
01:44 They're just random, oh yeah, this guy makes a lot of sense.
01:47 But again, in this case here, there is that prior connection.
01:52 And you have to wonder with Ren, is West Virginia really where he wants to be?
01:59 I get the sense and feeling that he and his family both love it in Morgantown.
02:05 And they've established themselves here.
02:08 They feel at home.
02:10 They feel welcome.
02:11 And by and large, the fan base loves Ren Baker.
02:16 I mean, he has become a popular AD in the school.
02:22 And I don't know how many different places you could probably say that across
02:25 the country.
02:27 But he's made a lot of really good decisions in what has been a lot of tough
02:32 ones as well.
02:33 He decided to keep Neil Brown.
02:35 So far, that's paid off.
02:37 He moved on from Bob Huggins.
02:40 Bob Huggins moved on from WU, however you want to phrase it.
02:44 But he decided that it wasn't the right decision to hire a full-time coach late
02:50 in the summer.
02:51 Probably a good idea.
02:52 Give them another year to kind of assess the situation and see what's out there.
02:58 Hits on the women's hire for women's basketball, Markellog.
03:03 They're like 21 and 2 or 22 and 2 or something like that, something crazy.
03:08 And they're rolling.
03:11 Hired a very good volleyball coach from the Pac-12 who everyone's excited about.
03:18 He has a track record for making really good hires, particularly in basketball.
03:23 And that's why I think it's so critically important that he
03:28 remains at West Virginia.
03:30 And I guess my early take on it is like, look,
03:35 he's only been here since November of 2022.
03:40 That's when he got the job.
03:42 His family didn't move to Morgantown until probably,
03:48 I think it was like the spring or that summer of 2023.
03:53 So they just moved.
03:57 They just got settled.
03:59 The family, or excuse me, his kids have just got moved to new schools, obviously.
04:05 That's a tough transition.
04:07 And they did it from obviously when he was at Memphis and Missouri and
04:11 North Texas and all over God's creation.
04:14 And when you get a Power 5 AD job, you probably wanna stick there.
04:20 And I think this is the tough part about it,
04:27 because again, there's that tie.
04:32 He's always been a Midwest guy.
04:35 He's always been within arm's reach of Oklahoma where he's from.
04:39 And when you have that connection to Missouri, he knows the lay of the land.
04:45 He knows what it takes to win there in different sports.
04:48 It makes you start to really think about it.
04:54 I mean, look at the football situation there.
04:57 Eli Drinkwitz has got that thing seemingly turned around and rolling.
05:03 The basketball team, they're having a pretty down year.
05:06 They're 8 and 17, I think 0 and 12 in conference play.
05:10 But the coaches in just his second year, last year, in his first year,
05:14 they made the tournament.
05:15 So probably not making a change there.
05:18 So I don't know that there's overall more stability with the football and
05:24 basketball jobs, but I'd say they're probably pretty similar.
05:31 But it's about that familiarity with the place, the location, and
05:37 whether or not he and his wife and kids want to move closer back to where they're from.
05:44 Even though they just moved.
05:47 [LAUGH] I don't think that this is gonna be something that
05:52 really gains a whole lot of legs.
05:54 But then again, this is early in the process.
05:57 This was just a list someone threw out there and
06:00 it happened to mention Ryan Baker.
06:02 What I'll say for West Virginia side of it, if this does gain some momentum,
06:07 they've got to do everything they can to keep Ryan Baker, have to.
06:13 Not just because you're gonna be going through a men's basketball
06:20 coaching search here in the next three weeks or so.
06:25 But what he has done for this university and
06:29 for this athletic program across the board is remarkable.
06:35 I mean, they've got an absolute hidden gem.
06:38 One of the best ADs in college sports that really probably not a whole lot of
06:43 people know about.
06:43 And I really think that if he stays in Morgantown,
06:49 you'll see success across the board from football, men's and women's basketball,
06:53 baseball, volleyball, soccer.
06:55 We've already seen the beginning parts of that.
07:01 And when you have somebody with Ren's background in fundraising and
07:08 all the plans that they're starting to put together, whether it's for
07:13 the club 35 at the Coliseum or the suites or whatever luxury
07:19 type of seating in situations that they're trying to create.
07:22 Not only at the Coliseum, but also at the football stadium.
07:26 He's a big part in that.
07:28 And he knows how to go about selling those things or how to market them.
07:32 And that's the kicker to me.
07:38 It's not just the basketball stuff that we're gonna be going through here in
07:42 a few weeks, it's everything else.
07:44 And it's not to say someone else can't come in here and do it, but
07:48 he's been here since, I wouldn't say necessarily day one of those conversations,
07:53 but he's been a main driving force in those talks.
07:57 And that's gonna be a hard thing to replace.
08:00 And again, nailed the Mark Kellogg hire, really good volleyball hire.
08:07 And just judging on the Kellogg hire and his previous basketball hires at
08:12 other schools, namely Ben McCollum at North Texas,
08:16 he's probably gonna make a pretty damn good men's basketball hire too.
08:20 So I don't think as of right now there's a big red sounding alarm right now,
08:27 that WVU fans should be worried.
08:32 But I would say, keep your eye, keep your eye open, something could happen.
08:39 You can't really rule out anything in today's world.
08:42 But as of right now, I don't see Bren Baker moving on from West Virginia
08:48 after a little over a year and a half years of work at WVU.
08:54 I think he and his family love it here, they feel welcome, like I said.
08:57 He sees the trajectory of not only just the football program, but
09:03 he sees the potential in getting the basketball program back on track.
09:06 The women's program's already well, well on its way.
09:11 And everything else is pretty solid.
09:14 You got a top men's soccer team, a top women's soccer team,
09:18 a baseball team that's been to the tournament.
09:19 And even though they're gonna be going through a coaching change,
09:25 there's gonna be stability there.
09:27 There's a lot of good going on right now at WVU.
09:31 May not seem like because of the basketball season, but trust me when I say
09:36 this athletic program as a whole is in a really good state as of right now.
09:41 Keeping Ren Baker is a big part of that.
09:42 So let me know what you guys think in the YouTube comments.
09:47 Do you think Ren Baker will leave?
09:50 My vote is no as of right now.
09:52 Again, that can all change within a matter of days, hours.
09:56 But as of right now, I don't think it's a big, like I said,
10:01 a big sounding alarm right now that's going off in Morgantown that,
10:04 Ren Baker might be on his way out.
10:06 So hit that subscribe button on YouTube at Mountaineers Now.
10:11 Give us a like and a follow on X at the same handle and that'll do it for me here.
10:16 We'll be back tonight for the Mountaineers Now post game show recapping West Virginia
10:20 and UCF and then I'll be back here tomorrow morning for
10:23 another episode of Between Years.
10:25 [MUSIC]