Interim Mizzou athletic director Wren Baker expected to leave for North Texas

Harry · July 28, 2016

Two weeks after its athletic director abruptly resigned, Missouri is set to lose its interim athletic director, Wren Baker, by the end of the week.

Baker is the leading candidate for the vacant athletic director job at North Texas and is expected to be offered the position Friday when the school’s board of regents meets, a source told The Star.

The University of North Texas System Boards of Regents has convened “a Special Called meeting by telephone” at 1 p.m. Friday to discuss “consideration of individual personnel matters related to the appointment of and an employment agreement with a UNT Athletic Director.”

At that meeting, Baker is expected to be hired as Rick Villarreal’s successor. Villarreal stepped down in May after 15 seasons with the Mean Green, which included the construction of Apogee Stadium for $78 million in 2011.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/sports/college/sec/university-of-missouri/article92221477.html#storylink=cpy

Baker was hired in May 2015 as Missouri’s deputy athletic director under Mack Rhoades, who resigned July 13 to accept the same post at Baylor.

After Rhoades’ departure, MU interim chancellor Hank Foley made Baker interim athletic director despite the fact that Baker already had been contacted by a search firm representing North Texas about its opening, multiple sources told The Star. Baker’s anticipated departure will leave Missouri without an athletic director for the second time this month.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/sports/college/sec/university-of-missouri/article92221477.html#storylink=cpy

Read more:. http://www.kansascity.com/sports/college/sec/university-of-missouri/article92221477.html

NM Green · July 28, 2016

Interesting. Can we line up a Baylor series?

GMG

oldguystudent · July 28, 2016

5 hours ago, NM Green said:

Interesting. Can we line up a Baylor series?

GMG

Kick 'em while they're down but the general population still perceives them as a great team? That would be pretty sweet.

Tyler Maryak · July 28, 2016

So we talk a bit about what the plan will be if Coach Litty is successful quickly and moves on fast, but this guy has been making moves too. Is anyone worried (or at least wondering) what'll happen if he'said half way through the process of righting this ship and he gets picked up by someone who can pay more?

NorthTexan95 · July 28, 2016

16 minutes ago, Tyler Maryak said:

So we talk a bit about what the plan will be if Coach Litty is successful quickly and moves on fast, but this guy has been making moves too. Is anyone worried (or at least wondering) what'll happen if he'said half way through the process of righting this ship and he gets picked up by someone who can pay more?

Then we go through this process again. Gotta keep making good hires.

UNT Mean Green · July 28, 2016

1 hour ago, NorthTexan95 said:

Then we go through this process again. Gotta keep making good hires.

Exactly. AD's and HFC's don't typically last more than 4-5 years as "up and comers".

Tyler Maryak · July 28, 2016

3 hours ago, NorthTexan95 said:

Then we go through this process again. Gotta keep making good hires.

1 hour ago, UNT Mean Green said:

Exactly. AD's and HFC's don't typically last more than 4-5 years as "up and comers".

That's kind of my point, though...
Wren Baker at OK ST: ~4 years
at Rogers State: ~ 2 years
at Northwest Missouri St: ~1.5 years
at Memphis: ~2 years
at Missouri: ~12 months

He's done incredible things at these institutions in the time he is with them and everything I've read suggest that he's a great get. But we talk about planning for if Littrell is picked up quickly. What if this guy decides to split in 18 months? Just a question of curiosity. I'm not sitting under my desk clawing at my skin or anything.

GrandGreen · July 28, 2016

11 minutes ago, Tyler Maryak said:

That's kind of my point, though...
Wren Baker at OK ST: ~4 years
at Rogers State: ~ 2 years
at Northwest Missouri St: ~1.5 years
at Memphis: ~2 years
at Missouri: ~12 months

He's done incredible things at these institutions in the time he is with them and everything I've read suggest that he's a great get. But we talk about planning for if Littrell is picked up quickly. What if this guy decides to split in 18 months? Just a question of curiosity. I'm not sitting under my desk clawing at my skin or anything.

NT attempts to hire someone better. Again, what if someone leaves before they even start discussion. Hopefully, NT has hired someone that will get interest from other programs. A lot better situation, than NT had with RV; were he openly for years looked for another job with no success.

Ryan Munthe · July 28, 2016

The only thing I really don't want to happen is for us to end up like Arky State. I don't care about their success in the SBC, they are legitimately a farm system for the P5. Top tier G5 hang onto their coaches and staff.

Edited July 28, 2016 by Ryan Munthe

MGNation92 · July 28, 2016

1 minute ago, Ryan Munthe said:

The only thing I really don't want to happen is for us to end up like Arky State. I don't care about their success in the SBC, they are legitimately a farm system for the P5. Top tier G5 hang onto their coaches and staff.

If continued success means our coaches get hired by bigger schools every 2 years then we're doing something right

Green Mean · July 28, 2016

4 hours ago, NorthTexan95 said:

Then we go through this process again. Gotta keep making good hires.

Or we as a university can step up and say you've done a hell of a job and we're going to match what you get elsewhere and even pay more than that. We basically need to give the great people very little to no incentive on leaving and if it means upping the game in higher salary then it's well worth it.

Ryan Munthe · July 28, 2016

16 minutes ago, MGNation92 said:

If continued success means our coaches get hired by bigger schools every 2 years then we're doing something right

Would much rather us be like ULL, UH, etc and keep dishing out the big bucks to loyal coaches.

MeanGreenTexan · July 28, 2016

23 minutes ago, MGNation92 said:

If continued success means our coaches get hired by bigger schools every 2 years then we're doing something right

I agree... for now.

6 minutes ago, Ryan Munthe said:

Would much rather us be like ULL, UH, etc and keep dishing out the big bucks to loyal coaches.

We're not quite there yet. If we are successful and a P5 school comes calling for Littrell, we're not going to be in a position to keep him financially.
Now, if we can get a nice hire in after Littrell leaves and continue the success, that would ideally bring more fans (re: $$$) in, giving us a better shot at keeping him.

Ryan Munthe · July 28, 2016

1 minute ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

I agree... for now.

We're not quite there yet. If we are successful and a P5 school comes calling for Littrell, we're not going to be in a position to keep him financially.
Now, if we can get a nice hire in after Littrell leaves and continue the success, that would ideally bring more fans (re: $$$) in, giving us a better shot at keeping him.

I agree with that. My point is that Arky State has been getting poached for what feels like a decade now. Littrell moving on up is ideal, but from then on, we need to be able to pony up to keep coaches in Denton.

At the very least, do what we did with Johnny Jones. Offer him enough to keep him around until his #1 comes calling.

Edited July 28, 2016 by Ryan Munthe

MeanGreenTexan · July 28, 2016

2 minutes ago, Ryan Munthe said:

I agree with that. My point is that Arky State has been getting poached for what feels like a decade now. Littrell moving on up is ideal, but from then on, we need to be able to pony up to keep coaches in Denton.

Thinking about the rise of Boise St... There was really no way they were going to keep Nutt or Koetter. Their AD kept making awesome hires, and Dan Hawkins was able to take them to the next level, yet was still lured away by Colorado. Then Peterson blew the roof off and Boise's success/support was at an all-time high. Still, Washington was able to hire him away. Harsin appears to be the next in line. We'll see if they can keep him.

No matter what, we may have a tough time keeping a successful coach here, unless we somehow miraculously land in a P5.

GrayEagle · July 28, 2016

If his contract is structured right, a P5 might have to pay the balance of his contract in order to get him. It's a good deal for all concerned. North Texas will have gotten good service from Baker; Baker will get a nice promotion; and the P5 will have a better history of his worth, thereby making a safer hire.

Then, hopefully, we begin another successful search. Dealing from a position of strength is a lot better than dealing from a position of weakness. But, since we are near both his and his wife's former home, he may not want to leave unless a really good offer (such as OU, Okie State, TCU) comes along. Sounds pretty win, win to me.

ShiftyFive · July 28, 2016

Interesting article... Sounds like we seized on an opportunity at just the right time. h ttp://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/ben-frederickson/benfred-mizzou-s-lack-of-leadership-apparent-in-wren-baker/article_0faf7d52-28d9-5a57-afe1-50a7daf21e44.html

Based on Wren's past record and this quote “I’m not built to sit around in neutral or tread water”, I would expect that we'll see a lot of things change quickly. I'm sure he'll make some mistakes, but he sounds like the kind of guy that will fail fast, assess and improve; not get hung up on justifying it because of his ego etc.

UNT90 · July 28, 2016

1 hour ago, Ryan Munthe said:

The only thing I really don't want to happen is for us to end up like Arky State. I don't care about their success in the SBC, they are legitimately a farm system for the P5. Top tier G5 hang onto their coaches and staff.

I would LOVE to end up like Ark St.

They have done everything right where UNT has done everything wrong until very very recently.

Ryan Munthe · July 28, 2016

8 minutes ago, UNT90 said:

I would LOVE to end up like Ark St.

They have done everything right where UNT has done everything wrong until very very recently.

I just prefer to not be a farm team for P5. Would much prefer to be like ULL.

Edited July 28, 2016 by Ryan Munthe