Wren Baker to West Virginia

[GRN-WHT]

2 minutes ago, Hunter Green said:

This is why Seth has to get a short extension.  Otherwise the football program will become unstable and players will bail en masse.

The team Seth has built will be lucky to win 4 games next year in the AAC. The time to rebuild is now.

[gordo nation]

Days like this show me how much I took Wren for granted... He will be missed 

[gordo nation]

Guys I was just hired as the new athletic director. My first move will be moving the entire UNT campus about 20 miles from the actual city we are supposed to be located in. Next, I will rent out an old, out of date stadium that's a solid 30 minute drive away from our campus. I will call the new stadium "The Alamodome." In order to be more transparent with our name, the new name for our program shall be "The University of North Texas Denton" or "UNTD" for short.

 

Finally, we need a dumbass mascot, how about "Eagle Flyers" 

[rcade]

1 hour ago, NorthTexasWeLove said:

If it's Mosley then it shouldn't change anything. Has he not been here for running years collaborating with WB on everything. 

Sometimes the number two guy wants to make his mark. Mosley might not want to be the second UNT AD in a row who inherited a head football coach from Rick V.

[Udomann]

Well, someone wanted us to stop talking about coaching changes for a week.

Looks like you got your wish...

[Cr1028]

I gotta admit, I bust out laughing at one of the comments on that twitter post.

 

[ADLER]

Not to spook anybody but, West Virginia's legendary basketball coach Bob Huggins turns 70 this upcoming summer, and has compiled a 28-43 conference record over the last four seasons.

If any changes occur, who do you think would be on Wren's short list of potential replacements?

[Cr1028]

1 minute ago, ADLER said:

Not to spook anybody but, West Virginia's legendary basketball coach Bob Huggins turns 70 this upcoming summer, and has compiled a 28-43 conference record over the last four seasons.

If any changes occur, who do you think would be on Wren's short list of potential replacements?

If it was about cash he’d have already been gone. I think he’d only leave for a higher profile job if it is within 200 miles of Waco or DFW, I’m not sure which. Baylor is his dream job without question and until he can grab that one he seems focused on keeping his family close.

[MeanGreenGlory]

Wren leaving is a loss for UNT. Best of luck to him and his family as the move on to their next chapter.

The silver lining of Wren leaving is that he was rewarded with a P5 offer based on his body of work here. This development helps frame UNT as a career-builder rather than a career-ender for motivated athletic directors. This factor paired with the facilities we have in place should help improve the candidate pool.

Cheers to hoping that Smatresk & Co. will hire an experienced AD who will elevate UNT to the top of the American Athletic Conference.

[meangreenbob]

4 minutes ago, ADLER said:

Not to spook anybody but, West Virginia's legendary basketball coach Bob Huggins turns 70 this upcoming summer, and has compiled a 28-43 conference record over the last four seasons.

If any changes occur, who do you think would be on Wren's short list of potential replacements?

Yep. We should probably prepare ourselves for UNT basketball without Grant.  
Now, if being close to family really is important to Grant, and knowing the fragile state the world is in, he may be incline to stay at UNT and just minutes away from loved ones. Now with that being said maybe WV agrees to move Grant’s entire family to West Virginia. 🤔

[UNTLifer]

9 minutes ago, ADLER said:

Not to spook anybody but, West Virginia's legendary basketball coach Bob Huggins turns 70 this upcoming summer, and has compiled a 28-43 conference record over the last four seasons.

If any changes occur, who do you think would be on Wren's short list of potential replacements?

I was a big Baker fan when he arrived, but he recently received a huge increase and seems to have coasted ever since.  He also created an extremely top heavy department that should have equated to improvement, yet I don't see that outside of plans for future facilities.  He did a great job upon arrival and taking over a disaster of a department, but recent results have been lacking.

I would be happy with Moseley, but if Baker is leaving because he has been unhappy, then does his righthand man feel the same?  I love McCasland, but Hodge could step in a continue our improvement.  Hodge may be the most important person on that staff.

It is what it is, time to find a great replacement and move this department forward.

[Dannymacfan]

2 minutes ago, meangreenbob said:

Yep. We should probably prepare ourselves for UNT basketball without Grant.  
Now, if being close to family really is important to Grant, and knowing the fragile state the world is in, he may be incline to stay at UNT and just minutes away from loved ones. Now with that being said maybe WV agrees to move Grant’s entire family to West Virginia. 🤔

This.   Wren bringing McCasland was part of the attraction for WVU.  Hudgkinson  is about to retire and Mac will be his replacement!  Mark it down.

[MeanGreenTexan]

Based on Wren's tenure here, and how he handled Benford, WVU fans who are frustrated with Neal Brown are not going to be happy with Wren Baker for the foreseeable future.

I would gladly trade them though.

[UNTLifer]

WVU is in a beautiful area with nothing close by, a depressed economy and a true outlier in the Big XII.  I wish Baker well, but really wonder if he made a good decision.  

[MeanGreenTexan]

2 minutes ago, Dannymacfan said:

This.   Wren bringing McCasland was part of the attraction for WVU.  Hudgkinson  is about to retire and Mac will be his replacement!  Mark it down.

Highly doubtful.    Basketball is a little different than football.   You can take a team like Gonzaga to a National Championship in basketball.    You can't do that in football.

I believe we'll have McCasland until Baylor, or some other nearby P5 school comes calling.    I would worry more about when Dixon retires in Ft. Worth than Huggy.

[meangreenbob]

6 minutes ago, UNTLifer said:

WVU is in a beautiful area with nothing close by, a depressed economy and a true outlier in the Big XII.  I wish Baker well, but really wonder if he made a good decision.  

Maybe he needed to get out of the choke hold being applied by BMDS? 

Edited November 30, 2022 by meangreenbob

[NorthTexasWeLove]

1 minute ago, meangreenbob said:

Maybe he needed to get out of the choke hold being applied by BMDS? 

That's being runored. If so, Seth Littrell is here as long as he likes. We've found ourselves caught in an RV type situation, but with our head football coach. 

[UNTLifer]

3 minutes ago, meangreenbob said:

Maybe he needed to get out of the choke hold being applied by BMDS? 

Very possible and if this is true then how appealing will we be to Moseley?

[Wag Tag]

1 hour ago, Tom McKrackin said:

No offense but why West Virginia?  That place is a damn hell hole.  Am I the only one thinking Wren is making a huge mistake?

One of the lowest Athletic budgets of the P5’s. I think this might show a more glaring problem within the AD. Argyle to Morgantown?

Edited November 30, 2022 by Wag Tag

[meangreenbob]

22 minutes ago, MeanGreenGlory said:

Wren leaving is a loss for UNT. Best of luck to him and his family as the move on to their next chapter.

The silver lining of Wren leaving is that he was rewarded with a P5 offer based on his body of work here. This development helps frame UNT as a career-builder rather than a career-ender for motivated athletic directors. This factor paired with the facilities we have in place should help improve the candidate pool.

Cheers to hoping that Smatresk & Co. will hire an experienced AD who will elevate UNT to the top of the American Athletic Conference.

 

24 minutes ago, MeanGreenGlory said:

Cheers to hoping that Smatresk & Co. will hire an experienced AD who will elevate UNT to the top of the American Athletic Conference.

Money and wealth doesn’t necessarily equate to wisdom and knowledge so I wouldn’t hold your breath. 

[MeanGreen22]

19 minutes ago, UNTLifer said:

I was a big Baker fan when he arrived, but he recently received a huge increase and seems to have coasted ever since.  He also created an extremely top heavy department that should have equated to improvement, yet I don't see that outside of plans for future facilities.  He did a great job upon arrival and taking over a disaster of a department, but recent results have been lacking.

I’d love for the next AD (and whoever they employ) to totally revamp the gameday experience at Apogee. It’s so stale and does nothing to entice casual fans to want to be there. Quite literally have to beg people to come to games with me. There’s no tradition, nothing fun about the games right now and that absolutely has to change if you expect to have consistent crowds. 

[UNTcrazy727]

17 minutes ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

Highly doubtful.    Basketball is a little different than football.   You can take a team like Gonzaga to a National Championship in basketball.    You can't do that in football.

I believe we'll have McCasland until Baylor, or some other nearby P5 school comes calling.    I would worry more about when Dixon retires in Ft. Worth than Huggy.

Barring a miraculous turnaround, Buzz Williams is likely to be fired by A&M this season. Guessing McCasland will be high up on their list. 

[RBP79]

So percentages and prior experience show Seth won't win these last two games. If he is here next year then the Administration shouldn't be surprised by an Empty Apogee next year.

But the sun shines on a dogs ass occasionally. Maybe he wins both. Then Seth will for sure take us into the AAC.

[Matt from A700]

Congrats to Wren! I knew it'd happen at some point. I appreciate the work and dedication he put in to advance our program, but there's still a lot of work to be done. Like everyone here, I fear what's going to happen with Seth's contract now. Everyone says he will either be let go or extended this offseason because nobody coaches without another year on their contract. But I believe Benford just coached out his contract without an extension? Although you might consider that most CUSA schools escaping to the AAC will be coming in having to get into a new groove with new men at helm.

[NorthTexasWeLove]

4 minutes ago, RBP79 said:

So percentages and prior experience show Seth won't win these last two games. If he is here next year then the Administration shouldn't be surprised by an Empty Apogee next year.

But the sun shines on a dogs ass occasionally. Maybe he wins both. Then Seth will for sure take us into the AAC.

Apogee lost its lust on that fateful night LaTech blocked our game winning fg attempt many moons ago. We have been spiraling, granted with few bump ups, downward ever since. It was fun. The place had energy. Attendance was increasing. There was excitement. Recruiting was decent. That night the bubble did burst, imo.