Jump to content

Wren Baker's Journey to West Virginia

Coach Andy Mac

By Coach Andy Mac
in Mean Green Football

 Share

Recommended Posts

Coach Andy Mac Grand Master

Coach Andy Mac

Posted
Posted

Humble beginnings breed fierce competitors. 

Former University of North Texas AD Wren Baker is in Morgantown and prepared to get to work.

Baker brings wife Heather and daughters Addisyn and Reagan to the Mountain State en route to becoming West Virginia University's 13th Director of Athletics. His stay in North Texas began in 2016, but prior to entering college athletics administration, Baker was working as a high school principal in rural Oklahoma. At 26 years old, Baker was tasked with organizing teachers, students, conduct, and budgeting, all aspects of his admin history that cross over nicely into Power-5 higher ed.

When he got out of secondary education administration, Baker's first stop was at Rogers State University, where he became the first men's basketball coach in the school’s history. After that, he was the director of athletics for Northwest Missouri State, and served as deputy director of athletics at the University of Memphis and the University of Missouri. Baker then became the University of North Texas Vice President and Director of Athletics in 2016.

He saw seven different UNT teams combine to win 17 conference or division championships, his new coaching hires have combined to win nearly 70 percent of their games, and his fundraising produced the five largest gifts in UNT history and a doubling of the school's single-year fundraising record. Baker's impact also manifested in overall attendance boosts for North Texas' football (71 percent) and women's basketball (60+ percent) programs.

Baker was selected away from the Mean Green ahead of 7-8 other applicants, WVU president E. Gordon Gee said. Talent appraisal company Turnkey ZRG assisted in the application process, and Gee gave the company a nod of approval.

"When we interviewed Wren, I can tell you he fits every one of our criteria and in addition to being an exceptionally talented athletic director, he's also a very positive person who easily connects and engages with everyone that he meets," Gee said. He understands our mission; he knows where we want to go, and I have no doubt that he will get us there.

read more:  https://www.si.com/college/westvirginia/football/wren-bakers-journey-to-west-virginia

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Tell a friend

    Love GoMeanGreen.com? Tell a friend!

  • What's going on Mean Green?

    1. 4

      College Football’s 12-Team Playoff Finally Arrived—and It Was a Complete Dud

      Nothing new here. When I was in high school, the only school that advanced to the playoffs was the district champion. For whatever reason, the UIL allows 4 teams today. Majority of lower seeds almost always get blown out in the first round. Same with the NCAA basketball tournament that expanded from around 12 back in the 70's to 65 or 66. Most result in blowouts. I agreed with a modest expansion but not the current 65. They are now talking about over 70. Everything is 100% about money and the quality of the product left some time ago.
      Cooley in Mean Green Football
    2. 51

      SMUt getting owned by State

      All the first round games were basically blowouts. Who cares what people thought going in EXCEPT Vegas. Texas -11 vs Clemson PSU -8.5 vs SMU Ohio State -7.5 vs Tennessee Notre Dame -6.5 vs Indiana I think Indiana being a long bus ride away from Notre Dame was the only reason the game was more competitive than the others. And I turned off that game early partly because in the trenches, it didn’t look competitive early on. Hell I think Army might have been more competitive than SMU. But they subjectively chose (before the Army vs Navy game) Conference Championship game loser over Conference Championship game winner and everyone debating Alabama. 🙄. Utter BS.
      Meangreen Fight in Mean Green Football
    3. 27

      24/25 MBB Attendance Tracker

      This is why we need a new arena max 1500/2,000 and make that thing Rocking.
      GMG24 in Mean Green Basketball
    4. 51

      SMUt getting owned by State

      If everything will go the way you think it will go then why do we play the games or even schedule games with spreads over 14 points? The underdogs in College Football are in a perpetual no win situation. Get the upset there in the regular season are a ton of excuses and devaluation of what your program accomplished. Close loss then the naysayers devalue that also (SMU vs Clemson and the push to shoe in Alabama a team that lost to the Tennessee team that got blown out by Ohio State). I want teams to prove it on the field. And since the big brand teams have always been invested in scheduling the easiest path to the post season. NOT EVEN APPEARING in your conference championship game should be majorly punitive. So I don’t give a crap what people think Alabama (or anyone else would do). They lost to Vandy and a bad OU team. And they could have scheduled a decent FBS team instead of home scrimmages against Western Kentucky and Mercer. Or they could kept a SEC conference membership where they play more than half of the teams in the conference in a season. The worst aspect of boxing that killed it popularity was the ranking organizations a chicken hearted scheduling. I hate subjectivity in sports that have easy scoring rules. And putting in a team that didn’t appear in their conference championship game in a better playoff position than a conference champion or championship game loser is 100% based on subjectivity if the teams did not play head to head and have the same win/loss record. Maybe I will be in the minority of College Football fans over 35. But I will have no interest in the opening round of CFP if they start routinely subjectively punishing Conference Champions over teams that failed to appear in their conference title game. Go look at the SEC standings; even arguing Alabama over Ole Miss getting that spot is subjective garbage. Both are 9-3 overall and 5-3 in SEC play. But almost universally people are lamenting Alabama not being included. The stupidity and greed of the SEC had border state rivals in the same conference not play each other this year. 🙄. To me that is the outrage. Maybe if they had played each other we one of them would be in the playoff and SMU fans couldn’t have had a reasonable protest if that happened.
      • 2
      • Confused
      • Upvote
      Meangreen Fight in Mean Green Football
    5. 26

      Chris Jimmerson

      I already wonder how long he's going to stay anyway. Is he expected to challenge P-barger for the starting position? If not, do we expect him to take the job in year 2 or would it be more likely that EM brings in another experienced QB. Whatever we do, I don't want ANY consideration regarding lost eligibility to factor into whether he plays or not. Edit: I posted before seeing this which is definitely good news.
      meaniegreenie in Mean Green Football

  • Popular Contributors

  • Member Statistics

    • Total Members
      15,504
    • Most Online
      1,865
    Jepper
    Newest Member
    Jepper
    Joined

  • Most Points

    1. 1
      El Paso Eagle
      El Paso Eagle
      169,929
    2. 2
      NT80
      NT80
      136,748
    3. 3
      KingDL1
      KingDL1
      130,805
    4. 4
      greenminer
      greenminer
      123,695
    5. 5
      TheReal_jayD
      TheReal_jayD
      108,804

  • Biggest Gamblers

    1. 1
      EdtheEagle
      EdtheEagle
      26,590,947
    2. 2
      UNTLifer
      UNTLifer
      4,480,984
    3. 3
      untphd
      untphd
      841,161
    4. 4
      flyonthewall
      flyonthewall
      670,422
    5. 5
      3_n_out
      3_n_out
      578,480
    6. 6
      SteaminWillieBeamin
    7. 7
      cousin oliver
      cousin oliver
      448,120
    8. 8
      UNT_FH_FR_YR
      UNT_FH_FR_YR
      389,039
    9. 9
      meangreenfaninno
    10. 10
      South Texas Green

WE BELIEVE IN THE MEAN GREEN!

News

Recruiting

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. Please review our full Privacy Policy before using our site.