West Virginia Football Head Coach Candidates: Who Will Replace Neal Brown In Morgantown?

The West Virginia Mountaineers made a move that many across the college football world and PA online gambling was expecting earlier this month, with the Big 12 program firing head coach Neal Brown after six years in Morgantown. Brown’s tenure at WVU never quite lived up to the billing, with the 44-year-old Kentucky native going from being one of the best coaches in the ‘Group of Five’ circuit at Troy, where he went 35-16 across four seasons, to finding himself out of work after going 37-35 with four seasons at or below .500 with the Mountaineers.

For WVU Athletic Director Wren Baker, the choice at hand currently is whether the Mountaineers should try and turn back the clock by re-hiring one of the most successful coaches in school history (Rich Rodriguez) or take a risk by hiring an outsider to be the next man up now that Brown is out.

With that in mind, PennStakes.com broke down a handful of candidates that Baker can look to in searching for the next head coach at WVU, with ‘Rich Rod’ beating out a slew of qualified candidates right now.

West Virginia Football Head Coach Candidates

Candidate	Current Job	Odds	Percentage Chance
Rich Rodriguez	Current Jacksonville State HC	-500	83.3%
Jeff Monken	Current Army HC	+1100	8.3%
Jamey Chadwell	Current Liberty HC	+3500	2.8%
Andy Kotelnicki	Current Penn State OC	+5500	1.8%
Brian Hartline	Current Ohio State Co-OC	+5500	1.8%
Anthony Becht	Current St. Louis Battlehawks HC	+8250	1.2%
The Field		+10000	1.0%

Disclaimer: These odds were developed by and are exclusive to PennStakes.com, but regulated operators offering top Pennsylvania sportsbook promo codes will offer wagers on each college bowl game, plus futures betting and more.

Who Replaces Neal Brown At WVU?

Our top pick at WVU is Rodriguez, who posted the third best winning percentage of any head coach in Mountaineers history between 2001 and 2007, when he went 60-26 (.698), transforming the program into a Big East powerhouse. We have Rodriguez as our heavily favored top pick to replace Brown, at -500, thanks in large part to the CFB veteran’s run at C-USA program Jacksonville State, where he’s gone 18-8 (.692) in two seasons with the Gamecocks as they settle into the FBS ranks after a long stint as an FCS football team.

Should Rodriguez not get the job, keep an eye on former Kansas and current Penn State offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki, who is listed at +5550, though most of his coaching days have been in the Midwest, with stops at Western Illinois, Wisconsin-River Falls, University of Mary, Wisconsin-Whitewater and Kansas, with stops at Buffalo and Penn State in-between.

Also keep an eye on current Liberty Flames head coach Jamey Chadwell as well, as the former Coastal Carolina coach is listed at +3500 to be the next man up at WVU after going 60-26 (.698) with the two programs between 2017 and 2024.

Moving up on our board is also Army’s Jeff Monken, now listed at +1100.

But make no mistake - this is Rodriguez' job to lose.

USA Today photo by Dave Hyatt.

Author

Christopher Boan

Christopher Boan has been covering sports and sports betting for more than seven years, including stops at ArizonaSports.com, the Tucson Weekly and the Green Valley News.