Football
There’s no doubt that West Virginia Director of Athletics Wren Baker is going to search far and wide for the 36th head football coach in program history. In that search, there will be a lot of big-time names that you’ve seen populate on social media. You’ll see some up-and-coming coordinators who are looking to land their first head coaching job. And you’ll see a lot of familiar faces who have direct ties to West Virginia, WVU, or both.
According to Bruce Feldman of The Athletic, one of those familiar names is Penn State assistant head coach/co-offensive coordinator Ja’Juan Seider.
“A former West Virginia quarterback who got his start in college coaching at WVU before returning there as the running backs coach on Dana Holgorsen’s staff for four seasons, Seider is a well-regarded coach with deep ties around Florida, which has frequently been a key recruiting area for the program. Players really respond to him, and Seider knows from all his time in Morgantown what really works for the Mountaineers. He also has some former players and money people pushing for him to get in the mix.”
Seider wanted to stay put in Morgantown but felt like he had to go elsewhere to take the next step in his coaching career. He spent one year as the running backs coach at Florida before taking the same position at Penn State. He’s done a tremendous job of developing NFL-caliber backs such as Miles Sanders and the duo he has now in Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen.
Seider may not have head coaching experience, but as Feldman noted, he knows what it takes to win in Morgantown.
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