West Virginia’s Vic Riggs resigned from his head coaching position after being with the program for the last 17 years.

According the public records, Riggs made $134,611.71 in 2023 and has hovered in the $130-140K range since 2018. The West Virginia men and women compete in the Big 12 Conference, which will be without Texas for the first time this upcoming season as Texas is moving to the SEC.

Let’s wildly speculate about who might take over this job.

The two most obvious choices are West Virginia alums who are currently coaching elsewhere in the NCAA, to notable success.

Pablo Marmolejo, Head Coach, Delaware- Marmolejo is a West Virginia alum as he graduated from the program in 2009 before spending the 2009-2011 seasons with the program as a graduate assistant. He graduated in 2011 with a masters in Public Administration. After graduation, Marmolejo moved to the University of Delaware working as an assistant and recruiting director from 2012-2015. He then spent a few years away from collegiate coaching as he coached club swimming with Delaware Swim Team. Then, in 2018, he arrived back at Delaware as he was hired as head coach in May 2018. So far in his second stint with the Blue Hens, Marmolejo has risen the program to be at the top of the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA). Both teams finished 2nd at the 2024 CAA Championships finishing only behind UNCW. Marmolejo helped coach Toni Sabev to the 2024 NCAA Championships as Sabev became Delaware’s first NCAA qualifier in program history.

Jason Calanog, Associate Head Coach, Texas A&M (Men)- Calanog is also a West Virginia alum as he graduated in 2007. He served as a volunteer assistant for West Virginia during the 2006-2007 season. After graduation, Calanog coached at The Bolles School in Florida from 2007-2015 where he most famously coached Caeleb Dressel. After Bolles, he arrived as an assistant with Texas A&M in 2015 and was promoted to associate head coach in 2019. Earlier this month, it was announced that Texas A&M would combine its men’s and women’s swimming and diving programs upon the retirement of women’s head coach Steve Bultman. With the combining of both programs, the situation for Calanog and the Texas A&M staff is up in the air for the time being. The Texas A&M men swam to a 16th place finish at 2024 NCAAs and were 4th (out of 10 teams) at 2024 SECs. The men’s team tied their program-high with a 10th place at NCAAs in 2021.

Peyton Brooks, Head Coach/Director of Competitive Swimming, Baylor Swim Club- It’s rare for Power 5 programs to hire head coaches straight out of the club or high school ranks, but Brooks is in a bit of a different position because he’s just a couple of years removed from a trajectory in the NCAA that was going to land himin charge of a program anyway. Prior to being hired at the Baylor Swim Club in October 2022, he spent three years as an assistant coach at Virginia Tech, where the men’s team finished 11th at the NCAA Championships. He also spent a year as the head coach at D2 Alderson-Broaddus University in 2014-2015. Brooks is a West Virginia alumnus who swam for four years during the program’s heyday under Sergio Lopez. That included swimming on the 2007 Big East Championship team. He then spent his fifth year as a member of the West Virginia football team as a wide receiver, where he was the Offensive Scout Team Player of the Year.

Bonuses:

• Wyatt Collins, Former Texas Men’s Associate Head Coach– With the arrival of Bob Bowman and now the hiring of Erik Posegay, it looks as if Collins will be looking for a new home. Collins was with the Texas men since 2014 starting as an assistant and being promoted to associate head coach in 2021.
• Cory Chitwood, Indiana Associate Head Coach– Chitwood has been with Indiana for five seasons now and works primarily with the distance group, including Mariah Denigan who will represent the US in Open Water swimming in Paris. The connection here is having coached current senior Ivan Puskovitch who also has represented the US in Open Water competition as most recently both were at 2024 Worlds.
• Damion Dennis, IUPUI Head Coach– Dennis has been the head coach at IUPUI since June 2019 but spent 11 season with West Virginia prior to that. West Virginia has been the longest stop in his coaching career as he has also been at UCSD, Princeton, and Michigan.

Things are setting up to be a big weekend of recruiting for Darian DeVries and the WVU men’s basketball coaching staff. 

According to Dante J Furco of FOX Illinois, West Virginia will be hosting Illinois transfers Amani Hansberry and Sencire Harris on an official visit over the next couple of days. Obviously, the connection here is the relationship with associate head coach Chester Frazier, who recruited the two out of high school and coached them at Illinois.

Hansberry, a 6-foot-8, 240-pound forward from Baltimore, Maryland, appeared in 19 games as a true freshman this past season and averaged 2.4 points, 2.1 rebounds, and 7.4 minutes per game. Coming out of Mount Saint Joseph High School, Hansberry was considered a consensus four-star recruit and held offers from Boston College, LSU, Mississippi State, Miami, NC State, Oklahoma State, Oregon, Penn State, Pitt, Tennessee, Texas A&M, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest, and the past staff at West Virginia. He will have three years of eligibility remaining.

Harris was a part of the 2022 recruiting class and appeared in 33 games (7 starts) as a true freshman. He averaged 3.7 points, 2.1 rebounds, and 0.9 assists per game while shooting 43% from the field and 31% from three. This past season, head coach Brad Underwood decided to redshirt the 6-foot-4 guard. Coming out of St. Vincent-St.Mary High School in Akron – yes, LeBron James’ high school – Harris held offers from Illinois, Maryland, Xavier, and several others. He, too, was rated a four-star prospect. Harris will also have three years of eligibility left.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — WVU held its first campus conversation Thursday in preparation for the implementation of the Campus Self Defense Act on July 1.

WVU Associate Vice President Travis Mollohan said during the online event the rule, approved last week by the WVU Board of Governors, will apply to all WVU campuses throughout the state. The rule directs the campus community to resources, describes exception areas where weapons or deadly objects are never allowed, and outlines potential actions that can be taken against those who violate the provisions.

“Our campus here in Morgantown, both the Downtown and Evansdale campuses,  applies to Beckley and Keyser campuses, as well as our Health Sciences campuses in Charleston, Martinsburg, and Bridgeport,” Mollohan said.

The financial impact on the university is expected to be about $1 million. The BOG has approved the sale of a little more than 4.5 acres near the University Police Department to meet some of that obligation.

“Being mobile (metal detectors), we can move them between facilities; that’s a cost-saving measure. Also, about $500,000 for the storage lockers that are in the process of being built and designed,” Mollohan said.

WVU Dean of Students Corey Farris said students living in dorms that wish to have concealed carry weapons will have access to secure storage lockers at either Brooke Tower or Summit Hall. Those students who wish to conceal carry will have to pay a fee to be determined for the use of the lockers.

“We will be sending notification emails to our students with housing contracts for next year with information on how they will log in and sign up for a locker,” Farris said.

WVU Deputy Legal Counsel Kevin Cimino said some venues or areas can become temporary exception areas after the measure goes into effect. The rules allow areas hosting a primary, secondary school, or private function to become exceptions for the period of the event when adequate notice is provided. Areas with enough security to ensure weapons and deadly objects “cannot be carried by the public into area” are also included.

“An example of something that fits that category is Fall Fest. It takes place on the field in front of The Towers; it’s not a stadium or arena, so it doesn’t specifically meet the exemption above, but the public entrances fit the definition because they are equipped with electronic equipment and armed personnel,” Cimino said.

Officials are also working on color-coded online maps that help people understand what is campus property, what is not, and where established exception areas are to include “sole occupancy” designations.

“We’ll have a link that will take you to the specific rooms that have been identified and are exempted from the act,” Cimino said. “We’re in the process of fine-tuning that right now, and it will be available in the near future.”

That law, approved by state lawmakers in the 2023 session and signed into law by Gov. Jim Justice, allows a person, with a valid license, to carry a gun concealed on college campuses with some exceptions.

West Virginia becomes one of 10 other states in the country to enact the policy.