Why is Joe Manchin so Involved in the West Virginia Coaching Search

Happy New Year! As West Virginia's coaching search crawls on, I just have to ask why is the governor of this state so involved in the coaching search? It's a somewhat rhetorical question, because he is a politician and if you want some face time in the West Virginia press right now all you have to do is talk about the coaching search. And it goes deeper than that when you consider that he played for and graduated from West Virginia University. And deeper still when you take into account his personal relationship with Rich Rodriguez and the efforts he made to keep Rodriguez at West Virginia last year.

It would be all too easy for me to say that there are other things in West Virginia that should concern the governor more than football. Poverty, education, infrastructure, just to name a few. But those are all things that were issues in West Virginia long before Manchin was born. So let's just push them to the side for a bit.

There is other news of his involvement with the university that smells of old boy network. At any other time, that would probably send most politicians running for the hills. But somehow, it has only received token attention from the West Virginia media. At least in comparison to the coaching search.

But back to the question of why. Maybe I don't pay attention as closely when other schools search for a coach. But I can't remember a governor of another state being so involved in a university. West Virginia is unique in that there isn't another game in this state than West Virginia University. Sorry Marshall. But when I stop to think about the governor's relationship with the university president, Rodriguez, the Bowden family, and yes even Nick Saban, my only thought is that this whole thing just stinks!

A WVU team source also said Gov. Joe Manchin is intent on putting a big-name coach in place and has interest in Alabama coach and Marion County native Nick Saban.

There are more than enough qualified candidates out there. But somehow I feel that the Mike Locksley's and Bud Foster's of the world are only receiving token consideration for the job. And when it's all said and done, West Virginia will have a coach that the old boy network can all agree on, but not one that will maintain or improve the program.

In the short term, the Mountaineer football team couldn't have asked for a better diversion. This coaching search has taken the focus away from the team and allowed them to prepare with far less scrutiny than what would have otherwise been applied. It has also seemed to galvanize the team in a way that wasn't possible under Rodriguez.

However, when that final gun sounds at the Fiesta Bowl tomorrow, the long term direction of the program should start to come into focus. The decision that the powers that be make will say a lot about who was really ever considered for this job and who was just being used.