Oklahoma Insider Speaks on Wren Baker Speculation as OU AD Job is Set to Open

Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione is set to retire in the upcoming year, meaning one of the most coveted jobs on the market will be searching for a new leader.

Many names are going to get tossed around as possible candidates for this job, but as of Tuesday afternoon, there are no confirmed reports of who could be in play. West Virginia AD Wren Baker has been listed as a name to watch by various bloggers, but it doesn't appear there's much to it right now.

Oklahoma On SI publisher John Hoover provided some insight on the OU situation when I asked him directly about Baker. "No, nothing official. Lots of speculation. I think he’d be good for the job for sure, but OU may want their next AD to come from a less traditional background."

From the WVU side of things, Baker isn't considered "traditional". That would be a term more suitable for his predecessor, Shany Lyons. But what Oklahoma may deem as traditional could mean something completely different.

Oklahoma On SI sees Zac Selmon (Mississippi State AD), Marcus Bowman (Oklahoma Deputy AD), and Kirby Hocutt (Texas Tech AD) as best fits.

The other part of this is Baker's current situation at WVU. He just hired another men's basketball coach and replaced Neal Brown with Rich Rodriguez. Given the constant turnover on the basketball side and the huge backing of Rich Rod on the football side, Baker is afforded a pretty long leash. He's hit on every previous hire here and has made a lot of progress in other areas, such as fundraising, relationship-building, etc.

The Oklahoma job comes with a lot of pressure. That's not to say West Virginia doesn't, but as I just mentioned, he's extremely safe in his position at WVU. Oklahoma may have a tough call to make on Brent Venables after the 2025 season, and if you don't get the football coaching situation right, there will be a lot of noise.

Yes, Baker is a native of Oklahoma, but it would be a massive risk to make the move. Could he be someone Oklahoma considers? Yes. They're going to do their due diligence, looking at every possible option. Being listed as a "name to watch" and being confirmed as a target/candidate are two completely different things. The latter has not happened yet.

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