When you are putting together a brand new staff for a football program at the FBS level, there are bound to be hits and misses.
And while it's hard to tell which coaches will work out and which won’t this early, some West Virginia football fans are a bit unsure of one of the team’s latest hires as the Mountaineers found their new offensive line coach on Friday in veteran journeyman Jack Bicknell Jr.
But let’s start with the upside of the hire before we delve too deeply into any concerns. Bicknell brings over 20 years of FBS coaching experience and 7 seasons of NFL coaching experience to Morgantown. He also brings FBS head coaching experience, having helmed the program at Louisiana Tech from 1999-2006.
Bicknell Jr. also coached with current WVU head coach Rich Rodriguez at Ole Miss for one season under the leadership of then-Ole Miss Head Coach Matt Luke -- Rodriguez was the offensive coordinator and Bicknell Jr. was the offensive line coach. There were some positives emerging from that experience, as the Rebels finished ranked sixth amongst FBS rushing offenses, averaging 254.2 yards per game and were a modest 49th in FBS in sacks per game allowed with 1.9 -- though the offense was not very pass-centric.
Bicknell’s line at Ole Miss also protected the quarterbacks that led the SEC in passing yards from 2017-2018, and he coached left tackle Greg Little for the Rebels, who earned first team All-SEC accolades and became a second-round selection in the 2019 NFL Draft
However, the concerns amongst fans are valid. Since returning to the collegiate ranks since his time as an NFL assistant. Bicknell has been with five different programs in just eight seasons -- three of those stints lasted just one year. Rodriguez and Bicknell’s stout run game at Ole Miss also didn’t earn a ton of success for the team as a whole, as they finished 4-8 and the coaching staff found themselves looking for new jobs in the off-season.
Just last off-season, Bicknell was reassigned from offensive line coach to executive director of football relations after four offensive lineman from the previous season hit the transfer portal, with anonymous sources telling Wisconsin outlet BadgerExtra that “players worried that they weren’t getting better or advancing their goals of making the NFL under Bicknell,” and that “Bicknell was a player’s coach, but wasn’t as critical of players when needed.” But he was finished with that role within the program by the time the summer rolled around.
Bicknell has also been terminated from his position at many of his spots in both the NFL -- such as with the Pittsburgh Steelers -- and at the collegiate level at schools such as Ole Miss and Wisconsin.
Whether the hire ultimately works remains to be seen, but amidst the hype of stealing a defensive coordinator like Zac Alley from an SEC school, bringing back familiar names such as Jeff Casteel, or retaining assistants with deep program ties like Blaine Stewart, Bicknell Jr. is one of the first hires to raise concerns for WVU fans.