The West Virginia Mountaineers had their fair share of struggles at the quarterback position last season, cycling through four different starters before true freshman Scotty Fox Jr. found his groove in a historic campaign.
And while the Mountaineers would end up finishing out the season with a worse record than most fans would have hoped for, the team got competitive throughout the season, and a lot of that progression came with Fox at signal caller – leaving fans with some hope for what he might do in his second year in Rich Rodriguez's system.
But there was a moment where the Mountaineers could have lost Fox before they had him on campus, when the coaching staff that originally recruited him – helmed by Neal Brown – found themselve out of jobs after the conclusion on the 2024 season.
West Virginia's athletic director put in last-minute recruiting pitch to Scotty Fox Jr.
Fox recently stopped by the 3 Guys Before The game podcast, and he talked about the moment when he found out Brown has been fired from the program, and what his reaction was.
"I'm sitting in my bed and my phone's across the room, and it's just blowing up out of nowhere. I look – 'Neal Brown fired, Neal Brown gone, what are you going to do,'" said Fox.
Not only is @wrenbaker a culinary innovator turns out he’s a pretty solid recruiter too.
— 3 Guys Before the Game (@3Guys__) April 30, 2026
Just before signing day, the coaching staff that recruited Scotty Fox was gone. Then came a call from Wren Baker.
Wren told him WVU would hire a great coach and encouraged him to stay… pic.twitter.com/A9rTI5MImn
"I was freaking out. I ran to my dad's room, and I was like, 'what am I going to do?' I was talking with the coaches, they were like, 'yeah, we don't know where we're going to end up.' So I was kind of like, stuck. I love the place here and I love everything, but my coaches are gone. "Early signing day was like two or three days later."
But then, Fox received a call from someone you don't really expect to be involved in the football recruiting process – Wren Baker, WVU's athletic director. Baker would go on to plead his case on why Fox should stick with his commitment.
"I got on the phone with Wren Baker, and he was like, 'Scotty, we're going to get a guy. Trust us, just stick with us.,'" said Fox. "They didn't know who the coach was going to be signing, but I signed. Then I saw it was Coach Rod, and from there, I thought it fit pretty well."
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