Now that Wicks has been hired, it will be interesting to see how he composes his staff this late in the process. My guess is that he tries to retain most of the current staff. A few thoughts on potential options:
Existing Staff:
1. Ken DeWeese - This is the most important one obviously. From the outside it would be great if we could keep DeWeese in an Associate HC role, but of course we have no idea what kind of relationship DeWeese and Wicks have or how DeWeese feels about being passed over. My guess is that DeWeese stays on, but I wouldn't be surprised if he moves on next year.
2. NIck Whitmore - Probably the one that seems most likely to not be part of the staff moving forward. He's the only one that was not on the staff with Wicks when he was here.
3. Shaun Vandiver - I think they called his role "Special Assistant to the Head Coach" or something similar. I think it's part of every Wyoming HC contract that they have Vandiver on staff in some capacity. He probably already had the record for the largest number of head coaches to be an assistant for at the same school, but he can add to his record here.
4. Tim O'Flannigan - Ops - Would seem to be a no-brainer to keep Tim.
5. Coleman Sparling - per lclark, Linder was going to elevate Sparling to a formal AC role. Wicks worked with him for one year, not sure what will happen here.
Outside Options:
1. Pat Monaghan - Was top assistant at UWGB for Wicks. Might be an option as the interim there, but if not, could be an option for Wicks at UW.
2. Dan Russell - Assistant at Weber State. Most Wyoming fans are probably familiar with him. Was an assistant under Danny Sprinkle at Montana State, head coach at Casper, and started as a GA at UW.
I don't think he has any interest in returning to college coaching, but of course Sundance's brother Luke had a solid assistant coaching career at USF and Pacific (under Stoudamire when they were a lot more competitive than they were under Perry the last few years).
Existing Staff:
1. Ken DeWeese - This is the most important one obviously. From the outside it would be great if we could keep DeWeese in an Associate HC role, but of course we have no idea what kind of relationship DeWeese and Wicks have or how DeWeese feels about being passed over. My guess is that DeWeese stays on, but I wouldn't be surprised if he moves on next year.
2. NIck Whitmore - Probably the one that seems most likely to not be part of the staff moving forward. He's the only one that was not on the staff with Wicks when he was here.
3. Shaun Vandiver - I think they called his role "Special Assistant to the Head Coach" or something similar. I think it's part of every Wyoming HC contract that they have Vandiver on staff in some capacity. He probably already had the record for the largest number of head coaches to be an assistant for at the same school, but he can add to his record here.
4. Tim O'Flannigan - Ops - Would seem to be a no-brainer to keep Tim.
5. Coleman Sparling - per lclark, Linder was going to elevate Sparling to a formal AC role. Wicks worked with him for one year, not sure what will happen here.
Outside Options:
1. Pat Monaghan - Was top assistant at UWGB for Wicks. Might be an option as the interim there, but if not, could be an option for Wicks at UW.
2. Dan Russell - Assistant at Weber State. Most Wyoming fans are probably familiar with him. Was an assistant under Danny Sprinkle at Montana State, head coach at Casper, and started as a GA at UW.
I don't think he has any interest in returning to college coaching, but of course Sundance's brother Luke had a solid assistant coaching career at USF and Pacific (under Stoudamire when they were a lot more competitive than they were under Perry the last few years).
