When you hire quality assistants and have earned a great reputation in the coaching industry like Mike Young has, your assistants will inevitably receive interest for head coaching jobs. Combine that with Young's coaching tree and Virginia Tech is looking at a possibility of seeing an assistant leave this offseason for a head coaching job.
The latest possibility of this has emerged at George Mason where Hokies associate head coach Mike Jones and assistant Christian Webster have both been linked with the job.
Early Names for George Mason
— Major Madness (@low_madness) March 22, 2023
Mike Jones Virginia Tech
Jason Williford Virginia
Chris Caputo George Washington
Tony Skinn Maryland
Kenny Blakeney Howard
Now that the George Mason job is officially open, here are some names I am keeping an eye on:
— Tyler Byrum (@theTylerByrum) March 23, 2023
Tony Skinn
Kimani Young
Christian Webster
Mike Jones (UNC-G)
Jason Williford
Amir Abdur-Rahim
... and a darkhorse candidate:
Eric Konkol
Jones has been seen as a contender by multiple people (though the second tweet shown above mentions UNC Greensboro head coach Mike Jones not to get confused). Webster has only been mentioned by DC area sportswriter Tyler Byrum though the DMV roots make sense, and the fact that he's a young, rising major conference assistant for a highly-respected head coach is similar to their now former head coach Kim English.
They aren't the only regional, major conference assistants being linked as Maryland assistant Tony Skinn and UVA assistant Jason Williford have also been heavily linked with this job. Skinn played on the George Mason team that reached the Final Four while Williford has been at UVA for a long time and seems overdue for his chance to be a head coach.
Some of the head coaches rumored like Kenny Blakeney at Howard, Chris Caputo at George Washington, and Mike Jones at UNC Greensboro are all names that make sense for George Mason and/or DMV connections that they have. If one of those three were to be the hire, that opening could also be one that has interest in one of Tech's current assistants.
Jones seems the more likely contender than Webster for this job relatively speaking given Jones' impressive tenure at DeMatha Catholic and his greater name recognition in the DMV though both are more than qualified to be quality candidates for this opening.
So will one of Tech's assistants land a head coaching job this offseason? George Mason is now the latest opening to keep an eye on.
