Western Michigan was apparently impressed with all those GoDaddy.com commercials. First, it was whywestern.com, a desperate plea to get into the Secondary Six conference. Now, we've got wowwestern.com, which features a countdown to a noon eastern press conference to announce the new head coach of the Bronco program. I checked and still available are wetwestern.com, wtfwestern.com, and, assuming the team can't find a new conference, waswestern.com
Anyway, the press conference on Tuesday afternoon is likely to announce that former NHL coach Andy Murray is the Broncos' new head coach.
The obvious question is: Is Murray the right choice for Western Michigan? It's tough to say, but Western Michigan felt like they needed to hire a big name to show they were serious about the future of their hockey program and Murray certainly fits the bill. It is worth noting that Murray will likely get the same $275K salary that Jeff Blashill was set to receive from Western.
The next question is whether or not hiring Murray is a big enough name to help earn Western Michigan an invite into the Secondary Six conference. Who the current head coach of a program is shouldn't make all that much difference, especially in the case of Murray, who is 60 years old, and would be 62 before the Secondary Six opens up conference play to a television crowd of 8000 people. But perhaps hiring a former NHL coach helps prove that Western is willing to make the type of financial commitment the other conference members expect from a fellow program.