Jose Fernandez is one of four first-time head coaches who were hired to lead a WNBA team after the 2025 season. He will lead the charge for the Wings as they try to build a championship contender around Paige Bueckers and whoever they select in the 2026 WNBA Draft.
Fernandez may not have any WNBA experience, but he has coached in the women’s college game for years. Despite the stability he had at his previous job, Fernandez felt that it was time to move on to the W. When he appeared on No Offseason: The Athletic Women’s Basketball Show, he cited the changing college landscape as one of the reasons he felt comfortable taking this next step. With NIL, college coaches are asked to do much more than before and handle situations similar to professional coaches when it comes to player recruitment and retaining talent in the transfer portal. Those new responsibilities made him feel ready to take on the professional level.
Moreover, Fernandez is not a fan of the current college system. “The college system is broken,” he said on No Offseason, “and I don’t know how it can be fixed.”
Jose Fernandez saw the college game change over his time at USF
Jose Fernandez began coaching before most of the players on the Wings’ current roster were even born. He started as an assistant coach at Miami-Dade CC and eventually worked his way up to a position as the head coach of the women’s basketball team at the University of South Florida in 2000.
Fernandez coached at USF ever since and found steady success. He was named the AAC Coach of the Year in 2018 and 2021 and amassed a 485-317 record during his time at USF. He also led his team to several NCAA Tournament appearances.
The most well-known player to come out of his program is Courtney Williams, a two-time All-Star and starter for the Minnesota Lynx. Kitija Laksa, who just went to the finals with the Phoenix Mercury, also played her college basketball at USF, as Fernandez found success with recruiting international players. Inga Orekhova and Alisia Jenkins also made it to the WNBA after playing for Fernandez at USF around the same time as Courtney Williams.
Over 25 years, Fernandez saw the college game change and evolve. NIL has arguably caused the biggest changes the system has ever seen, and not all coaches are fans of this new era. Cori Close said on All the Smoke with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson that the transfer portal lacked boundaries and the college system didn’t “serve the kids” anymore. On the same podcast, Vic Schaefer said the current system was “doing them [college players] an injustice” and that he still wasn’t comfortable with how the recruiting process has changed through NIL.