According to Mike Montoro, West Virginia University's director of football communications, Dana Holgorsen will make his first public appearance in the Mountain State next week.
According to Mike Montoro, West Virginia University's director of football communications, Dana Holgorsen will make his first public appearance in the Mountain State next week.
The incoming Mountaineer offensive coordinator and head coach in waiting will finish this season as the offensive coordinator at Oklahoma State via duties in the upcoming Alamo Bowl.
On Thursday, though, he appeared on the "John and Lance Show" via Houston's 1560 AM KGOW radio station.
During the interview, he said he recently visited Morgantown, has a bead on his future assistants and addressed what could be an awkward situation working with Bill Stewart, who will be WVU's head coach next season before being replaced.
Below are Holgorsen outtakes from the radio show's interview:
On taking the call from WVU athletic director Oliver Luck:
"Well, you gotta listen to stuff like that, There's been stuff like that, not to this magnitude, but there's been stuff like that every year. You gotta figure out if the situation is better than the situation you're in. The history of what West Virginia has done over the last 10 years has been pretty good.
"So when Oliver approached me about three weeks ago, it was a situation I wasn't going to take lightly. We had a bunch of talks. It progressed and turned out good.''
On WVU's recruiting:
"There's really right now three pockets. Florida's huge. They have a ton of athletes from Florida. I'd say half their roster is kids from Florida. There's the Washington, D.C., and Virginia area, which really has a lot of good athletes. Grades are sometimes a problem, but you have to sift through that. They get a lot of linemen from Pennsylvania and Ohio. Pennsylvania is 40 miles from West Virginia. They get the big kids from those two states and the skill kids from the D.C. and Florida areas.''
On the difficulty of coming from another part of the country and trying to recruit to West Virginia:
"It comes back to hiring people. You have to have four or five guys on the staff that are going to be comfortable going to Florida and [will] know the area. I don't need a bunch of people with nothing but Texas ties going to West Virginia and expect them to go into Florida.
"It going to be part of the hiring process. Houston, though, is an area that we're going to get into a little bit and Dallas as well.''
On what convinced him to take the WVU job:
"It's a combination. One is Oliver Luck. He's really a great guy with a great mind. He's proactive and someone you can get along with. That's important. Couple that with the fact that West Virginia is averaging seven to nine wins a year for the last 10 years and you get an opportunity to win.''
On visiting Morgantown:
"I went out there two weeks ago. It was the first time I'd been out there. It's a great college town. It probably has 50-60,000 people, but the whole thing is all about West Virginia University. The support is there; the attendance is there. I think the whole community is really all about the school.''
On touring the city:
"It was pretty confidential at that point. It was just the beginning of talks. I went out and spent the day with Oliver.''
On coaching Oklahoma State in the bowl:
"I'm planning on it. I'm day-to-day; you know how I am. I'm pretty much viewing the next two weeks as vacation. It's what you have good assistant coaches for. Those guys will all game plan. We'll get together, game plan and practice.''
On the potential of an awkward situation coaching beside Stewart:
"Bill Stewart is a great person. His heart is with West Virginia University. He was born there. He's been there a long, long time. He wants what's best for the university. I get to learn from him and get a lay of the land, so to speak, for a whole year. I can evaluate the program and make suggestions on how to make it better.
"Job No. 1 is to get the offense going, install it, get it in place and teach people. In the back of my mind I'll kind of evaluate the whole thing.''
On the WVU job:
According to Mike Montoro, West Virginia University's director of football communications, Dana Holgorsen will make his first public appearance in the Mountain State next week.
The incoming Mountaineer offensive coordinator and head coach in waiting will finish this season as the offensive coordinator at Oklahoma State via duties in the upcoming Alamo Bowl.
On Thursday, though, he appeared on the "John and Lance Show" via Houston's 1560 AM KGOW radio station.
During the interview, he said he recently visited Morgantown, has a bead on his future assistants and addressed what could be an awkward situation working with Bill Stewart, who will be WVU's head coach next season before being replaced.
Below are Holgorsen outtakes from the radio show's interview:
On taking the call from WVU athletic director Oliver Luck:
"Well, you gotta listen to stuff like that, There's been stuff like that, not to this magnitude, but there's been stuff like that every year. You gotta figure out if the situation is better than the situation you're in. The history of what West Virginia has done over the last 10 years has been pretty good.
"So when Oliver approached me about three weeks ago, it was a situation I wasn't going to take lightly. We had a bunch of talks. It progressed and turned out good.''
On WVU's recruiting:
"There's really right now three pockets. Florida's huge. They have a ton of athletes from Florida. I'd say half their roster is kids from Florida. There's the Washington, D.C., and Virginia area, which really has a lot of good athletes. Grades are sometimes a problem, but you have to sift through that. They get a lot of linemen from Pennsylvania and Ohio. Pennsylvania is 40 miles from West Virginia. They get the big kids from those two states and the skill kids from the D.C. and Florida areas.''
On the difficulty of coming from another part of the country and trying to recruit to West Virginia:
"It comes back to hiring people. You have to have four or five guys on the staff that are going to be comfortable going to Florida and [will] know the area. I don't need a bunch of people with nothing but Texas ties going to West Virginia and expect them to go into Florida.
"It going to be part of the hiring process. Houston, though, is an area that we're going to get into a little bit and Dallas as well.''
On what convinced him to take the WVU job:
"It's a combination. One is Oliver Luck. He's really a great guy with a great mind. He's proactive and someone you can get along with. That's important. Couple that with the fact that West Virginia is averaging seven to nine wins a year for the last 10 years and you get an opportunity to win.''
On visiting Morgantown:
"I went out there two weeks ago. It was the first time I'd been out there. It's a great college town. It probably has 50-60,000 people, but the whole thing is all about West Virginia University. The support is there; the attendance is there. I think the whole community is really all about the school.''
On touring the city:
"It was pretty confidential at that point. It was just the beginning of talks. I went out and spent the day with Oliver.''
On coaching Oklahoma State in the bowl:
"I'm planning on it. I'm day-to-day; you know how I am. I'm pretty much viewing the next two weeks as vacation. It's what you have good assistant coaches for. Those guys will all game plan. We'll get together, game plan and practice.''
On the potential of an awkward situation coaching beside Stewart:
"Bill Stewart is a great person. His heart is with West Virginia University. He was born there. He's been there a long, long time. He wants what's best for the university. I get to learn from him and get a lay of the land, so to speak, for a whole year. I can evaluate the program and make suggestions on how to make it better.
"Job No. 1 is to get the offense going, install it, get it in place and teach people. In the back of my mind I'll kind of evaluate the whole thing.''
On the WVU job:
"I just think it's a really good opportunity to step in. There's good tradition and good players that are used to winning games.''
On WVU students burning couches after big victories:
"That's what I've heard, which means they're passionate about it."
On whether he'll have final call on whether to offer scholarships to recruits:
"No, it goes back to trusting the coaches. [Houston coach] Kevin [Sumlin] did a great job of that. He let his position coaches make decisions. As the head coach you have to overrule sometimes and force kids on position coaches, but you want your position coaches to pick their guys. They're the ones that have to be in the room with that kid. Say me as an offensive coordinator picks an offensive lineman and sticks him in the offensive lineman room when that guy didn't really want that kid. He's not going to coach him very hard.''
On whether he's taken a little something from former head coaches Mike Leach, Sumlin and current coach Mike Gundy:
"Absolutely. All are incredibly successful. I'm going to do things differently than all three guys I've worked for. You take some things they do well; you notice things they don't do well; you try to mold yourself into your own guy.''
On his top priorities after hitting Morgantown:
"No. 1 is hiring people. You have to surround yourself with people who are smarter than you. It's something that's pretty important. There are a whole bunch of good football coaches out there with a whole bunch of good ideas and a whole bunch of different philosophies. You have to get people with somewhat the same philosophies - with different ideas, but the same philosophies - that get along.''
On the notion that working a year on the staff before taking over is a good idea for a first-year-to-be head coach:
"I talked to Oliver about that a long time. You have a guy like Bill Stewart who really, really, really cares about the place he's at. It's going to be a deal where I can install the offense, but also evaluate the whole program.
"A year from now I'm probably going to have several suggestions of how to make it better.''
On already having a mental list of possible assistants:
"Yes, you accumulate that. Each year it kind of changes a little bit based of who you've worked with last, how your offense has evolved and who understands how your offense has evolved. But the biggest part is the dynamics of where they're at because of recruiting. Recruiting is so important. If I put nine people on my staff in West Virginia that do a good job of recruiting in Texas and the West Coast, well, that's not going to do us a lot of good. There has to be a good fit. [The players] have to wake up there and be happy each day."
On whether next season will be an audition of sorts for the current WVU staff:
"Yes. On the defensive side, Jeff Casteel is an unbelievable defensive coordinator. He's been in the top 10 in the country. I've met with him. He's really a good guy and a great football coach. He's in place. He's not going anywhere. His reputation precedes him. The numbers speak for themselves. He's going to keep doing what he's doing. I don't anticipate that changing."
On being financially secure after signing a six-year contract:
"I haven't thought about it. I'm going to try to take care of business here [at Oklahoma State]. My job there [at WVU] begins in two weeks. It's going to be a process. One of the things Oliver told me is the commitment is high on their end and the commitment has to be high on my end. I'm excited to get started there on the first of January.
"We're not going to accomplish all we want in a week. It's going to take time to get the lay of the land and understand the personnel and try to move to the next level.''
On spending eight seasons at Texas Tech, then four schools in five years:
"I'm tired of moving around a little bit. I'm ready to kind of settle in and focus in on one place for a long time."
On the possibility of buying a home rather than living out of a hotel:
"Do I have to?"
Reach Mitch Vingle at 304-348-4827, mitchvin...@wvgazette.com or follow him at http://twitter.com/MitchVingle.
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