IF YOU don't believe it's a new era in West Virginia University football, ask new head coach Dana Holgorsen the feelings he anticipates as he runs onto Mountaineer Field this Sunday.

Consider he's been an assistant at Valdosta State, Mississippi College, Wingate, Texas Tech, Houston and Oklahoma State.

He's helped teams to 11 bowl appearances and coached players like Michael Crabtree, now of the San Francisco 49ers, Graham Harrell, now of the Green Bay Packers, and Wes Welker, now of the New England Patriots.

But he's never been the head coach on game day. Not for a single play.

That moment, however, will come Sunday, when WVU plays host to Marshall.

Finally, the kid from Mount Pleasant, Iowa, the graduate of Iowa Wesleyan, will get his shot.

And as he runs out of that tunnel and onto the field in Morgantown, he'll be thinking about ...

"The task at hand," he said.

Yep. Bill Stewart is gone. No reminiscing about the hometown. No yarns. No lubing of worlds or matching of mountains. Holgorsen will be focusing on the task at hand.

"That's the only way I know how to do it," said the Mountaineer coach. "Getting all sentimental doesn't do any good. It's going to be as routine as can be.

"We treated [Wednesday] like our usual game-week Tuesday because the game is on Sunday. After that, we'll go into our Wednesday routine."

He stopped for a chuckle.

"Earth-shattering stuff, huh?"

He did, however, take a moment to reflect on the first time the idea of becoming a head coach entered his brain.

"It was when I was at Iowa Wesleyan," he said. "I looked at [then-head coach] Hal Mumme and [then-offensive coordinator] Mike Leach and figured I wanted to do what they did.

"Then, along the way, I got a perspective on how to be a football CEO. I developed my own way of doing things. I took some things I liked from each head coach and threw some things out I didn't like. This is a collection of 20 years watching."

It's interesting, by the way, that Holgorsen brought up the names of Mumme and Leach. Both have higher-profile names nationally. But examine the trio and discern which is, well, on top of the mountain today.

Holgorsen was recruited to Iowa Wesleyan by Mumme and Leach. After his playing days (he was a receiver), Holgorsen joined the pair as an assistant at Valdosta State.

Then the pair soared, while Holgorsen walked another path. Mumme ultimately took over as the head coach at Kentucky and took Leach, who later split to become the offensive coordinator at Oklahoma and then head coach at Texas Tech.

You might know the rest of those stories. Mumme resigned from Kentucky amid NCAA violation allegations. Today, he's coaching at Division III McMurry University in Abilene, Texas.

Leach had a great run at Texas Tech before getting fired in the whirlwind that was the Adam James controversy. Today, he's a CBS College Sports announcer.

Meanwhile, shortly before 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, Holgorsen will guide a team onto a field for the first time as a head coach. It's been a long climb for the 1993 graduate of Iowa Wesleyan.

And as he runs onto that field, this is what will be going through his mind:

"If we're going to get the ball first or not," he said. "And what play I'm going to call if we do get the ball first."

Nothing earth shattering.

But maybe Holgorsen learned something from Stewart as well as the other head coaches for whom he worked.

It doesn't do any good to get sentimental.

Reach Mitch Vingle at 304-348-4827, mitchvin...@wvgazette.com or follow him at twitter.com/MitchVingle.