Along with losing its star quarterback this off-season, West Virginia could be finding itself in even more trouble after the departure of Dana Holgorsen.
Some of the latest coaching news to drop is some of the more surprising for the coaching carousel heading into the 2019 off-season. The former head coach of the West Virginia Mountaineers, Dana Holgorsen, bolted for the Houston Cougars opening following the departure of its former head coach, and Texas football quarterback Major Applewhite.
The coaching carousel around the Big 12 had some interesting course of events around bowl season and the end of the regular season. Holgorsen bolting from West Virginia, a solid Power Five program, to a Group of Five school that was just belted in its postseason game against the Army Black Knights like Houston seems like a lateral move at best.
However, the speculation surrounding the logic Holgorsen used for this decision shows that it might not be the worst move after all. Holgorsen looked at numerous openings for head coach in the state of Texas at the end of the regular season, including Houston and the Texas Tech Red Raiders. He wound up missing out on the Texas Tech job after it hired the former Utah State Aggies head coach Matt Wells.
Moreover, the other job that Dana Holgorsen was looking into heading into the off-season was with the Colorado Buffaloes. The Colorado and Texas Tech openings were fresh starts for Dana Holgorsen after there were some rumblings of friction between him and the West Virginia football fan base.
Something else that had to appeal to Holgorsen regarding the Houston opening was the potential to make a jump like the UCF Knights had under Scott Frost and Josh Heupel the last two seasons. According to ESPN, the deal being finalized between Dana Holgorsen and Houston football is set for $20 million over the course of five years. The deal makes Holgorsen the highest paid head coach of any Group of Five program.
SB Nation summed up the role that West Virginia had in the departure of Dana Holgorsen, and why going to Houston actually makes sense for him. A lot of the logic aforementioned here is a recurrent theme that shows the circumstances that pushed Holgorsen out of Morgantown, WV.
Moreover, as this relates to the Texas Longhorns football program, the coaching carousel around the Big 12 could have some major implications to the turnout of the conference standings. Some Big 12 programs like Texas Tech and the Iowa State Cyclones seemingly made positive coaching moves entering the off-season while West Virginia is clearly going to take a step back.
Anything that helps other Big 12 programs like West Virginia take a step back could help the Horns when it’s all said and done. Some of the potential coaching candidates mentioned to replace Dana Holgorsen for the Mountaineers is still being refined.
Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports mentioned some of the usual coaching candidates for Power Five openings for the off-season. Some of those names are the North Texas Mean Green head coach Seth Littrell and the Troy Trojans head coach Neal Brown.
What West Virginia was able to do this year with star senior quarterback Will Grier in the fold was short of expectations. West Virginia also fell short to quarterback Eric Dungey and the Syracuse Orange in the Camping World Bowl to cap off a weird end to the Dana Holgorsen-era in Morgantown.