Dana Holgorsen gambles on himself

[Bat 20]

Pretty good article here.

Dana Holgorsen gambles on himself and it pays off

 

[Slaton10]

Pretty good article here.

Dana Holgorsen gambles on himself and it pays off

Was getting ready to past this.......great article!


And for those who think there was no impact on recruiting during this SHANE LYONS DEBACLE!!


He acknowledged that the lack of a long-term contract impacted recruiting the past several months. More precisely, said Holgorsen, ESPN.com's Big 12 Coach of the Year, it impacted rival schools' methods in recruiting against the Mountaineers.


"I give our assistant coaches a lot of credit for hanging in there and not letting it disrupt what was going on," Holgorsen said. "The negative recruiting aspect with other schools was obviously happening."

What buoyed Holgorsen during a time rife with potential distractions?

"I've got a lot of confidence in myself," he said, "and I've got a lot of confidence in this football program and the coaches that I have working underneath me. I knew we had a good nucleus of players coming back that, really, for the first time, I recruited.

And KING OLLIE Chimed in!

"Like most young coaches who hadn't been a head coach, I think it took him a while to understand, adapt, learn those things that he hadn't been asked to do," said Oliver Luck, the former West Virginia AD who hired Holgorsen in 2010 as coach-in-waiting to Bill Stewart. "But at the end of the day, I thought he dealt with it relatively well."


And you don't think this guy is a true Mountaineer!...


The Mountaineers thrive on a blue-collar mentality and refuse to listen to outside voices, whether critical or complimentary of their play.


It works moving forward, he said, because "that's what this program has always been built on."

"That's what the state of West Virginia was and is currently built on," Holgorsen said, "hardworking, blue-collar, passionate people who wake up and do the same s--- every day."

Nehlen influence for sure.......

 

[GoldRusher]

I think "debacle" is a little strong don't you? I mean,Dana was ON the hotseat no question about it and we had 4 games that were 1 score from being loses. Had we lost to BYU, KState, Texas and Baylor.... Ole Shano would have canned him, and rightly so.

 

[wvu_man]

I think "debacle" is a little strong don't you? I mean,Dana was ON the hotseat no question about it and we had 4 games that were 1 score from being loses. Had we lost to BYU, KState, Texas and Baylor.... Ole Shano would have canned him, and rightly so.

"They outgained Oklahoma State and Oklahoma in losses by 17 and 28, points, respectively. WVU lost seven turnovers in the two defeats and gained just one, out of character for a team that created a Big 12-best 25 takeaways for the season."

And if this hadn't happened, we might have been in the hunt for the CFP or a NY's 6 bowl game at the very least.

If if's and but's were candies and nuts...right?

 

[GoldRusher]

"They outgained Oklahoma State and Oklahoma in losses by 17 and 28, points, respectively. WVU lost seven turnovers in the two defeats and gained just one, out of character for a team that created a Big 12-best 25 takeaways for the season."

And if this hadn't happened, we might have been in the hunt for the CFP or a NY's 6 bowl game at the very least.

If if's and but's were candies and nuts...right?

Even with the 2 loses things worked out , that's fine but a debacle would have been having Dana on the hotseat then signing Dana long term in the summer then going 5-6 wins this year. Lyons would have been the laughing stock of CFB. Its all good, glad it worked out but it was not a debacle imo, it was the safe play for WVU. FTR recruiting is on pace to finish about where we have been finishing since Dana was extended last time so... no harm no foul there as far as recruiting rankings.

 

[bbwvfan]

Great article.

Proves how mishandled the mess was last year. While fans like GoldRusher can point to narrow wins over teams this year and what a difference it could have made... one can just as easily flip the table and point to how close last year's team was to winning 9 regular season games and ending with a double digit winning season last year.

Shane hurt the program in so many ways last December.

 

[bbwvfan]

Even with the 2 loses things worked out , that's fine but a debacle would have been having Dana on the hotseat then signing Dana long term in the summer then going 5-6 wins this year. Lyons would have been the laughing stock of CFB. Its all good, glad it worked out but it was not a debacle imo, it was the safe play for WVU. FTR recruiting is on pace to finish about where we have been finishing since Dana was extended last time so... no harm no foul there as far as recruiting rankings.

I believe this logic is pure bullshit. If Dana has a 4-8... 5-7... 6-6 season next year... will there be fans calling out Shane for making a mistake giving Dana an extension this fall?

Good grief...

 

[GoldRusher]

If Dana has a 4-8... 5-7... 6-6 season next year... will there be fans calling out Shane for making a mistake giving Dana an extension this fall?

Good grief...

A CFB fan base second guessing an AD? Well of course that won't happen

 

[bbwvfan]

A CFB fan base second guessing an AD? Well of course that won't happen

Right! So... who gives a damn when it happens?

 

[Anotherwvufan]

I'm not second guessing the AD, I think he made the right calls all along. Holgerson took the gamble and won. He could have signed last year but did not. He may have lost a couple of recruits, but he gets to go to the bank.

Under Lyons:
Rifle domination continues
WVU hoops remains strong
Woman's soccer team makes the final
Womens basketball looking good
Stadium improvements
football coach extended after top 20 finish

Me thinks he is doing something right.

 

[Slaton10]

I think "debacle" is a little strong don't you? I mean,Dana was ON the hotseat no question about it and we had 4 games that were 1 score from being loses. Had we lost to BYU, KState, Texas and Baylor.... Ole Shano would have canned him, and rightly so.

Again..focusing on only wins and losses does not measure the entire state of a program and one that just transitioned into a new conference just 5 years ago.

 

[Slaton10]

I'm not second guessing the AD, I think he made the right calls all along. Holgerson took the gamble and won. He could have signed last year but did not. He may have lost a couple of recruits, but he gets to go to the bank.

Under Lyons:
Rifle domination continues
WVU hoops remains strong
Woman's soccer team makes the final
Womens basketball looking good
Stadium improvements
football coach extended after top 20 finish

Me thinks he is doing something right.

Have to fact check you on this one..

Huggins not his hire.

Neither is Izzo Brown or Hammonds

Ollie framed the plan and laid the ground work including getting all current projects for athletic program underway before he left.

 

[mad2mc]

I'm not second guessing the AD, I think he made the right calls all along. Holgerson took the gamble and won. He could have signed last year but did not. He may have lost a couple of recruits, but he gets to go to the bank.

Under Lyons:
Rifle domination continues
WVU hoops remains strong
Woman's soccer team makes the final
Womens basketball looking good
Stadium improvements
football coach extended after top 20 finish

Me thinks he is doing something right.

As I said before, why would Dana walk away from guaranteed money? Giving No Balls credit for all of the above is like handing out Participation Awards. He had zero to do with any of the above. Happened on his watch, but he didn't have a hand in making it happen.

 

[bbwvfan]

Pretty sure the AD is tasked with doing everything possible to help his athletic programs be successful. There is no way Shane can say he's done this with his football program.

He negatively impacted 3 recruiting classes. We have but 13 high school seniors in this year's class. We had a few highly rated recruits decommit last year when Shane remained silent during the regular season. And, the staff has had problems getting in early on '18 recruits.

I truly cannot understand how anyone believes Shane took the right course of action.

 

[WVUDAD]

I'm not second guessing the AD, I think he made the right calls all along. Holgerson took the gamble and won. He could have signed last year but did not. He may have lost a couple of recruits, but he gets to go to the bank.

Under Lyons:
Rifle domination continues
WVU hoops remains strong
Woman's soccer team makes the final
Womens basketball looking good
Stadium improvements
football coach extended after top 20 finish

Me thinks he is doing something right.

As near as I can tell, his only weakness is he isn't named Ollie............

 

[WVUDAD]

Have to fact check you on this one..

Huggins not his hire.

Neither is Izzo Brown or Hammonds

Ollie framed the plan and laid the ground work including getting all current projects for athletic program underway before he left.

Luck didn't hire Huggins, Hammonds or Brown either, so what's your point????? The current athletic success was founded by Pastilong hiring Fraud, Huggins, Hammonds and Brown.

 

[Anotherwvufan]

As I said before, why would Dana walk away from guaranteed money? Giving No Balls credit for all of the above is like handing out Participation Awards. He had zero to do with any of the above. Happened on his watch, but he didn't have a hand in making it happen.

I'll give him a participation award for not screwing up the direction set in place by Luck. Other than your perceptions of what happened with Dana's contract situation, what has Lyons done wrong?

 

[Anotherwvufan]

Have to fact check you on this one..

Huggins not his hire.

Neither is Izzo Brown or Hammonds

Ollie framed the plan and laid the ground work including getting all current projects for athletic program underway before he left.

I was expecting a reply form you on this one.

Does this mean you have to give Pastilong credit for these great teams and coaches? I never stated Lyons hired any of the coaches. You can't deny that the sports programs flourished while Lyons has been here.

 

[mad2mc]

Rifle team were champions before Pastilong was AD. The first NCAA sponsored Rifle Championship was held in 1980. Prior to this, the NRA sponsored it. WVUs first NCAA Championship was in 1983, 2 years before Eddie P came aboard. He probably hired Marsha Beasley in '89. She won 8 NCAA Team Championships during her tenure. For some reason, Eddie P. Cut the program in 2004 and brought it back the next year. I guess he didn't like the success the Rifle Team was having. Who the hell knows. She retired in 2006 and Hammond, who was a volunteer assistant, was hired.

 

[Anotherwvufan]

Pretty sure the AD is tasked with doing everything possible to help his athletic programs be successful. There is no way Shane can say he's done this with his football program.

He negatively impacted 3 recruiting classes. We have but 13 high school seniors in this year's class. We had a few highly rated recruits decommit last year when Shane remained silent during the regular season. And, the staff has had problems getting in early on '18 recruits.

I truly cannot understand how anyone believes Shane took the right course of action.

I don't get where he hurt 3 recruiting classes?

One year ago, we were 5th in the B12, Holgs had not sniffed success in the league. He was 0-4 against ranked teams with most losses blowouts, losses to ISU and Kansas the year before. Football attendance declining, fan base support of coach not very high...what is an AD to do:

Option #1 fire the guy. -really bad year to get a coach as many programs switching and difficult to recruit a hot coach.

Option #2 Extend the coach who based on past history will likely not be unless the team really improves. and stick yourself to a big buyout clause if it does not work.

Option #3 give the coach one more chance, hope he does better. You may lose some recruits in the process and if he succeeds, you may lose him or have to pay much more to keep him. (which would most likely be less of a cost overall compared to paying a renegotiated buyout. In case he fails, extend his best assistant to insure some continuity in the program if you change the HC.

Now what would Luck (man love of half this board) have done? My guess is to fire the coach who has not lived up to expectations. I think that Pastilong would have given the extension. Shane took the gamble and Holgs came through by winning 10 games.

My be easy to say we should have extended him given his success this year, but if you look at the facts as they stood one year ago, it was surely not a no brainer. The only real failure that could happen is if we lost Holgs to Oregon or some other school. That did not happen.