Slow Monday - some football

[mountaineers44]

Mailbag: Big 12's sleeper, top CFB stadiums & the new Coastal colossus | FOX Sports

Excerpt from article:

Mountaineer Nation seems to be split into two camps. One camp is ready to pull the plug on the Dana Holgorsen experiment and hire someone else. They really only have eyes for one person: RichRod. They seem to think that one phone call would bring him right back. The other camp (which I am in) feels that more patience is needed, given the adjustment of changing conferences and having to recruit better players as a result of the still-lingering Bill Stewart effects. What do you think?

-- Jonny, Summersville, West Virginia

I’m not particularly confident in Holgorsen, who, after a 15-3 start in Morgantown that included a 70-point Orange Bowl performance, has since gone 6-14. It’s possible no one else would be faring much better given the challenge West Virginia took on when it moved from the Big East to a conference, the Big 12, that’s both tougher and puts the program at a geographic disadvantage. WVU will be a hard job for anyone going forward but perhaps even more so for Holgorsen, who continues to try to beat Texas, Oklahoma and Baylor by running a similar system with less-talented players.
But … RichRod? Seriously? If in fact this is a widespread sentiment among WVU fans than apparently losing causes quite an attitude change, because I’ve never seen an uglier coaching divorce than his was at West Virginia. Practically the entire state branded him a traitor. The school sued him for $4 million (and got it). And you’re telling me these very same people think they can just pick up the phone and woo him back?
Anything’s possible, I suppose, but he’s quite happy at Arizona and grateful to be somewhere he’s appreciated after the ugly situations at both WVU and Michigan. I don’t think that would be a wise reunion on either side, and I’m guessing West Virginia AD Oliver Luck realizes that as well.

 

[GoldRusher]

RichRod back to WVU is a ploy by the media to get web hits and sell newspapers ect.

The only scenario that I could see RichRod returning to WVU is if the football team has a great year and Dana leaves for a bigger job. If he gets fired and RichRod is named the new coach then the fan base be it right or wrong would continue to be split. Personally I think its about 60% that would be in favor of his return but we would need a hire that will unite the entire base, not just a portion.

I think we all agree that at the end of the day, WINNING ,would be the best thing for the program right now for several reasons (the huge buyout of Dana'a contract being a BIG one, we could use that money to better our program ect.) and I think that this team despite the brutal schedule will show enough signs by the end of the year that we will have some rays of sunlight heading into '15 and the "anybody but Holgorsen" crowd will settle down...at least a little.

 

[bbwvfan]

I think there is a real possibility that Rich could come back to coach.

We have some of our deep pockets who are stupid as shit. But, they have a lot of money. Since Rich brought WVU to the edge of greatness in a watered down BE, these fools think he can bring WVU back to their 3 year era of glory.

If Dana gets fired… or leaves for greener pastures, I don't believe it is going to reunite the fan base by bringing Rich back to Morgantown.

 

[Anotherwvufan]

There are enough RR haters out there that will keep him from coming back, even if he would. We also have Bill Bradley on the staff. He may be a better coach than RR ever was. Either way, I think that DH gets enough wins to save his job.

Beat Alabama and he is off the hot seat for at least two years.

 

[GoldRusher]

There are enough RR haters out there that will keep him from coming back, even if he would. We also have Bill Bradley on the staff. He may be a better coach than RR ever was. Either way, I think that DH gets enough wins to save his job.

Beat Alabama and he is off the hot seat for at least two years.

Tom Bradley is one move I could see happening if the team just flops this year. Move him to HC and keep the vast majority of the staff and move on, we could prob pull that off but still... That's a bunch of money, money that could be used elswhere to make our program better.

 

[Anotherwvufan]

Tom Bradley is one move I could see happening if the team just flops this year. Move him to HC and keep the vast majority of the staff and move on, we could prob pull that off but still... That's a bunch of money, money that could be used elswhere to make our program better.

I think that TOM Bradley was brought in just for that purpose. You look at the pedigree of our coaches. DH was an OC for moderately successful teams. Bradley was a Defensive Coach for a National Championship team. Take away the Sandusky baggage and I believe that Bradley would be an HC for a major program today. By next year, I expect him to be a HC for a major program.

Long term, we may be better off having a bad year and getting Bradley at the helm. I would love to have Bradley as HC and DH as the OC, but that will never happen. My hope is that DH beats Alabama and have a bowl season. If not, I would much rather see Bradley in than our old nemesis.

 

[GoldRusher]

Take away the Sandusky baggage and I believe that Bradley would be an HC for a major program today. By next year, I expect him to be a HC for a major program.

Agree, I think if our defense has a good year and we translate that into 3-5 or more wins than last year then he may well be gone at the end of this season. Great hire by us and while I would hate to see him go, the guy deserves a HC gig, he has earned it.

 

[bbwvfan]

The problem for Bradley is that he will always be connected to the Sandusky baggage. Just the way it is…

 

[DCWV4life]

You guys put a lot of faith into a guy who has not coached in two years and was not the DC of those NC teams just on the staff....I for one would not be excited about him taking over here. Let's just slow down with the "he should be the next head coach automatically" he hasn't done anything here yet so let's see how that plays out. He is 57 years old with no head coaching exp... Sounds like another knee jerk reaction we have had here recently.

As far as the RR thing goes can we just move past it..the move smells of desperation at a time our program is growing beyond this tunnel vision thinking.

Just my opinion.

Now what I would like to happen is this team shows improvement and DH has a chance to coach these solid recruiting classes against what should be a very favorable schedule.