MORGANTOWN —
Veteran Stanford assistant coach Ron Crook, a graduate of West Liberty who began his coaching career there, has been hired to replace Bill Bedenbaugh as West Virginia’s offensive line coach, according to published reports.
There was no confirmation from either Stanford or West Virginia on the hire that was first reported by CoachScoop.com on Thursday.
Crook spent his last two years at Stanford and coached the tight end and offensive tackles that worked with quarterback Andrew Luck, son of WVU athletic director Oliver Luck.
Bedenbaugh quit West Virginia on Sunday and joined Oklahoma’s staff, a move that had been reported to be imminent for some time, giving WVU a chance to begin its search for his replacement.
Crook is the fourth new assistant to join Coach Dana Holgorsen’s staff this off-season.
Holgorsen fired cornerbacks coach Daron Roberts and special teams coach Steve Dunlap, while quarterback coach Jake Spavital left for the same job at Texas A&M before Bedenbaugh left.
Roberts was replaced by former East Carolina defensive coordinator Brian Mitchell. Former defensive coordinator Joe DeForest was made associate head coach and will work with special teams, former WVU assistant Tony Gibson returned to coach the cornerbacks from Arizona and wide receiver coach Lonny Galloway returned to WVU from Wake Forest.
Last year’s wide receiver coach, Shannon Dawson, moves into Spavital’s job as quarterback coach on Holgorsen’s reshaped staff.
Crook brings a new dimension to the WVU coaching staff, never having worked in the Air Raid style of offense that Holgorsen runs and could bring some elements of the running games with which he was associate.
Crook spent three years at West Liberty following graduation to begin his career, then joined Rick Minter at Cincinnati as a graduate assistant for a year before spending four years coaching at Division 2 Clarion (Pa).
In 1997 he became assistant head coach/offensive line coach/special teams coordinator at Glenville State before moving to West Virginia University Tech in 1999 for a season.
Crook left coaching for two years before becoming an offensive line graduate assistant at Illinois in 2002, which led to a job at Harvard, where he coach the offensive line for eight years.
Clifton Dawson became the Ivy League’s career rushing leader running behind Crook’s offensive line.
At Stanford, in addition to Luck, Crook saw tight end Coby Fleener become a second-round selection of the Indianapolis Colts and offensive tackle Jonathan Martin go to the Miami Dolphins, also in the second round.
Email Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com. Follow on Twitter @bhertzel.
Bob Herzel
Ron Crook set to join WVU
West Liberty grad to coach offensice line
- Bob Herzel
-
-
HERTZEL COLUMN: Flying WV logo draws attention outside country
Sometimes you hit a nerve, as we did a while back when we wrote about the wide reach of West Virginia University’s flying WV logo.
It has meant a lot to a lot of people. -
Seahawks’ Bruce Irvin suspended four games
Bruce Irvin, one of only two West Virginia University defensive linemen ever to be selected in the first round of the NFL draft, will miss the first four games of the 2014 National Football League season because of a failed test for performance-enhancing drugs.
-
HERTZEL COLUMN: Opportunity to see birth of greatness
Sometimes things happen and the significance of them isn’t fully grasped immediately. So it is with the approval of the TIFF financing for a baseball stadium just off I-79 here in Morgantown.
Obviously, this a boon for the West Virginia University baseball program of Randy Mazey, which gains instant creditability. -
Musgrave ranks among top pitchers in college baseball
West Virginia University’s redshirt sophomore left-hander Harrison Musgrave’s spectacular season has reached the pinnacle of the heights a collegiate pitcher can attain as he has been named a finalist for the College Baseball Hall of Fame Pitcher of the Year Award.
-
Musgrave may be rested against OSU
It’s been a fun ride for West Virginia University baseball this season, coming out of nowhere to reach the final weekend with a chance to win the regular-season Big 12 championship.
But coach Randy Mazey is not allowing the Mountaineers to get carried away with that thought. -
HERTZEL COLUMN: WVU Tier 3 bidding goals are ambitious
They are re-opening the bidding at West Virginia University’s athletic department for Tier 3 media rights, but judging by the vision they have shown in putting it together, this is becoming something as ambitious, if not profitable, as the national television deals in which they have a stake.
-
NFL draft signals new era for WVU
This year’s NFL draft signified that West Virginia University is beginning a new era of football, one that is very different from the time that passed in the previous 100 years.
-
HERTZEL COLUMN- Can money buy WVU happiness as Big 12 member?
=Let me put the dummies to rest right away.
Financially, moving to the Big 12 was the right move for West Virginia University. -
WVU’s basketball team to play at Missouri
West Virginia University’s basketball team did nothing to merit it Tuesday, but its life in the Big 12 was just made a whole lot tougher on two levels.
-
HERTZEL COLUMN: Mountaineers learning NFL facts of life
Day one of the rest of their lives as NFL players is over, and quarterback Geno Smith and wide receivers Tavon Austin and Stedman Bailey have begun what they hope is a decades-long journey to the same kind of stardom that they found in college.
- More Bob Herzel Headlines
-
HERTZEL COLUMN: Flying WV logo draws attention outside country
