MORGANTOWN —
A couple of days ago, coach Dana Holgorsen, knowing he was going to be changing the defensive schemes West Virginia University runs, was wondering if he would have enough quality defensive linemen.
A day after recruiting letters were returned and his first recruiting class was on hand, that worry was alleviated.
But immediately a new worry cropped up.
Holgorsen was wondering if he would have enough coaches to coach them.
In a shocking turnaround, Mike Smith — you are excused if you say “Mike Who?” — quit the coaching job he apparently never really had with West Virginia and returned to the New York Jets.
Two weeks earlier, on Jan. 20, Smith accepted a job as an undefined defensive coach with the Mountaineers, taking the job along with the one-year, $250,000 salary that went with it.
If the math is correct, Smith worked two weeks, which is 1/26th of a year, meaning in round terms the Mountaineers owe him $10,000 … or did he simply take his two weeks vacation before getting started. The word is that he is in Hawaii.
Holgorsen thought he had a coaching coup with Smith. He had been credited with turning around linebacker Aaron Maybin, a first-round pick in 2009 who had thought to be a failure until he led the Jets with six sacks this season while working with Smith.
It isn’t every day you get a coach to leave an NFL franchise, like the Jets, to come back to a college job … even if his NFL designation for most of his two and a half years there was as a coaching intern.
He did earn full-time designation this year after Washington State coach Mike Leach tried to hire him in December. Yes, that would be the same Mike Leach for whom Holgorsen worked all those years at Texas Tech, showing once again that distance won’t be enough to separate student from teacher.
Smith had the courtesy to turn Leach down. With Holgorsen, it certainly appears he simply used him to squeeze some more money or job security out of the Jets.
When he signed to come here … let’s stop right now on that one. It really isn’t certain he ever signed a contract. In fact, there never really has been any official announcement that Holgorsen ever signed his contract.
Anyway, when he came here he issued a gushy statement about coming to West Virginia.
“West Virginia University is one of the elite college football programs with a lot of history and tradition, and I am excited to join the staff. I have known Dana for a long time, and it is evident to see how much he already has brought to the program in the short time he has been there. Having played in the Big 12 Conference, I look forward to being on the staff, as West Virginia makes the transition into a new era. The atmosphere and people at West Virginia were the biggest sell for me personally. It was like being at home,” he said.
And then he left.
That leaves Holgorsen with a defensive staff of Joe DeForest, another longtime Holgorsen friend, who came from Oklahoma State, and Steve Dunlap, the one defensive coach who did not escape to Arizona to rejoin their former boss, Rich Rodriguez.
That’s it. Two men.
A day earlier, Holgorsen thought he was looking for someone who could be the coordinator or co-coordinator with DeForest.
Email Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com. Follow on Twitter @bhertzel.
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