MORGANTOWN -
Dana Holgorsen feels as though he's been transported back in
time to when he and his staff first arrived at West Virginia University to
begin pushing the program in a new direction.
With eight of the team's opening day starters from a season
ago moving on from Mountaineer football, five new assistants joining the staff,
a change at defensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, there is a decidedly
different feel to WVU's spring camp than what the team was going through in
2012.
"It feels like it's the first day on the job, so to speak,"
Holgorsen said after Tuesday's practice in Morgantown. "There's a lot of open
competition for positions, and some scheme discussions that are open as well.
We are taking it slow and trying to promote the best way to do some specific
things. It feels though as we just got here, so to speak, some staff is new, we
have some new bodies out there, some young bodies, guys who haven't made plays
yet."
What Holgorsen neglects to point out is that when he first
arrived at West Virginia to serve a season as offensive coordinator, many of
the pieces who would ultimately lead the show already had at least a year of
experience under their belts.
Now, there is suddenly more starting experience on the
defensive side of the ball and the biggest change in staff since Holgorsen
began coaching inside the walls of Milan Puskar Stadium.
"On
all three sides of the ball, it's pretty fresh and it's pretty energetic," said
Holgorsen. "The guys are eager and I would say the same thing from a coaching
standpoint as well. We are excited about getting to work every day, we are
excited about getting to coach these guys, and I think it will be a fun and
productive spring going forward."
Part
of the excitement for Holgorsen and the staff is the fact that the new
assistants have a connection to the state or the program or the coaches already
in place and therefore the energy in the building has been overwhelmingly
positive.
A
workplace full of employees who care to do their job for something more than
their own personal gain is something Holgorsen believes is already paying off.
"If
you look at the guys we've hired, they are all pretty excited about being here
for a variety of reasons," he said. "We obviously tried to locate guys that
wanted to be here, that were eager and energetic about joining this staff,
coming to work every day at a winning program."
The
most recent of those hires is that of JaJuan Seider, the former Mountaineer
quarterback and graduate assistant who was brought back to WVU from Marshall,
where he coached running backs. He's been tasked with the same duty in
Morgantown and Holgorsen said adding him to the staff was easy after the two
sat down and traded ideas.
"We
needed a south Florida recruiter, and he's potentially one of the best ones in
the country," said Holgorsen. "With that said, he's still got to get his hands
on some running backs and coach the heck out of them. Being a former
quarterback, I had to see if he was capable of doing that. He was at Marshall
for three years in a passing offense. They have good backs and have had
success. I brought him up here, and we talked, and I was sold immediately."
Now
Seider, offensive line coach Ron Crook and wide receivers coach Lonnie Galloway
are each trying to show exactly why they were the right choice for their
respective jobs as they mold the players in an offense that has a history of
rebuilding quite well.
"This
gives younger guys the opportunity to step up and believe that they are the
guy," said Holgorsen. "That naturally happens. Guys get older and get more
reps, but also the burden is on their shoulders to become better players. I'm
looking forward to seeing which guys those are going to be."
Two
days of drills are not enough to answer that question, nor many others, but
they don't need to have answers this spring. For now, the Mountaineers have
that first day feeling and the exciting, yet daunting, task of getting the
program back to where Holgorsen believes it should be.
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