Dana Holgorsen has only had to “rebuild” one team during his coaching career and that was back at Texas Tech. As an offensive coordinator, Holgorsen has had quarterbacks like Cody Hodges, Graham Harrell, Brandon Weeden, Case Keenum, and Geno Smith. He’s never truly had to find the “next guy”. He’s never been faced with the task of replacing a true prominent field general. And now, as a head coach, Holgorsen is faced with his toughest challenge yet.
Rebuilding an entire team.
The WVU offense lost eight starters to the NFL last weekend. Three of those players held school records, three of those players were starters on the offensive line, and the other two held key roles in the offense. Replacing them will be tough, obviously, but there’s one thing that a lot of people don’t think about.
Holgorsen had no part in recruiting any of them.
Players like Geno Smith and Tavon Austin were products of the Bill Stewart era at WVU. Holgorsen’s first class has consisted of guys like quarterback Ford Childress, receiver Jordan Thompson, and safety Karl Joseph. Childress was tagged with a DUI last spring and Thompson hasn’t amounted to much more than a Spring Game superstar.
But with a new coaching staff in place, fans can only hope that recruiting will pick up. The move to the Big 12 Conference will certainly help and the fact that WVU had nine players land with teams on Draft weekend will help bolster a recruiting class.
There hasn’t been too much noise made in terms of recruiting on the defensive side of the ball. Not many young guys have made much of an impact last season except Joseph. If you look at this team, the defense is what needs the most work. The players that are here haven’t shown a whole lot of promise, so it would only make sense to do a complete revamp of the defense. Bringing forth a new defensive coordinator is a start, but it all starts and ends in recruiting.
But personally, I think defense should be addressed far more than it has been under Holgorsen. For someone who knows how an Air Raid offense works, you’d think that Holgorsen would be concerned with how to stop it.
