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Thursday, January 10, 2008

This is pretty weird, but bear with me: WVU appears to have hired Florida assistant Doc Holliday. Holliday is (was?) Florida's defensive backs coach and has a reputation as an outstanding recruiter. (Question: is there anyone who doesn't have a reputation as a great recruiter?) He's also a West Virginia native who played and coached at WVU for a 25-year span before leaving in 2000.

BFD, right? West Virginia's assistant coaches are their own affair. Well...

With Stan Drayton gone to Tennessee and the ever-looming possibility that assistant head coach Doc Holliday will be taking a five-year contract worth $2.5 million to become the defensive coordinator and assistant head coaching position [sic] at West Virginia, several names have popped up as potential replacements on the Florida coaching staff.
Florida premium sites are reporting the "possibility" as a done deal as of a few hours ago; this is not a drill. This Gatorsports article also mentions the possibility of Holliday coming in as assistant (to the) head coach but doesn't mention anything about defensive coordinator.

In one way, this makes sense, as moving from Florida to West Virginia to be a position coach is not even a lateral move, no offense to West Virginia. But in another this does not, as one of only two West Virginia coaches new HC Bill Stewart was able to hang on to was Jeff Casteel, who's kinda sorta already the defensive coordinator.

Would Casteel take a demotion when Rodriguez is sitting there with a defensive coordinator spot for the taking? Seems doubtful. Is WVU going to hire Holliday, name him assistant head coach, and not put him in charge of the defense? Also seems doubtful. Might want to keep an eye on this over the next couple of days.

Update: The Charleston Gazette says that Holliday is the "associate head coach in charge of tight ends and fullbacks" and recruiting coordinator. No dice here, evidently.

Fellow new hire Steve Dunlap is "assistant head coach in charge of safeties." Can I be vice regional head coach in charge of toothbrushes?

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