Morgantown, West Virginia – Perhaps only surpassed by Rich Rodriguez as West Virginia’s least favorite sports figure, Dana Holgorsen may soon return to Morgantown, the very place he turned his back on in 2018, to coach the Houston Cougars.
According to reports today, Houston – along with BYU, UCF and Cincinnati – is being pursued by the Big 12 Conference as a replacement for the departing Texas and Oklahoma.
Holgorsen is particularly loathed by Mountaineers not only because of his abhorrent behavior while he was the head coach of West Virginia but also because of the way he left Morgantown.
Holgorsen was an absolute embarrassment on the sidelines and certainly was not a model representation of what it means to be a Mountaineer. Holgorsen never embraced West Virginia and despite his adequate success as the head coach of the Mountaineers, West Virginians never really embraced him either.
Holgorsen’s 61-41 record, including a 10-3 season in 2016, was respectable, but the Mountaineers were 1-5 in bowl games under him and most of his teams underachieved. Since leaving West Virginia, Holgorsen continues to disappoint with a 7-13 overall record in two seasons as the head coach of the Houston Cougars.
In addition, Holgorsen’s lack of effort and prowess in recruiting left Neal Brown with little talent remaining as he started his tenure with West Virginia.
Of course, Holgorsen said that recruiting athletes to West Virginia was impossible: “We weren’t going to get high school kids at West Virginia that we were going to win the Big 12 with.”
Neal Brown, of course, has proven otherwise. Although West Virginia has not yet won the Big 12, Brown has them on the right track with the program’s best recruiting class ever incoming next season.
If Houston returns to Morgantown in the future, Dana Holgorsen deserves all of the hatred and torment that Mountaineers fans will give to him.
