Dana Holgorsen has been called a lot of things. "Wunderkind." "Genius." "Short-timer." "Phil Collins Lookalike." But if his current boss has any say, the only thing he will be known as at his new job is "Scumbag."
For those who have no idea who Dana Holgorsen is, Patrick (along with most Sooner fans), he was the offensive coordinator that is widely credited with making the Cowboy football team relevant last season. As a protege of former Texas Tech coach Mike Leach, his high octane philosophy had Holgorsen helming the best offense in college football for two years running (he coached the Houston Cougars offense in 2009).
With that fantastic resume, Oklahoma State had no hope of holding onto him long-term...at least not as long as Mike Gundy remains just barely a man (now 42). Holgorsen was bound to become a head coach. And as one would expect, he was poached after just one season by West Virginia who named him "Head Coach-in-waiting."
This has been a trend in college athletics of late. Usually, though, when a successor is named while the current coach continues in their position, the successor is a relative (Sean Sutton at OSU, Pat Knight at Texas Tech) or at least a loyal assistant (Jimbo Fisher at Florida State). In this case, West Virginia's head coach Bill Stewart had no relationship with Dana Holgorsen. It was simply an outside hire and Stewart was slapped with a mandatory retirement deadline for the end of 2011.
The assumption was that Stewart was on board with this plan, but he might not be quite as ready to call it a career as he let on.