Coaching Carousel Gets More Weird as Holgorsen Leaves West Virginia For Houston

January 3, 2019 by CFP Staff

A strange ride on the Coaching Carousel became even weirder on Wednesday (December 2) when Dana Holgorsen resigned from a Power 5 conference school (West Virginia) to head to a Group of Five (Houston) school.

West Virginia's head coach for the past 8 seasons is filling the opening that became available when Houston fired Major Applewhite after just two seasons. Houston finished the season with just 1 win in its last 5 games to go 8-5 after a 7-1 start. An injury to QB D'Eriq King and the absence of services from All-American Ed Oliver on defense didn't help.

Interestingly enough, Houston reportedly has the pockets to pay Holgorsen in the $4 million range and sufficient capital to permit him to bring much of his WVU staff with him. He was making $3.5 million at WVU.

Holgorsen has a successful past connection to Houston, having served as the QB coach and offensive coordinator in 2008 and 2009 for his boss, Kevin Sumlin. During those two seasons, quarterback Case Keenum posted a ridiculous 10,691 passing yards with 88 touchdowns.

See all the Coaching Changes.