First shoe.....

[steeleer]

http://www.wvgazettemail.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20151012/GZ02/151019829



There has been speculation here on how long and how much money we are talking about with Dana's deal.....well here it is.

My GUESS is that this coordinated with Shane Lyons' approval. I will say this is an official canvass of the big donors via media to gauge their willingness to step up or shut up if things don't go well this season.


Personally, I would insist on keeping the defensive staff no matter what happens. No one on that side of the ball is at fault. We finally have consistency there.

 

[bamaEER]

$8.725 million is an unrealistic buyout sum for Lyons to work with, so we'll have DH for a while. And when we do get a new coach, we can't insist on retaining certain staff. New coach needs to be able to implement his program with people he selects.

 

[countryroads89]

$8.725 million is an unrealistic buyout sum for Lyons to work with, so we'll have DH for a while. And when we do get a new coach, we can't insist on retaining certain staff. New coach needs to be able to implement his program with people he selects.

We get our full share of the Big XII revenue this year. If we go 6-6 this year, ticket sales will take a major hit next year.
At the current ticket prices and MAC donation, $8.7 million only equates to about 13,000 season ticket purchases.

 

[Darth_VadEER]

http://www.wvgazettemail.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20151012/GZ02/151019829



There has been speculation here on how long and how much money we are talking about with Dana's deal.....well here it is.

My GUESS is that this coordinated with Shane Lyons' approval. I will say this is an official canvass of the big donors via media to gauge their willingness to set up or shut up if things don't go well this season.


Personally, I would insist on keeping the defensive staff no matter what happens. No one on that side of the ball is at fault. We finally have consistency there.

You can't blame Dana for all the bad without giving credit for the good. He helped build that defense and deserves to be acknowledged for it.

I remember when the defense was terrible and everyone blamed Dana. Now it's really good and it's not because of him? Can't have it both ways.

 

[Darth_VadEER]

I'm not sure this year is a good environment to hire a coach. Too many openings.

We'd be competing with MD, South Carolina, possibly Virginia, Miami, and Virginia Tech. Who knows maybe Tennessee? Isn't Illinois looking?

 

[bamaEER]

We get our full share of the Big XII revenue this year. If we go 6-6 this year, ticket sales will take a major hit next year.
At the current ticket prices and MAC donation, $8.7 million only equates to about 13,000 season ticket purchases.

I still don't see DH getting canned. We go to a bowl, he stays.

 

[GoWVU]

That's the bar? Getting to a bowl game? In an environment where 80 of 128 schools will go to a bowl?

I certainly hope the administration's sights are set much higher than that.

However, Darth may have a very good point about this being the wrong off-season to make a change given the number of potentially attractive openings.

 

[steeleer]

You can't blame Dana for all the bad without giving credit for the good. He helped build that defense and deserves to be acknowledged for it.

I remember when the defense was terrible and everyone blamed Dana. Now it's really good and it's not because of him? Can't have it both ways.

We blamed it on him because his first defensive coordinator was an imbecile who had no idea what he was doing. And that hire screamed "drinking buddy." I've not complained since Backwards Hat was moved to Special Teams where he can create less damage.

 

[steeleer]

I'm not sure this year is a good environment to hire a coach. Too many openings.

We'd be competing with MD, South Carolina, possibly Virginia, Miami, and Virginia Tech. Who knows maybe Tennessee? Isn't Illinois looking?

I agree. Unless he completely craps the bed this season. At that point we almost cannot afford NOT to fire him. The ticket/booster money will literally evaporate in front of Lyon's eyes.

WVU has every bit the clout that those other programs do and I would argue we have better overall talent than every team on there except maybe for Tennessee. This program is set up very well for a dramatic improvement with the right coach....especially if they can bring a quality QB with them.

 

[WhiteTailEER]

We have the talent and schemes to compete with and beat every team on our schedule if we don't turn the ball over. It's as simple as that.

Gibson is on the Biletnikoff watch list, but Dana can't recruit quality players? C'mon.

We were pretty dominant in the second half of that game and tied it up after spotting them 7 points. Our defense held a Big XII offense to 26 points in regulation after the offense turned the ball over 4 times. Since 7 of those points were the fumble recovered in the end zone, our defense actually held them to 19.

You cannot turn the ball over 4 times against a Top 25 team and win the game. You just can't. There is coaching and then there is execution, and both play a factor in the turnovers.

 

[Darth_VadEER]

I think most coaches would look at what Dana's done and know they probably couldn't get much better results.

The rise of TCU and Baylor has made this an incredibly tough conference. We won 7 games last season. If we went the easy road and scheduled a cupcake for our season opener instead of Alabama, it would have been 8. I don't feel the program is in that bad of shape.

 

[countryroads89]

We have the talent and schemes to compete with and beat every team on our schedule if we don't turn the ball over. It's as simple as that.

Gibson is on the Biletnikoff watch list, but Dana can't recruit quality players? C'mon.

We were pretty dominant in the second half of that game and tied it up after spotting them 7 points. Our defense held a Big XII offense to 26 points in regulation after the offense turned the ball over 4 times. Since 7 of those points were the fumble recovered in the end zone, our defense actually held them to 19.

You cannot turn the ball over 4 times against a Top 25 team and win the game. You just can't. There is coaching and then there is execution, and both play a factor in the turnovers.

Agree completely, but it's the same thing every year, turnovers. I don't get it.

 

[steeleer]

I think most coaches would look at what Dana's done and know they probably couldn't get much better results.

The rise of TCU and Baylor has made this an incredibly tough conference. We won 7 games last season. If we went the easy road and scheduled a cupcake for our season opener instead of Alabama, it would have been 8. I don't feel the program is in that bad of shape.

Again agree, but at some point we need to either:

1) Be happy with 7-8 wins a year and never contend for the NC and rarely (one a decade) win the B12. In that instance just keep Dana.
2) Build a path to where we were for the mid-2000's. A national contender and a center of national attention. That might be ambitious, but if you aim low there is only one place you will land....

I will say that Big Donor doesn't want mediocre and neither does Season Ticket Holder the past 10 years. That money will dictate #1 v #2.

 

[jpf578]

I agree. Unless he completely craps the bed this season. At that point we almost cannot afford NOT to fire him. The ticket/booster money will literally evaporate in front of Lyon's eyes.

WVU has every bit the clout that those other programs do and I would argue we have better overall talent than every team on there except maybe for Tennessee. This program is set up very well for a dramatic improvement with the right coach....especially if they can bring a quality QB with them.

Who do you think brought that talent in? It wasn't Stewart or RR. And we may lose a few hundred season ticket sales but the majority will come back. Dana is one QB away from a really good team and the major donors, and those of us that have bought season tickets for years, know it.

 

[countryroads89]

Who do you think brought that talent in? It wasn't Stewart or RR. And we may lose a few hundred season ticket sales but the majority will come back. Dana is one QB away from a really good team and the major donors, and those of us that have bought season tickets for years, know it.

Agree, we may be a good QB away from being a contender for a title, but at the same time, season ticket holders are not going to pay (essentially) $100 per ticket per game to see a 6-6 team commit 4 or 5 turnovers a game. Simple.

 

[jpf578]

Again agree, but at some point we need to either:

1) Be happy with 7-8 wins a year and never contend for the NC and rarely (one a decade) win the B12. In that instance just keep Dana.
2) Build a path to where we were for the mid-2000's. A national contender and a center of national attention. That might be ambitious, but if you aim low there is only one place you will land....

I will say that Big Donor doesn't want mediocre and neither does Season Ticket Holder the past 10 years. That money will dictate #1 v #2.

You forget who we played in the mid 2000s. We were able to beat Georgia and the like because they never played teams like us. Did you not forget lowly sPitt beat us? The Big 12 is a much better quality conference and like Darth said, the rise of Baylor and TCU made it even better. In all of my years of watching WVU, we played for the title one time. I truly don't expect to see it again because WV is not a place the really great players want to come to. Morgantown is such a dump I even hate driving through it.

 

[jpf578]

Agree, we may be a good QB away from being a contender for a title, but at the same time, season ticket holders are not going to pay (essentially) $100 per ticket per game to see a 6-6 team commit 4 or 5 turnovers a game. Simple.

We do because we have hope for next year. You will lose some but we will have up years and get some back. The turnovers disgust me but I always hope it will improve. Look at the punt returns. We used to fumble them almost every time.

 

[EERs 3:16]

Thank God the internet wasn't around when Dandy Don was losing football games.....

 

[Darth_VadEER]

Again agree, but at some point we need to either:

1) Be happy with 7-8 wins a year and never contend for the NC and rarely (one a decade) win the B12. In that instance just keep Dana.
2) Build a path to where we were for the mid-2000's. A national contender and a center of national attention. That might be ambitious, but if you aim low there is only one place you will land....

I will say that Big Donor doesn't want mediocre and neither does Season Ticket Holder the past 10 years. That money will dictate #1 v #2.

Every program and fanbase in the country wants your Option 2. With the exception of maybe cheating, their isn't some secret blue print to follow.

If Lyons feels there's an available coach capable of doing a better job than Dana, and that coach wants to be at WVU - fine, I won't be too critical of that decision if it's made. However, you'd be asking a great deal of that coach and I'm not certain that person is out there.

The truth is WVU football has never been in a better position. We are losing more games because we are playing the most difficult schedules in school history. Personally, I think if WVU were playing Pitt's schedule, we win 10+ games and instead of wanting to fire Dana, we'd be worrying USC steals him.

 

[eers1foru]

You can't blame Dana for all the bad without giving credit for the good. He helped build that defense and deserves to be acknowledged for it.

I remember when the defense was terrible and everyone blamed Dana. Now it's really good and it's not because of him? Can't have it both ways.

For the love of god how can you be so dumb? Dana doesn't know his asshole from apple butter on defense. And though he may know how to scheme a good offense he sure can't implement one. Players are undisciplined, loose with the ball, Dana can't gauge QB talent for crap either. He doesn't even live up to being the offensive guru we were sold when he was hired. Now you expect me to believe he has anything to do with fixing the defense? If that's the case then maybe he should be the defensive coordinator and Tony G should take over the offense. If he could get them to stop turning the dam ball over it'd be better than anything Dana has fielded since Stew's players cycled out.

 

[Darth_VadEER]

For the love of god how can you be so dumb? Dana doesn't know his asshole from apple butter on defense. And though he may know how to scheme a good offense he sure can't implement one. Players are undisciplined, loose with the ball, Dana can't gauge QB talent for crap either. He doesn't even live up to being the offensive guru we were sold when he was hired. Now you expect me to believe he has anything to do with fixing the defense? If that's the case then maybe he should be the defensive coordinator and Tony G should take over the offense. If he could get them to stop turning the dam ball over it'd be better than anything Dana has fielded since Stew's players cycled out.

He's the Head Coach, not Head Coach of Offense. If he didn't put care into the defensive, it wouldn't have improved. You really think Gibbs is just that good? LOL.

So everything bad on the team is Dana's fault and everything good is because of someone else?

 

[eers1foru]

Well maybe the idiot needs to work his magic on the offense then. I mean obviously he can fix anything. And when he gets a few minutes I have a garage door that won't go up with the remote. Maybe we can get him to come down and fix that.
If Dana was so good at fixing the defense he'd still have Eforrest as the d-coordinator! I'll give Dana credit for hiring Gibbie (even when I thought it was a huge mistake) and staying the hell out of the kitchen while the chef is working. That's it! If he's doing anything other than that he's an idiot because his kitchen is on fire right now. And it's causing the entire meal to go bad!

 

[WarezEER]

West Virginia can fire Holgs (and give him zillions of 'out the door' cash). They can replace the entire staff with even higher paid 'National Championship' talking fellers......................and the new staff with proceed to win about 5 to 7 games each year...........if you include the wins against small school in the total. The problem is that there just ain't enough wins to go around. Every game results in both a Win and a Loss. Some of the teams MUST have more losses than wins. Every team can't have 10-12 wins! Be happy with Holgs and the entertainment he brings to our living room.

 

[LSUTigersRoar]

The coach is always to blame when a team losses, I feel the players have to be blamed to. I mean come on now the turnovers were the players fault not the coach. I understand fans think that the coach should be blamed for everything players do in a game. Sometimes teams have bad nights and yes sometimes it is bad coaching, although on the other side sometimes players need to be taken out of the game if making too many mistakes like turnovers. WVU's coach needs to change it up for this weekend I hope he will switch QB's if the current QB turns over ball to much. When it boils down the head coach goes down with the sinking ship. USC just showed head coach gone it happens in sports

 

[eers1foru]

Coaches recruit the players. Coaches teach the players. Coaches decide which players get on the field. If we have a player who is consistently killing us with turnovers and the coaches keep
Putting him out their it's on the coach not the player. If we don't have anyone capable of stepping in that's on the coach as well. Dana has built this team top to bottom with players that either he or his assistants recruited. He was well aware we needed quality depth. He knows better than anyone what he has on the roster. If he can't get the most out of them it's on him. If he doesn't have a QB who is capable of at least managing a game without giving away three interceptions a game that's on him. That's why these guys make millions is to know what they need and be able to find it as it pertains to talent. I think one of Dana's biggest problems is he flat out can't look at film and distinguish which high school players translate to the college level.

 

[CE4WVU]

Thank God the internet wasn't around when Dandy Don was losing football games.....

EERs, not sure if you were around this board (pre-Rivals format), but when Dandy Don was losing games towards the end of his tenure, it was just as nasty on the old message board... if not worse.

There are quite a few here that have no idea the vitriol that was scattered across this message board (back in it's old format/pre-Rivals system) when the team lost the Insight.com bowl against Missouri and resulting in WVU's 8th straight bowl loss under Nehlen... and even up until Dandy Don announced his retirement towards the end of the 2000 season after the loss to Cuse.

One that really was hilarious was the quote for the 2000 season "Shock the Nation"...

It was nasty and I am pretty sure Vernon remembers quite well how insane it was then on one of his old boards.

Personal attacks, fairweather fan accusations and much more... If I recall, Vernon either banned or was close to banning several that had trouble heeding his advice.

One (if he were still alive today) would be B & R, that would be able to tell you how bad it got.

 

[CE4WVU]

I'm not sure this year is a good environment to hire a coach. Too many openings.

We'd be competing with MD, South Carolina, possibly Virginia, Miami, and Virginia Tech. Who knows maybe Tennessee? Isn't Illinois looking?

I would be surprised if Lyons fired Dana after this season...

 

[skygusty]

QB recruiting is the most puzzling. Play calling goes wonky too many times also. I actually think Howard could be pretty good if the playbook was tailored more to his strengths and weaknesses and not to the plays Dana seems determined to run regardless. I'm not one arguing for firing Dana, but I sure find it hard to spot offensive genius in the games I watch. And why does he need so many cans of Red Bull? Maybe we are just seeing side effects of over consumption. Drink some water dude, calm down and use your brain.

 

[LSUTigersRoar]

Just want to ask one thing here? Consider this can WVU get a good QB to play for them? Better question with WVU being in The Big 12 do you think it has hurt the type of players are able to get now? WVU is better in The Big 12 just a thought may be the coach can not land a four star QB that has the skills or may be the coach needs to go? Either way I know losing sucks. WVU fans you are lucky to be in The Big 12, your team will be fine may be not great but I know WVU never says die. Good luck

 

[Nova Mountaineer]

I'm a bit confused (which is unusual) on this. As I recall two years the buyout figure was around $5 million. Now the column
says $8+ million just for Dana. There had been a rumor on the street ii MoTown that Shane had identified the money needed.
That rumor did not include a specific amount. Personally, I would prefer for the team to get focused and win nine games. Not
sure that will happen, but we can hope. It does, however, seem that Dana just can't manage the program as a head coach. And
the fact that he hasn't recruited a bigtime QB is reason to be concerned and possibility a reason to fire him. Further if the
report is true that Shell and Smallwood make the decision on who should play and when - that to me shows a total lack
of management of the program.

 

[5150]

Its all about wins. Everything else is just an excuse.

 

[VaultHunter]

No the goal is to not go to a bowl.

Lol fire Dana but keep his defensive staff because he did a great job with that but he doesn't deserve credit.

Rich Rod 28-21 first 5 seasons
Dana 31-25 so far against far better competition

Snack on shoe

 

[5150]

No the goal is to not go to a bowl.

Lol fire Dana but keep his defensive staff because he did a great job with that but he doesn't deserve credit.

Rich Rod 28-21 first 5 seasons
Dana 31-25 so far against far better competition

Snack on shoe

The problem is Rod had bad first year and kept getting better, But Dana has great first season and its been down hill ever sense.

 

[steeleer]

The problem is Rod had bad first year and kept getting better, But Dana has great first season and its been down hill ever sense.

I step further. Most of Rods teams got better as the year went on. Dana's teams have been almost completely opposite. It's easier to get a fanbase behind you when you finish strong.

That team Rod inherited was literally the worst possible match for what his offense tries to do.

 

[5150]

I step further. Most of Rods teams got better as the year went on. Dana's teams have been almost completely opposite. It's easier to get a fanbase behind you when you finish strong.

That team Rod inherited was literally the worst possible match for what his offense tries to do.

This is the make or break year for Dana and his fans are having a hard time defending him, also Stew cant be blamed any longer.

 

[Atreides]

6-6 seems possible. 3-9 or 4-8 is looking more likely.....Unacceptable even for heroes like DH.

 

[MikeRafone]

I'm a bit confused (which is unusual) on this. As I recall two years the buyout figure was around $5 million. Now the column
says $8+ million just for Dana. There had been a rumor on the street ii MoTown that Shane had identified the money needed.

It's been making the rounds in Charleston for awhile, too. I don't if there is a shred of truth to it, but it's not coming from the gang at Biscuit World.

 

[spreadoption]

You can't blame Dana for all the bad without giving credit for the good. He helped build that defense and deserves to be acknowledged for it.

I remember when the defense was terrible and everyone blamed Dana. Now it's really good and it's not because of him? Can't have it both ways.

What defense? We've given up 139 points in the last 3 games.

 

[wbgvwbgv]

Holgorsen is here until the end of his contract and probably longer with an extension. 3-3 with 6 games to go.

 

[Atreides]

You hope. 6 games against 6 teams that can beat WVU....Same guys insisting this would be the season are all settling for 6-6....