More than a month after Texas Tech was reportedly eyeing WVU football coach Dana Holgorsen as its next coach, another school from the Lone Star State is taking a run at the Mountaineer coach.
Yahoo Sports reported Monday afternoon that Houston officials contacted their counterparts at West Virginia University to request permission to interview Holgorsen for the open head coaching job at UH. The Cougars fired Major Applewhite Sunday after two years. He went 15-11.
“While the immediate future may be challenging, our future at UH is very bright,” Houston vice president for athletics Chris Pezman said Sunday. “We’ve made many sizable improvements over the past five years, and I look forward to enhancing our future success through the hiring of our next head coach. At this time we have already begun the search process for our next head coach and will not comment further until the search is concluded.”
The University of Houston is already familiar with Holgorsen, who served as the offensive coordinator at the school in 2008-09.
Holgorsen is 61-41 in his eight years at WVU. But with quarterback Will Grier, wide receiver David Sills and others graduating this year, the 2019 season is expected to be a down year for the Mountaineers.
According to Yahoo Sports, Holgorsen’s buyout drops from $2.5 million to $1 million on January 1, making him more attractive to schools like Houston, which plays in the American Athletic Conference. Nabbing a Power 5 coach would be seen as a huge pickup.
Still up in the air, however, is Holgorsen’s salary. He made $3.8 million at WVU last season, which Yahoo Sports notes is more than double the $1.75 million Applewhite made last year.
