West Virginia will be sticking with Dana Holgorsen

Two seasons ago, following the 2011 season, Dana Holgorsen and the West Virginia Mountaineers went on national television and put their power on display when they obliterated Clemson in the Orange Bowl, 70-33. It gave the fans some high hopes, had its QB as aan automatic early-season Heisman contender and had Holgorsen named among the best coaches in the country.

2012, they weren’t able to capitalize off that success. They finished off the year with a loss to Syracuse in the Pinstripe Bowl.

This past season, things got progressively worse. This past weekend, the Mountaineers finished just 4-8 following their loss to 3-9 Iowa State, and were also the subject of some unwanted headlines when they were the ones whom the Kansas Jayhawks broke their 27-game Big 12 losing streak against.

With the quick downturn of the program, Holgorsen’s job has been called into question.

However, AD Oliver Luck has sent out a statement which infers that Holgorsen will be back at the helm next season:

"First, I want to thank all Mountaineer fans who supported our football team through a difficult and trying season.  Though there were some high points this year, including our upset victory over No. 11 Oklahoma State and the inspired play from many first year student-athletes, there were far too many disappointments. We have high expectations at West Virginia University for success on and off the field and as Coach Holgorsen has acknowledged to me, we are not meeting those expectations on the field.  Coach Holgorsen and I met at length and reviewed this past season.  We discussed the coaching staff, recruiting, player development, strength and conditioning, academic support, facilities, in short, all the components that make up a successful program.  We are working diligently to improve our capabilities in all of these areas. I strongly believe in our coaching staff, including the work that our strength and conditioning staff is doing.  In my opinion, continuity is the key ingredient that will bring our football program back to the high level that Mountaineer fans expect. We had plenty of challenges this season; nonetheless, we should not and will not use those as excuses for our performance. We simply must get better. Coach Holgorsen and his staff are on the road recruiting this week, securing the future for a successful Mountaineer football program.  We need to do our part as well by continuing to move forward with the facility improvements needed to compete at the highest level in our conference. We have high expectations for the 2014 football team, and I have shared those with Coach Holgorsen.  He and his staff are eager to get started to prepare for our opening game against Alabama.  We are well aware that we have a lot of work to do. We have tremendous student-athletes in our program and a very accomplished core of coaches who want to bring championships back to West Virginia University.  We will do all we can to help them in that endeavor, and I ask for your continued support as we move forward to a brighter future."