On Call
February 29, 2008 10:40 AM | General
February 29, 2008
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| Doc Holliday |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Following the 1999 season - after 25 years as part the West Virginia football program as both a player and a coach - Doc Holliday made the difficult decision to leave Morgantown, a place he had called home for much of his life.
Holliday was a three-year letterwinner at linebacker for the Mountaineers during the 1975-78 seasons and then served as a graduate assistant, part-time assistant, and finally full-time assistant for the next 21 years.
After leaving WVU in 1999, he spent the 2000-04 seasons as the associate head coach and wide receivers coach at N.C. State before going to Florida to work under Urban Meyer from 2005-2007. During his time with the Gators, Florida collected a record of 30-7 and 17-7 in SEC action and won a national championship in 2007. While there, Holliday was named one of Rivals.com's Top 25 recruiters in 2005.
Despite his success at both stops down South, Holliday always had a wandering eye toward his home in the mountains of West Virginia. When Rich Rodriguez bolted for Michigan in mid-December, the Hurricane, W.Va., native was mentioned in the papers as a candidate to replace him as the Fiesta Bowl game approached.
“When you invest 25 years of your life into a place, at some point, your ultimate goal is to come back,” Holliday said. “I have always felt that maybe some day that would happen. I just didn’t know when it would be.”
As we all know, Bill Stewart was promoted to head coach following the Mountaineers’ stunning 48-28 upset of Oklahoma. What many people didn’t expect, least of all Holliday himself, was that the man they call Doc would return to West Virginia - not as the head man - but as the top assistant to Stewart. Holliday credits his opportunity to come home in this capacity to the type of man Stewart is.
“It was Coach Stew. Normally that never happens. For him to give me that opportunity was very special,” Holliday said. “You have to commend him for being able to make that call and make that decision. A lot of lesser men wouldn’t have even considered it.”
When Stewart made that decision he brought home a man with 29 years of college coaching experience on both sides of the ball, as well as a guy that has established himself as one of the very best recruiters in all of college football.
Holliday was instrumental in forging a WVU recruiting pipeline in Florida during the Nehlen years and he looks forward to giving the Mountaineers a strong presence in that area again. The key to recruiting for Holliday is not so much about forty times and high school statistics but rather more about caring for the kids.
“It’s all about honesty, trust and relationships. You develop those things over the years recruiting certain areas. The key is to foster those relationships with people other than the coaches and the players,” Holliday said. “I get to know teachers as well as the people in those communities and anyone that might be involved in the recruiting process.”
In addition to being the associate head coach and director of recruiting, Holliday will also serve as fullbacks and tight ends coach. He wants to continue to employ a versatile guy that can play both positions, much like Owen Schmitt did the last couple of seasons.
“What you would like to have is a guy like Owen Schmitt because it creates personnel grouping problems for the defense,” Holliday said. “If you have a true tight end in there or a true fullback, then from a defensive standpoint you will know what packages are best to defend those guys. With a combo guy it’s harder for the defense.”
As Holliday settles into his new office - in a Puskar Center that he can barely recognize from his time here nine years ago - he can’t help but think back to all the great memories he has had here over the years while also looking forward to what he hopes will be an even more prosperous time in Mountaineer football history.
“I can still remember the first time I ran down on kickoff my sophomore year and ended up making a play against Richmond 100 years ago,” Holliday said. “Beating Oklahoma in 1982 was really big and then beating Florida in the Peach Bowl was a lot of fun.
“I have a lot of great memories here and I plan to make a few more.”
