‘Houston is house’: Inside Dana Holgorsen’s huge rebuild
HOUSTON — It is mid-Might in south Houston and Dana Holgorsen is holding courtroom.
He is perched on a barstool subsequent to 2 buddies, TCU coach Gary Patterson and former Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops. They agreed to host a roundtable dialogue for the Houston Landing Membership (the group often hosts luncheons for the area’s energy packages with one coach as speaker). Holgorsen, wearing a purple Nike polo with “UH” on his left breast and black denims, is the star of the present.
Instantly after swiping the microphone, he turns it right into a comedy hour, reminding Patterson that TCU misplaced not as soon as, however twice, in Morgantown, West Virginia, and ruing the day he endorsed Lincoln Riley to Stoops when the latter was in search of an offensive coordinator.
“He stated, ‘Do not set me up,'” Holgorsen remembers Stoops telling him. “In hindsight, I ought to’ve set his ass up, as a result of we could not beat [Riley].”
As utensils clang on plates and attendees dig into rooster breasts and cornbread, the brand new Houston Cougars coach lets the gang in on somewhat little bit of fact:
“I left [West Virginia] for an entire bunch of various causes,” Holgorsen says. “Houston is house, the College of Houston is a good place, it is bought tons of potential and we’ll make it as nice as we will probably make it, however the different facet of it’s I might by no means beat Oklahoma.
“That is the one college within the Huge 12 the place we might by no means recover from that hump. We misplaced 59-56 this yr, and I am like, ‘I am outta right here.’
Dana Holgorsen sees loads of potential in Houston. Bob Levey/Getty Photos
“Then I have a look at the schedule, and the primary sport on the schedule on the College of Houston is at Oklahoma.” The group laughs. “I can not catch a break!”
Holgorsen’s welcome to Houston comes by way of a well-recognized foe: the No. four Sooners, who will host the Cougars on Sunday night time (7:30 ET, ABC). This can function a barometer for Houston, proof of how shut — or how far — Holgorsen’s new squad is from nationwide relevance.
“Dana got here again to Houston as a result of he loves the place and understands the potential of the town and the college,” Patterson says.
“I at all times inform individuals, once you take a job, you do not fear about cash or title, you are concerned about match. And to be trustworthy with you, Houston most likely matches Dana higher than West Virginia did.”
Energy 5 hopes
It is late June and Dana Holgorsen is smiling.
It is the teaching workers’s final day within the workplace earlier than summer time trip, certainly one of his favourite pastimes. (“When it is offseason, it is offseason,” tight ends coach Shannon Dawson says. “That line of distinction is not made with each workers, I can promise you.”) Holgorsen is brimming with constructive power.
Sporting a black UH visor, a white polo and black shorts, he appears to be like able to hit the golf course. He could have squeezed in 9 holes earlier than strolling into the workplace this morning. He speaks glowingly of Orange Seaside, Alabama, an enclave for Gulf Coast beachgoers close to the Florida border that serves as an annual trip spot for Holgorsen and his crew.
“It is stress-free,” says Ryan Dorchester, Holgorsen’s director of soccer operations. “It is not a spoken rule, however the aim is to not sit there and discuss soccer all day. And 90% of the dialog is about soccer.”
Holgorsen spent eight seasons at West Virginia. Ben Queen/USA TODAY Sports activities
Holgorsen’s glad. He feels at house. Although he is from Mount Nice, Iowa, Houston supplanted it as his private headquarters after he fell for the town a decade in the past. In 2008, he left Mike Leach’s Texas Tech workers to name the performs for Kevin Sumlin’s Cougars and it was love at first snap.
On the time, Holgorsen was nonetheless obscure sufficient to be a relative unknown to the varsity’s president, Renu Khator.
“You do not bear in mind assembly me, however I did meet you 10 or 11 years in the past,” Holgorsen instructed her at his introduction in January. “I used to be simply this little younger offensive coordinator that did not care about an entire lot aside from attempting to attain factors.” (Khator later confirmed as a lot: “I had simply gotten right here and I barely knew my head coaches, neglect concerning the different coaches.”)
Returning to UH, Holgorsen marvels at what he has at his disposal. Throughout his final stint right here, not one of the toys in his present sandbox — a $130 million soccer stadium, a $20 million indoor observe facility, a workers wage pool analogous to that of strong Energy 5 packages — had been obtainable. Holgorsen’s present wage ($three.7 million) is 5 occasions what Sumlin’s was then and greater than your complete workers mixed — head coach included — made in 2008.
“I can not think about the place [the program is] gonna be 10 years from now,” Holgorsen says.
His hope is that by that point, he is nonetheless at Houston and the Cougars are within the Energy 5.
In some ways, Houston already runs like a Energy 5 program. The workers wage pool — $four.2 million — is in keeping with these of ACC and Huge 12 packages. Holgorsen augmented the help workers upon arrival; for instance, the recruiting division had six to eight individuals in 2015 with two full-time staffers. Now the division has a dozen, with 4 full-timers.
He beefed up the power workers as effectively, with 5 football-only power coaches in comparison with lower than half that 5 years in the past.
“It is a huge distinction,” junior security Deontay Anderson says. “It is extra particular [focus] for every place.”
Maybe most vital to Holgorsen, they’re nearer to profitable a convention championship right here. He believed West Virginia’s place within the Huge 12 meant the Mountaineers wanted to overachieve yearly. No person will confuse WVU’s amenities with the pristine Switzer Middle at Oklahoma. In the end, Holgorsen grew weary of getting to punch persistently above his weight class.
The Cougars are common contenders for the American Athletic Convention championship; they gained it in 2015 and beat Florida State within the Peach Bowl. They beat two top-five groups, Oklahoma and Louisville, the next yr. The Mountaineers’ finest end within the Huge 12 since becoming a member of the league got here in 2016, after they completed tied for second. One might argue that the Cougars have comparable, if not higher entry to a New 12 months’s Six bowl than the Mountaineers as a result of the AAC champ often receives the bowl’s Group of 5 slot.
“In case you have well-coached, disciplined, reckless gamers … however you do not have the most effective gamers, you are going to be second or third, which is what we had been at West Virginia,” Holgorsen says. “Right here, I believe we now have the most effective gamers … [and] you bought an opportunity to win a championship.”
2 Associated
Greater than something, that speaks to why he made the unusual transfer of leaving a Energy 5 program, willingly, for a Group of 5 college.
Positive, it makes it nearly not possible for him to win a nationwide championship, however with out beating Oklahoma (he was Zero-7 towards the Sooners in his tenure, together with final yr’s wild 59-56 defeat that saved WVU out of the Huge 12 title sport), it wasn’t within the playing cards for the Mountaineers, both. West Virginia has probably the most wins of any FBS program and not using a nationwide championship.
West Virginia has a greater shot at a title simply by entry to the playoff by way of the Huge 12, however the ultimate sources, it is a perpetual uphill battle.
“If you happen to go searching and made a listing of each college that gained its convention within the Energy 5 from 2012-2018, I do not assume you are going to discover one which — when it comes to amenities and the way good they’re — goes to be ninth or 10th [in their conference],” Dorchester says. “I do not assume you are going to discover one which’s as huge of an outlier as West Virginia was in that league.
“You need us to beat Oklahoma, I imply, go have a look at the distinction. It is powerful.”
Dawson, who has been at each West Virginia and Kentucky — one other place that fights uphill in its league — can relate.
“You possibly can argue their probabilities of profitable the league they play is just not excellent,” Dawson says. “[Houston’s] probabilities of profitable, we must be talked about in that yearly. That is an enormous profit.”
Holgorsen’s hiring is a part of Houston’s long-term technique to succeed in a Energy 5 league. Bob Levey/Getty Photos
Constructing for the long run
That is to not say Houston is giving up on a ticket to the playoff. The varsity nonetheless has lofty ambitions of becoming a member of faculty soccer’s huge boys. It was a driving pressure within the Cougars’ resolution to alter coaches after simply two seasons regardless of a profitable document (Main Applewhite went 15-11). Momentum, to them, is valuable and might’t afford to be misplaced.
It is why athletic director Chris Pezman and tremendous booster Tilman Fertitta led the cost to rent Holgorsen and hold males’s basketball coach Kelvin Sampson (six years, $18 million), committing almost $40 million assured to the 2 coaches. The hope is to stabilize these packages forward of any potential realignment shifts within the subsequent decade. If the Cougars are going to have even an opportunity of shifting to a Energy 5 league, these two packages should cleared the path.
“In case you have well-coached, disciplined, reckless gamers … however you do not have the most effective gamers, you are going to be second or third, which is what we had been at West Virginia. Right here, I believe we now have the most effective gamers….[and] you bought an opportunity to win a championship.”
Dana Holgorsen
“No person’s gonna say, ‘We’re gonna provide you with this cash, go spend it.’ Now we have to behave as if [we’re in a Power 5 conference],” Pezman says. “That is a $four million [per year] coach for soccer, a $three million greenback coach for basketball.”
The dedication to amenities is clear. TDECU Stadium is simply 5 years previous, and the indoor observe facility attracts raves from NFL coaches (“Invoice O’Brien came to visit right here and spoke at our clinic and he is like, ‘S—, that is very nice,'” Holgorsen says). UH spent $85 million on basketball amenities, constructed an indoor monitor, a $6 million baseball participant growth middle and renovated educational and eating areas for UH’s athletes.
Holgorsen already has eyes on a football-only operations constructing — the ultimate piece to the soccer puzzle in Houston’s efforts to degree the enjoying area with Energy 5 packages. Directors have already met with designers for that challenge, which Pezman wants to lift cash for and is probably going three or 4 years away. Projected value? Between $50-70 million.
Pezman additionally goals to extend the division’s finances to align extra intently with the Energy 5. UH’s present athletic finances is lower than $60 million; Pezman initiatives $75 million by 2022. The common working finances for bottom-half spenders within the Huge 12 is $87 million.
Whereas division management focuses on that, Holgorsen will intention to get the Cougars again into nationwide prominence.
There’s strong expertise on the roster — led by quarterback D’Eriq King, the returning nationwide chief in touchdowns chargeable for — however the depth is not fairly the place Holgorsen and his workers need it. And the difficult schedule — along with Oklahoma, they play Washington State, UCF, Memphis, Cincinnati and North Texas — makes being a New 12 months’s Six workforce this season a tricky ask.
The longer term, nevertheless, is vibrant.
‘So we’re purposeful’
It appears becoming that Holgorsen’s reintroduction to Houston got here with him holding a can of Pink Bull. Few issues have been as synonymous with him because the power drink, of which he now consumes the sugar-free model, however nonetheless guzzles. He has a fridge stuffed with Pink Bulls in his workplace and King says Holgorsen makes a staffer hold them available throughout observe in case he wants one other.
Whereas his character, laid-back picture and social life will trigger no one to confuse him with Nick Saban, that overshadows a few of his different qualities. He is organized, environment friendly and candid.
Upon his arrival, he made important modifications all through the soccer workplaces. He eliminated half the chairs from the principle workers assembly room (“This factor was a s—show,” he says, lamenting how cramped the quarters had been) and cleaned up the locker room and different workers assembly rooms. He went with out an workplace for 4 months. “We removed lots of desks and lots of bulls— that was laying round,” he says. “So we’re purposeful.”
His present workers lauds his effectivity and the belief he places in them. “He hires individuals and lets them do their jobs,” Dawson says. “Our workers assembly is at the moment, observe at the moment, on a regular basis in between, you get your job achieved. Some individuals thrive underneath that and a few individuals do not.”
Cornerbacks coach Doug Belk, who spent two seasons as a graduate assistant for Saban at Alabama earlier than becoming a member of Holgorsen at West Virginia after which Houston, says going from Saban to Holgorsen was a “tradition shock.”
Saban has a 7:30 a.m. workers assembly day-after-day. Holgorsen comes from the Leach and Hal Mumme college of soccer teaching (“We have at all times been a more-production, less-hours outfit,” Mumme jokes). “Our workers conferences…fluctuate,” Belk says.
Holgorsen says he really helpful Lincoln Riley to former Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops. Ben Queen/USA TODAY Sports activities
Coaches and gamers do not need to guess the place they stand with Holgorsen. At a latest interview session, whereas commenting on the Cougars’ tight ends, he identified the blocking skill of certainly one of them however quipped, “I hope to God that we by no means, ever throw it to him as a result of he cannot catch.”
“He is gonna be black-and-white and inform you the reality,” power coach Darl Bauer says.
Dorchester, who has been in each workers assembly of Holgorsen’s head-coaching profession, has had a entrance row seat for it.
“I’ve gone to him with numerous ideas and concepts,” Dorchester says. “Some he likes and says, ‘That is actually good.’ And others he says, ‘That is the dumbest factor I’ve ever heard of.’ There isn’t any one who’s given him extra unhealthy concepts than me. Typically he’ll have a look at me and say, ‘Is one thing flawed with you? Why would you say that?’
What he lacks in warm-and-fuzzy, Holgorsen makes up for in open ears.
“He lets you query him,” Dorchester says. “If he hires you, he is gonna respect your opinion till you give him a motive to not.”
His friendships are positioned on pause after they’re on the schedule. All six years that he and Kliff Kingsbury had been within the Huge 12, their interplay dwindled. As quickly as Kingsbury went to the NFL, Holgorsen visited him for 3 days within the spring. Conversely, he declined an invite from Leach for a visit to the Bahamas this yr as a result of the Cougars play Washington State in Week three.
“Once you play one another, you simply do not actually hang around,” Holgorsen says.
That goes for Lincoln Riley, too, who — like Holgorsen — is from the Leach tree. The 2 had been on workers collectively for six years at Texas Tech and had been fairly shut. “My youngsters had been in Lincoln’s wedding ceremony,” Holgorsen says. “His spouse, Caitlin, was my nanny.”
When Stoops known as Holgorsen in 2014 to ask if Riley might run the OU offense at a excessive degree, Holgorsen did not hesitate. “Hell, yeah, he can do it. Rent him.”
As he instructed the story in Might on the Landing Membership, he joked that a minimum of the Sooners’ Heisman Trophy quarterbacks had been gone.
“Then they exit and get a man [Jalen Hurts] who’s like 30-2 as a starter,” Holgorsen says. “So I am like, ‘Geez.'”
Three of Holgorsen’s first 5 opponents are former Tech assistants — Riley, Leach and North Texas’ Seth Littrell. He’ll see one other, SMU’s Sonny Dykes, in October. It’s going to be like previous occasions after they see one another. They will crack jokes and share tales earlier than returning to reverse sidelines.
“There’s lots of friendships,” Holgorsen says. “These friendships kinda go by the wayside there on sport day. You kinda slap one another on the again pregame after which attempt to kick their ass.”