Now there will be plenty of other questions to answer. Rodriguez still has the blemish on his resume that was the stop at Michigan, though he explains in the following interview why he still believes he was on the right track there. And people are already wondering if he can replicate what he did at West Virginia while he’s coaching in Tucson.

Rich Rodriguez joined KTAR in Phoenix with Doug and Wolf to discuss why he decided Arizona was the right fit, how much convincing it took, the vision for the program going forward, the biggest challenge he’ll face, what he learned from his stint at Michigan, if he can replicate his success at West Virginia and why he signed on to coach without visiting Tucson.

Why did you decide you’d like to coach at Arizona?:

“The thing that appeals to me is obviously they’ve had some success there. Mike Stoops had them right on the cusp and did a pretty good job and they were right there and just had some tough luck. … They’ve had success in a lot of other sports. Look what they’re doing in men’s basketball, what they’ve done in softball. It’s a great college town with tremendous fan support, tremendous alumni support. … The other thing that appealed to me was that the staff played such a big role in hiring me. … We’re building a brand new facility. … The timing, I think, is just perfect.”

How much convincing did it take and at what point did you decide, ‘This is it’?:

“It was kind of a process. Obviously I was hungry to get back into coaching. I enjoyed the media part of it. I don’t know about putting makeup on. … It kind of gave me a chance to stay involved in the game and see other programs and all that, so I was really hungry to get back in coach. And, again, [athletic director] Greg Byrne did a tremendous job of explaining his vision for the program. … He called everybody and their brother about me and did his due diligence on me, too, which is fair, and toward the end of the process … then I started asking more questions.”

More on the vision:

“I had a great meeting with some of the other administrators … and I just felt it was comfortable. I always thought that if you’re in a place that has the resources to have success — which we do there — and you’ve got everybody pulling the rope in the same direction, you’ve got a shot. … [At West Virginia] everybody was pulling the same direction.”

What is the biggest challenge going forward?:

“I’ve got to put together, obviously, a good recruiting class. That’s important right now, but I’ve also got to have the chance to evaluate where we’re at personnel-wise. A lot of people say, and it always bothers me, ‘when you get your kids in.’ I told the team that. … I said, ‘The day I agreed to become the coach, you became my kids.’ Obviously we’re going to recruit guys every year, but they’re my kids as soon as I signed that contract. We’ve got to find what we have and adapt to the things we do. … I’ve got a five-year contract to get it done. I don’t think it’ll take that long, but I think there’s a lot of pieces in place right now.”

What did you learn at Michigan and what would you do differently?:

“I’ve thought about that a lot. Going in, people say, ‘Well, it didn’t work for you at Michigan.’ I still believe it was working, it was just taking longer than I wanted. We went from three to five to seven wins and we thought this year we’d win nine, 10 or 11 and they’re already at that level. Then, Year Five was going to be even better. I just felt we ran out of time. We had a few obstacles in the beginning because there were a whole bunch of misconceptions about ‘This guy’s an outsider and doesn’t understand our tradition.’ … We had to fight that a little bit. … That being said, I think we’ve learned from that. … I think I’m a better coach now than I was three or four years ago when we were the cat’s meow at West Virginia.”

Can you take Arizona where you took West Virginia?:’

“Everybody wants to talk about offense and I was very fortunate to have some dynamic players offensively and did some really neat things. But it’s really more about an attitude and a program and what I call a hard edge. When you play with a hard edge, you can see 11 guys out there playing as hard as they can on every snap. … I love fast players, but I love physical players even moreso. That kind of attitude and culture is something we want to implement immediately.”

Did I hear correctly that you took the job without visiting Tucson?:

“Yep, I sure did. I talked to about probably 10 or 15 people that have either lived there for an extended period of time or spent quite a bit of time there. To a person, every single one of them said it’s a great place to live. If somebody would’ve said, ‘I don’t know about this or that,’ maybe I would’ve said I needed to see it first, but heck, I signed sight unseen.”

Listen to Rich Rodriguez on KTAR in Phoenix here

Mountaineers athletic director Oliver Luck wasn’t able to discuss the lawsuit much in the following interview, but he did say that his plan is still to have his program in the Big 12 next year.

Oliver Luck joined 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh with Seibel, Starkey and Miller to discuss what the Big East could have done better, trying to get to the Big 12 for next season, keeping the Backyard Brawl going, how the move helps Olympic sports and the best situation for his son as he gets ready for the NFL.

What could have been done in previous years to ensure the Big East wouldn’t be in the position that it is now?:

“Probably not a very good guy to answer that question. I’ve been the AD here in Morgantown, really, for just the last 16 months. I don’t know Mike [Tranghese], haven’t really researched the issues that the Big East has been facing. You’re all familiar with the issues going back to the early 2003, 2004, when there were three teams that left.”

On trying to get out of the Big East after this season:

“I won’t be able to comment on the lawsuit. The lawsuit’s online; you can read it. It’s not really that complicated. … Our plan right now is to play 2012 in the Big 12. We’re excited about it, think it’s a great conference.”

Are you interested in keeping the Backyard Brawl alive with Pitt even though the programs will be in different conferences?:

“Number one, it has been a tremendous rivalry. I participated in four of those games as a player. … We are looking at having nine conference games in the Big 12. That’s at least the plan they shared with us. That makes it somewhat difficult to figure out who are three non-conference games are. We certainly have a lot of people that are supporters of WVU that say we should keep the Backyard Brawl going. I like the game and I’d love to figure out a way to do, not just in football, but all of our sports. … We just have to sit down, at the appropriate time, once sort of our respective situations become a little bit more solid, and figure out how do we do it?”

How does this move benefit your Olympic sports programs?:

“It’s an answer that would require probably 17 different responses because of the 17 different teams. … I would say, overall, the advantage to our student-athletes is the quality of competition. I think the Big 12 is solid in football, solid in both basketballs, very good in women’s soccer, tremendous volleyball. We’re raising the level of competition for our student-athletes. … It also offers us additional dollars. We pay for all of our scholarships, like a number of schools, so the additional revenue is important. We can develop better facilities, we can travel better.”

What situation do you think would be ideal for your son Andrew when he gets to the next level?:

“I don’t know that there’s any ideal situation. Cam Newton is doing phenomenally well for a rookie, as is Andy Dalton with the Bengals. Those are guys that walked off the college field and right onto the professional field and they’re playing like seasoned pros. … There’s plenty of examples of guys like Aaron Rodgers that were able to sit for two or three years. … Every team is different; every coaching staff is different. … I’m reluctant to talk about Andrew’s professional career before his college career is over.”

What are your feelings on the “Suck for Luck” sweepstakes?:

“I’ll echo my son’s comments which is that it’s stupid. I’ve been around enough NFL locker rooms in my time as a player and my time as an executive … and I don’t think players take plays off. I don’t think players take games off. I don’t think coaches take plays or games off. I don’t think anyone plays poorly with the intention of losing to get a draft choice. I just think that doesn’t happen in the NFL.”

Listen to Oliver Luck on 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh here

For Huggins and the Mountaineers basketball program, that doesn’t seem like such a great leap as they’ll be leaving the top basketball conference in the nation. That said, the league was certainly already taking a hit with the loss of Syracuse and Pitt. And Huggins says some people don’t understand just how tough the Big 12 is in basketball. He, of course, knows firsthand.

Bob Huggins joined KCSP in Kansas City with Nick Wright to discuss the move to the Big 12, the travel issues it creates, if there’s a bittersweet feeling in leaving the Big East, how the move will affect recruiting, if he’s seen an influx of talent since making the Final Four and if the hostile environments of the Big East just got a little more raucous.

What’s it been like the last week when realizing that West Virginia is going to the Big 12?:

“I know, I guess, better than anybody else does, what a great league it is and how good the coaching is in the league and how good the players are that are attracted to go play in the league. From a basketball standpoint, I’m telling my guys, ‘Get ready; we’re going from one great league to another.’ It’s great for our football and great for our entire athletic program. It gives us great stability and certainly a class league.”

Is there concern, maybe not so much in basketball but other sports, about the travel from Morgantown to these Big 12 cities?:

“I mean, I can’t imagine they’d get in a bus or a van and go. It’s kind of what it’s always been. This chartering thing just started, really, in the last five or six years. Before, you went to the airport, you sat and you flew out and you played the game and you left the first flight in the morning and flew back. I’m sure that’s what’s going to happen.”

Is there anything bittersweet about leaving an elite basketball conference?:

“It was and is a great league, but then again you’re losing Syracuse, you’re losing Pitt. I think in the last six years there’s only been two teams in the league to finish every year over .500 in the league and that’s us and Pitt, and I think we all know what Syracuse has done. So the Big East has lost three very, very good basketball programs. They’re certainly going to replace it and life will go on. But I’ve been in the Big 12. A lot of people haven’t been in the Big 12 and don’t understand what it’s like to go to Stillwater and play or what it’s like to go to Lawrence and play. It’s hard, just like it’s hard in the Big East.”

How does this affect your recruiting?:

“I don’t know. I really don’t know. Hopefully we can still continue to recruit New York. New York’s been very good for us.  … We’re going to continue to try to recruit the best guys that we can and you have to make an intelligent decision on what your chances are and not waste any time.”

Have you seen an uptick in the caliber players that you are recruiting coming off a Final Four two years ago?:

“I hope so because I’ve got seven freshmen right now. If not we’re in trouble. We’re more athletic, we run better, but we’ve got a lot to learn.”

Do you expect more hostile road environments this year with opponents’ fans knowing you’re on the way out?:

“Couldn’t imagine that it wouldn’t be. I think with three teams leaving, and who knows, this whole deal may not be done with, there still could be some movement or maybe their won’t be. But I get that anyways for some reason. So I don’t worry about it. I used to worry about it a little more than I do now.”

Listen to Bob Huggins on KCSP in Kansas City here

Holgorsen was supposed to be the offensive coordinator and head-coach-in-waiting through 2011, which was supposed to be Bill Stewart’s final year at the helm. That all sounded nice on paper, but it was quickly shown that the transition wasn’t going to be that simple. Holgorsen, as part of his deal, was able to hire his entire offensive staff as the Mountaineers looked to install the spread. In May, reports came out that Holgorsen was essentially kicked out of a casino. Just a couple weeks later, amidst leaks that the casino incident may not have been a one-time deal and that Stewart might have been behind some of those leaks, Stewart resigned and Holgorsen became head coach.

I’ll forewarn you that he doesn’t discuss a lot of that in the following interview. As most coaches are wont to do, he more or less goes with the cliche of looking forward instead of back.

Dana Holgorsen joined 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh with Seibel, Starkey and Miller to discuss where the program stands at this point, the transition over the past month or so, if everyone in the locker room is on the same page at this point, the casino incident and his behavior and his timetable for getting West Virginia back to where Rich Rodriguez had it.

Where does this football program stand right now after all the drama?:

“I think it’s in good shape. There’s obviously been some transition here over the last six months and particularly over the last month. But I think our program’s in great shape. We don’t have to change much.”

How big of a transition was it for you, your staff and your players when you became the head coach?:

“Not a whole lot for our players, not a whole lot for our coaches, honestly. Like I just mentioned, we really don’t have to change anything. It’s not like they’ve got to, right in the middle of the summer, change a scheme or learn something new. … It’s been a big transition as far as what I’ve been going through here the last three or four weeks. But I knew it was coming eventually. I’ve been preparing myself a long time for this.”

After rumors swirled about a divided locker room over who should be the head coach, is everyone on the same page now?:

“I told them if they wanted to win, they better get on the same page. That starts at the top. West Virginia’s not big enough to be divided. We’ve got to remain united as a state, we’ve got to remain united as an administration and then it’s got to trickle down into the coaches and the players.”

Was the incident in May where you were kicked out of a casino a one-time deal or part of a behavioral pattern that needed to change?:

“I don’t think there’s anything to worry about on that end. That’s all stuff that’s been discussed and there’s no need to go back to that. … I told them I was on board and we’re all about moving forward. Where we’re at right now is we’re excited about Aug. 4 when the players report and were excited about preparing and trying to win that first game.”

Do you have a timetable for when you would like to get the program back to where Rich Rodriguez had the program?:

“It should be this year. Our kids are used to winning and there’s no reason why we can’t line up in that first game and win that one, then regroup and … take that approach for each and every game. I don’t see any game on the schedule that, and this is not something that I’ve ever done or encouraged anyone to do, but everybody does it at the point where you look at that schedule and you put a plus or a minus by most of them. … I don’t encourage anyone to do that, but there’s nobody on the schedule that I look at and get really, really, really frightened.”

Listen to Dana Holgorsen on 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh here

Now with the Cincinnati Bengals, right down the road from the goings on at Ohio State, Jones can see where Terrelle Pryor was coming from in some of the decisions he made and says Pryor shouldn’t be buried for making those mistakes. In fact, Jones goes a step further, saying that if someone would have asked for his rings and jersey when he was at West Virginia, he’d probably have done the same thing.

I don’t know if that’s the best thing to come out and say at this point, and folks at West Virginia are probably cringing a bit right now, but you can always count on Jones to tell it like it is.

Adam Jones joined 102.3 The Ticket in Denver with Chad and Peter to discuss what it was like being a star at West Virginia, comparing that to what it was probably like for Terrelle Pryor, what he would have done in the same situation, what is going on in the offseason with the Bengals and Carson Palmer and to give his take on the NBA Finals.

What was it like going through college at West Virginia and being a star on the team?:

“First of all you’ve got to understand a kid that don’t have nothing and you’re living from Pell Grant to every little check that you can ever muster. You only get $690 and that’s paying the rent. So there would be times that you would attempt to do different things to make sure that you’re OK. … You get to a point where you need a couple extra dollars and [Terrelle Pryor] shouldn’t be thrown up under the bus for what he done. It was a big deal to them but at the end of the day all he was trying to do was probably get some McDonald’s or something.”

What was it like coming from a humble background and then trying to fit in when you got to school?:

“He was the quarterback and I was a cornerback. I felt like everyone was watching me as a cornerback. If you’re the quarterback, you know everybody’s watching you. So, mentally, he was probably a little strikened because of the pub and everything. He went to Ohio State, that’s a little bit bigger, no I’m not going to say that because West Virginia is West Virginia. But being a quarterback in a situation like that, everybody’s watching. … He probably couldn’t even go to the grocery store without people saying, ‘Hey, can I get an autograph?’ It’s a really big deal coming from nothing to something.”

How hard was it to go through school when you know everybody’s watching you?:

“When I was a child I made foolish decisions; now that I’m a man, I make great decisions. I’ll just leave it at that. Eighteen, 19, 20, 21, 22, you’re not really focused on the big picture. Not the big picture, but there’s a lot of temptations at that age. … When you get older, you realize, dang, that wasn’t a good decision right there. … You can’t tell me, not one of you, can’t tell me that when you was 19 or 20 years old, you didn’t make bad decisions.”

But Pryor not necessarily being wrong, but breaking NCAA rules:

“I agree with that, because if somebody asked me for my jersey and ring, I’d have probably gave it to them, too.”

What’s going on in the offseason with his Bengals team and Carson Palmer?:

“If Carson don’t want to be here, damn him, period, point blank. I love the city of Cincinnati. His little brother is here working out, which is a good sign. But if you don’t want to be here, I don’t want you here. I want some guys that want to play and want to win, period, point blank and that’s the end of that discussion.”

His thoughts on the NBA Finals:

“Dirk is in my top five of all-time, but I’ve been following LeBron James since he was in high school and I’ve been a LeBron James fan, like a real groupie. … There’s no way that we’re losing this championship. We lost the game other night just to make sure we go back to Miami. We’ll win this game that’s coming up today and then we’ll win the other one that’s coming up. But I’m a real Heat fan and Dwyane Wade.”

Listen to Adam Jones on 102.3 The Ticket in Denver here

I’ll leave it to you to read about the rest of the sordid details, but even without the full picture, the allegations themselves are enough to you cringe and shake your head. West Virginia issued a statement a week or so ago stating that the claims were riddled with blatant inaccuracies, but after what we’ve seen unfold recently with Jim Tressel, I don’t think anybody would be too shocked if this turned out to be true. That would be too bad in my opinion because as you’ll hear, Luck sounds like a decent guy, a nice father, and someone that really shouldn’t be jeopardizing his career in an attempt to save a has-been coach whose days would be numbered around Morgantown even if he weren’t about to be replaced by Holgorsen a year from now.

But wait, there’s more. In fact, the real meat of this interview is about WVU’s decision to allow beer sales at home football games beginning next year, with a few minutes at the end of the interview devoted to his son Andrew’s decision to stay at Stanford for his redshirt junior season rather than declare for this past April’s NFL Draft.

For understandable reasons, Luck doesn’t have much to say about the whole Bill Stewart incident. He is though perfectly willing to discuss why the school opted to allow the already-rowdy Mountaineer fans to booze at the stadium, a decision that I suppose isn’t too crazy considering the majority of Big East schools already allow fans to purchase beers at games. When you factor in the dark cloud that might loom over the program while the other incident is investigated, it’s pretty easy to see certain segments of the fan base and the booster club being fed up with Luck’s leadership. We’ll see what materializes.

Oliver Luck joined 790 The Zone in Atlanta to talk about the decision to start selling beer during home games, if he’s concerned that crowds might get even more unruly than they did during, for example, the 1996 home loss to the Miami Hurricanes, how the liability risks lie with the beer vendors not the university, why he feels it’s important to give fans the choice to drink at the stadium if they’re of age rather than setting up a system that encourages binge drinking and rogue behavior, the recent reports about Bill Stewart contacting a Pittsburgh-based journalist to dig up dirt on Dana Holgorsen the head coach-in-waiting, how he and the rest of the university are taking the issue seriously despite the reports containing what they deem to be blatant inaccuracies, not having had the chance to talk to Stewart yet about the matter, and his son’s decision to stay in school for his redshirt junior season.

On the decision to begin selling beer inside the stadium at West Virginia home games beginning in 2011:

“Well we looked at all the things we were doing at Mountaineer Field trying to improve our gameday environment and make it as attractive as possible, and we recommended to our Board of Govenors — our governing body for the university — three changes, one of which was selling beer to the general public which got approved. We also recommended changing our pass-out policy; in other words, you can leave Mountaineer Field and then come back in, and that’s really an anachronism in today’s world of college or professional sports for that matter. And we also modified our smoking policy. So we think the three changes taken together will give us a better gameday atmosphere, a little bit safer environment, and quite honestly, cut down on something that has plagued us, and I know is an issue at a lot of schools, which is binge drinking. So we think it will have a positive effect on the overall atmosphere at the stadium.”

If he’s concerned that an incident like back in 1996 when the WVU crowd went crazy after Miami blocked a punt to help propel them to victory will only be escalated and more rowdy if beer is allowed to be consumed by fans:

“Well the reality is people are already drinking anyway. The amount of hard liquor that’s sort of smuggled in, particularly late games when people are wearing coats. And we’re going to crack down on that as well and be a little bit more vigilant about that. But the amount of liquor that’s smuggled in is shocking quite honestly. So the fact of the matter is, and this is true at a lot of college venues, there’s already a lot of drinking going on. And we’ve also changed, years ago in fact after the Virginia Tech game in 2003 or 2004 which was another big sort of tension-filled atmosphere, we changed the pass-out policy for games that started after 6 pm — you know, night games. That’s worked very well. You know, everybody has a bad story about going to a game, but one visit isn’t really a statistically relevant sample if you know what I mean.”

You’re right, it was WVU fans who had to be implored to
tone down their unruly behavior and excessive profanity
at home games last hoops season. Give ‘em beer!

Whether he’s concerned about increased liability concerns stemming from beer being sold during games:

“No because the way it works is the concessionaire in any stadium is the vendor for beer. So in our case, the concessionaire applies for a beer license from the state of West Virginia Tobacco and Alcohol Bureau. The vendor is the sales agent; the vendor’s employees are the ones selling. The vendor carries really all the liability.”

On why not just disallow people to leave the stadium and drink in the stadium and just ‘forget about that whole policy you had in place’:

“Well that’s possible, I would just argue that we think giving people a choice….if you’re 21 and have got a valid ID, you’re receiving a choice. You can go buy beer at halftime as opposed to not being able to buy beer. In the Big East, what’s interesting is that all the Big East schools sell beer to the general public save for Rutgers. And Rutgers I know is looking at it; I spoke to their AD recently at one of our Big East meetings. So in the Big East at least, and that’s the conference we’re in, it’s fairly popular. And there’s also a financial component. I don’t want to deny that. As we talked to Louisville and Cincinnati and Syracuse and UCONN — all schools that have been selling schools for many, many years — there’s an important financial aspect. And as you guys know, college football is the revenue generator for virtually all the other schools on campus.”

If he knows who Colin Dunlap is and is aware of what he said on the radio Monday night about Stewart contacting him to dig up dirt on Dana Holgorsen just days after he had been named the head coach-in-waiting after the 2011 season:

“I have. I was made aware of that this morning. Colin is a former writer for the Pittsburgh Post- Gazette who was the WVU beat writer there for many years. The university released a statement on it a week ago, and there are simply a number of I’ll use the term blatant inaccuracies that have appeared in a number of papers within the state and outside the state as well. Beyond that, I can’t really comment, because it’s obviously a serious personnel issue and we’ll take it very seriously. But the university stated a week or so ago that there have been a number of blatant inaccuracies which is unfortunate.”

But the accusation that a head coach called up a writer to say dig dirt on a coach who was just hired as a coach-in-waiting has to be the top priority for him to address and get to the bottom to, no?

“You assume correctly.”

If he’s had a chance to speak to Bill Stewart yet about reports:

“No, we were at one of our Mountaineer Club events up in Weirton which is up in the northern panhandle near Wheeling, West Virginia. But no, I have not spoken to him at this point yet today.”

On how strongly would he feel he’d need to react if the story did in fact turn out to be true:

“Well it’s a personnel issue and I really can’t discuss that any further. I apologize.”

How many folks have called him about his son’s decision to go back to school, and conversely, how many have called to say they can’t believe Luck passed up the chance to enter the Draft and likely be taken as high as No. 1:

“I’ve gotten both comments, you know what I mean? What’s sort of interesting now as you guys know doing what you do, this is not a good year to be a rookie quarterback in the NFL simply because of the lockout and these guys don’t get the practice they really need to give them a fair shot at having a  successful rookie season. It’s hard to play quarterback in the NFL, particularly if you don’t have the chalk board classroom time that should be going on literally in the months of May and June and into July before training camp starts. So, it was his decision, I think he made the absolute right decision. My wife and I are very proud of him and very happy that he made the decision that he made. But I can understand where people would say ‘wow, he made a bad decision, how can you turn down money?’ or ‘he made a good decision by going back to school to get his degree and finish his four-year cycle with his teammates’. I said to somebody months ago after Andrew made his decision, ‘it’s kind of like a Rorschach test’. You know what I mean?  You know that ink blot test that psychologists give people and it depends on what you see in the ink blots, and  that gives you an insight into your values system. Well it’s a little bit of a Rorschach test depending on how you see the world. Is education important? Is cashing out important? But I think at the end of the day, Andrew could care less. He made the decision that he wanted to make.”

Listen here to Luck on Mayhem in the AM on 790 The Zone in Atlanta

Nonetheless Bob Huggins knows how to win when it comes to tournament time. The Mountaineers are battle tested after playing in the best conference in college basketball, but they were bounced from the Big East Tournament early and it killed their momentum. The Mountaineers have been extremely inconsistent and even though they made a deep run last year, it’s unlikely that Huggy’s squad duplicates that performance this year.

Bob Huggins joined 93.7 the Fan in Pittsburgh with Seibel, Starkey, and Miller to talk about who the catalyst is for his team this year, what they are focusing on as their first tourney game approaches, how tough it was to not know who they would be playing right away, whether or not his team can make a run like last year, and how tough the Big East was this year.

On who the catalyst of his team is:

“Kinda depends on the day. Some days I think it’s Deniz (Kilicli) in the post, other days I think its Casey Mitchell, some days its Truck (Bryant), there have been days when its Joe Mazzulla, and some days its Kevin Jones. We don’t know which one of them is going to take advantage of what the defense is going to give them on a particular day. I think maybe in some ways it makes us harder to scout, but in some ways we really don’t know ourselves until the game starts.”

What they have to focus on heading into the Tournament:

“I think it’s fairly well documented that we haven’t shot the ball well. When you don’t shoot the ball very well that makes it a lot harder. It makes it a lot harder on the inside guys when you can’t get people spread and it certainly makes it a lot harder to be able to score the ball because the defense becomes so compacted. We have had some days when Truck has shot it well, we have had some days when Casey shot it really well, and we’ve had days when Joe Mazzulla played extremely well.”

How far he thinks his team can go this year:

“We go on a bit of a roll and beat Notre Dame, Connecticut, Louisville, and get a road win at Rutgers. You think you kinda have it going pretty good, but then we went to New York and didn’t play very well against Marquette. I don’t know. I wish I knew. I would feel a whole lot better and sleep a little easier if I knew.”

How tough it is to play in the Big East:

“Well if you guys haven’t heard it was a down year for the Big East. I think that’s what everybody was saying at the beginning of the year. Then all that we do is have two number one seeds and 11 teams in the tournament. The year before I think everybody said it was a down year for the Big East. The caliber of coaches you have in the Big East, we’re not going to have down years because guys coach too well. I think because our institutions are very attractive to student athletes I think we’re going to have good players. That combination bodes pretty well for having a heck of a league, but when you’re trying to figure out how you’re going to win a game, I think it becomes very difficult. We’ve got a great league, with great coaches, and great players.”

Listen to Bob Huggins on 93.7 the Fan in Pittsburgh with Seibel, Starkey, and Miller

Dana Holgorsen joined The Sports Animal in Oklahoma City to talk about how the position came about at West Virginia, how the plan to succeed Bill Stewart is going to work out being the coach-in-waiting, and whether landing a head coaching position happened earlier than he thought.

How the position came about at West Virginia:

“It is what it boils down to, you just put yourself in a good situation and I felt like Oklahoma State was a good position coming into, established program.  If you win good those will happen so fortunately for me and fortunately for Oklahoma State that is what happened this year.

How the plan to succeed Bill Stewart is going to work out being the coach-in-waiting:

“Well the first thing is taking care of business right now.  They have got to take care of their business up there with the current coaches that they have and go try to win a tenth game and I am going to do my best for Coach Gundy and try to get to a point where Oklahoma State will win 11 games, then when January rolls around I will switch my attention to learning as much as I can on West Virginia.  It is a little bit unchartered territory for me and the thing about Bill Stewart, he has been there for a long, long time and he cares about the university and he is always going to be there for the rest of his life, so he can give me the lay of the land and try and just teach me what is important up there.  The one guy that was very instrumental and knows an awful lot who is known across the country as being a pretty important guy and he played at West Virginia and he is the Athletic Director at West Virginia and he was the guy that I dealt with the last couple of weeks as far as making this happen.”

If he is going to be able to hire his own staff:

“Yeah I trust Oliver Luck.  Like I said, I have had a bunch of conversations with him and our relationship right now is really strong and I anticipate that to be the same. They have got a new president and everybody is on the same page as far as what needs to happen to take the next step.  They have been pretty successful in the past and our job is to evaluate the whole situation and figure out what kind of changes we need to make and gradually do it.  It is not something that is going to happen overnight.  It is going to be a deal where I have committed to five years, I got really a six-year deal.  It is a big commitment on their end it is a big commitment on my end and I am going to go up there and commit to it and eventually get it to where we want it.”

Whether landing a head coaching position happened earlier than he thought:

“I hadn’t really thought about that.  Like I said earlier, you got to focus on the task at hand.  I focused on winning games for Oklahoma State this year and didn’t worry about anything else.  If you do it for the job that you have and give it everything you have got, you are successful then good things will happen.  That is always the way that I approached it one practice at a time, one week at a time, one game at a time, one job at a time and if you approach it that way then good things will happen.”

WVU coach in-waiting Dana Holgorsen on The Sports Animal in Oklahoma City with Bob Barry Jr

The Mountaineers come into this season with high hopes though and their eye on a Big East Championship. Noel Devine and Jock Sanders are both back for their senior seasons in Morgantown and Geno Smith seems ready to take over the offense. Cincinnati wears the conference crown and Pittsburgh has the best player in the conference with Dion Lewis, but I wouldn’t be surprised if West Virginia had some say when the conference title is determined.

Bill Stewart joined 93.7 the Fan in Pittsburgh with Vinnie and Cook to talk about Geno Smith taking over at quarterback and what he thinks of his progress, on how fast this team is with Noel Devine and Jock Sanders compared with others that he has coached, and who the team to beat is this season in the Big East.

On Geno Smith taking over at QB this season:

“Right now the play of Geno Smith has been pretty, pretty solid. He’s a student of the game and we can do a lot of combo packaging with him and that’s been really a plus for such a young quarterback being a true sophomore. I really like the play of our young receivers. People question that and rightfully so but our young receivers have stepped up. The line seems to be getting a little better and we have four starters back. And of course our running backs have been healthy. The best thing is our quarterback and young receivers on offense have really stood out.”

On what he has seen from Geno Smith:

“I know you speak with Colin Dunlap out there about this. Geno has been on target. He’s been sharp, he’s been precise, and he doesn’t have to study much. It comes rather quickly so to speak if that makes sense. Being he’s the oldest guy, he’s the vet down here of our quarterbacks because the two behind him are true freshman just coming out of high school. It’s a lot on his shoulders but he’s had a good camp.”

On the speed of this year’s team compared to others in the past:

“It is. We’re fast. We know we’re fast. I don’t know if we’re as fast as we were when we had Patrick and Stevie Slaton, but we’re quicker. That foot hits the ground and boom they’re up the field. Very, very explosive. The good thing is, when a guy like number seven, Noel Devine, comes back or a guy like number nine, Jock Sanders, first of all they want to graduate and God bless them. They want to be seniors. You only get to go through that once in your life. They trust their coaches and this coaching staff and they love West Virginia. It spoke volumes. That was the two best recruits we got. You can be sure of that.”

On who he thinks the best team in the Big East is:

“I don’t want to get my buddy Dave (Wannstedt) mad at me, but I think that both Pitt and UConn were good choices. I think that both Cincinnati and West Virginia can win it and you never count out South Florida or even Rutgers. Any of these eight teams can beat each other. I do believe who they picked in the top four, that’s probably about where things should shake out this year, just this year. Again that landscape can change. It’s such a tough league and we just keep knocking each other off. That’s our problem.”

Listen to Bill Stewart on 93.7 the Fan in Pittsburgh here

Enter Nancy Zimpher. Zimpher came to the University of Cincinnati in 2003, while I was still a student there, and immediately went head-to-head with the school’s highest-paid and best known employee – Bob Huggins. I wasn’t the only one to leave 2005 as Huggins was ultimately forced to resign. Zimpher bashed Huggins’ poor graduation rates and academic standards, yet turned around and hired his chief recruiter for many of those seasons – Mick Cronin – the very guy who brought in those players. Clearly, Zimpher’s move had been personal – a power play.

Zimpher got her Brand-esque headlines and spun that into a position running the SUNY college system, one of the most powerful academic positions in the country. Huggins got a paid vacation where he could recruit players like Michael Beasley and Bill Walker freely without regulation. Now, he is coaching his alma mater in his second Final Four and first since the Nick Van Exel days in 1992. My alma mater? Well, we’ve got a pretty good football team now. The basketball team is 82-81 and without an NCAA Tournament appearance since Huggins left.

Bob Huggins joined Lance McAlister on WLW in Cincinnati to discuss West Virginia’s recent play, what the team means to the state, Joe Mazzula, the Final Four in 1992, Duke, and the obligatory twenty references to “making shots.”

On what has been different for the team recently:

“We’ve won ten in a row. We’ve been in so many close games that we handle it pretty well. Every game has been close. We don’t score the ball great, but we really do guard. We’ve hung in there and persevered.”

On what the team means to the state:

“You can’t really understand it unless you are here. We don’t have professional sports here. Everything revolves around the Mountaineers football team and Mountaineers basketball team. That’s their Cincinnati Reds. That’s their Cincinnati Bengals. The other day, everybody was trying to trade shifts so they could watch the game. The Governor told me that they ended up just pumping the broadcasts into the workplaces so everybody could watch the game when they worked.”

On if his previous trip to the Final Four in 1992 can help him:

“It’s crazy, Lance. I think we need to structure it better. We just let our guys do all the media stuff that they wanted to do and that was a big mistake in hindsight. We just didn’t shoot the ball well or we would have won the game going away. I don’t think it was that. There has to be a fine line between enjoying it and having a good time. It’s not that our guys didn’t take care of business, because they did. They were on every talk show. Everything that anybody asked them to do they did. There were people calling the rooms and we are going to cut that out.”

On if he could have imagined the performance by Joe Mazzula’s performance against Kentucky:

“Yeah. I thought we had a chance to, in all honesty. Joe’s just getting better and better health-wise. He and I had a heart-to-heart at halftime of the Cincinnati game because I just didn’t think he was bringing the passion that Joe brings to the game. He has played really, really well since. He does something things that Truck doesn’t do and Truck does some things that Joe doesn’t do. Hopefully we can get Truck back so he can play 10-12 minutes and keep Joe out of foul trouble.”

On support from former Bearcats:

“They’ve been great. They’ve been coming over and watching games all year. They are terrific. It’s more than me and the players. It’s the older guys with the guys that were fix or six years after them or in some cases, seven or eight years after them. It’s that bond that everyone has.”

And on Duke:

“They make shots. They are the total opposite of us. They make a bunch of shots. Nolan Smith has really improved his game. Between him, Scheyer and Singler, they really make shots. And they are huge inside. I think they do a great job keeping the ball alive and getting second chances. In the Baylor game, two offensive rebounds that led to two threes really were what separated those teams and allowed Duke to win. We really have to do great on the glass, which is hard, because they, like everyone else are bigger than us. But the good thing is that we have been dealing with that all year.”

Listen to Bob Huggins with Lance McAlister on 700 WLW in Cincinnati (16 minutes into podcast).