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West Virginia University Fires AD Shane Lyons As Football Team Falters

West Virginia fired athletic director Shane Lyons on Monday, a move that comes amid the worst stretch for the football team in more than four decades.

President Gordon Gee said there were no immediate plans to make changes under coach Neal Brown.

Lyons is gone after nearly eight years. Gee said in a statement that Rob Alsop, WVU’s vice president for strategic initiatives, has been named interim athletic director while a search is ongoing for Lyons’ replacement.

Brown has a 21-24 record in his fourth season, including 4-6 this year. It’s the worst stretch since the football team went 17-27 under Frank Cignetti from 1976-79.

In September, after West Virginia started the football season 0-2 and fans turned up their criticism of Brown, Lyons said he would take a wait-and-see approach for the remainder of the season.

Fans also had criticized Lyons’ move to give Brown a contract extension following a 6-4 record in 2020, his only winning season.

“We are supporting coach Neal Brown and our team as we complete our season over the next few weeks,” Gee said in a statement. “We are aware there are some deficiencies, but we have not given up on the coach and the team, and they have not given up on each other.

“The evaluation of the football program will be the first task of our new athletic director and no changes will be made until that review has been completed.”

Lyons was hired in January 2015 to succeed Oliver Luck. He previously served as deputy athletic director at Alabama and as associate commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Lyons is a Parkersburg native who earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in sport management at West Virginia. When Lyons was hired, Alabama football coach Nick Saban, another West Virginia native, said that Lyons “understands that passion and what the Mountaineers represent.”

But with the fan base in an uproar over the football program, patience in the administration waned.

“I deeply appreciate Shane’s leadership over the past eight years and I wish him well,” Gee said. “But with the ever-changing landscape of intercollegiate athletics, I believe this is an opportunity to bring a fresh perspective to our program.”

November 28 1891: WVU Plays First Football Game

On November 28, 1891, West Virginia University played its first football game ever. The contest didn’t go as hoped. About 250 fans showed up at a field south of Morgantown to watch Washington and Jefferson shut out WVU 72 to 0.

While the outcome was disappointing, it was an accomplishment just getting a team together. To raise funds for uniforms, WVU’s players first had to stage a production of Shakespeare’s Richard III. Then, they needed a coach. The newly formed WVU Athletic Association learned that a mechanical engineering professor had once played at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Cornell University. That’s how Professor F. L. Emory became WVU’s first football coach. The team’s quarterback was the colorfully named Gory Hogg, who would go on to become a prominent doctor in the southern coalfields and serve in the West Virginia Legislature.

After that initial loss, WVU didn’t field a team again for two years. Its teams gradually got more competitive. Although, Washington and Jefferson still had their number, shutting them out seven more times. Finally, in 1903, WVU broke through and beat Washington and Jefferson for the first time.

New ESPN Deal with Big 12 Lands 3 Football Title Games

The Big 12 has agreed to a deal that gives ESPN the rights to all football championship game through 2024 and makes the league the first Power Five conference to provide exclusive content to ESPN+, the cable giant’s online subscription streaming service.

Sports Business Journal Daily first reported ESPN will pay the conference about $40 million more for these new rights from 2019-24 on top of what it pays for existing deals. A person with direct knowledge of the contract confirmed the value to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the network and conference were not speaking publicly about financial terms.

The new agreement calls for Big 12 content on ESPN+ to be branded specifically for the conference, creating a de facto digital conference network.

The deal calls for each school, except Texas and Oklahoma, to have one football game per season exclusively shown on ESPN+, starting in 2020. Baylor, Kansas, Kansas State and Oklahoma State will have football games on ESPN+ starting this season and Iowa State, West Virginia. TCU and Texas Tech will join them in 2020.

Texas was excluded because it has a deal with ESPN’s Longhorn Network for rights to at least one football game per season. Oklahoma had a local television agreement for at least one game per season.

Also, all Big 12 men’s basketball games not appearing on an ESPN television network — expected to be at least 75 per season — will be shown on ESPN+.

Fox and ESPN share television rights to Big 12 games and are in the middle of 13-year deal worth $2.6 billion signed in 2012. Three years ago the Big 12 brought back its football championship game, and while ESPN paid for the rights to the even-year games, Fox declined to buy the rights to the 2019, ‘21 and ‘23 editions.

AP Sources: WVU, Troy’s Neal Brown Close To Deal on Head Football Coach Job

West Virginia and Troy’s Neal Brown are completing a deal to make him the next coach of the Mountaineers, two people familiar with the situation told The Associated Press on Friday.

The people spoke to AP on condition of anonymity because the contract was not yet final. Brown would replace Dana Holgorsen, who this week left West Virginia to become Houston’s coach.

Yahoo! Sports first reported West Virginia and Brown were close to a deal.

The 38-year-old Brown has coached Troy since 2015 and is 35-16 at the Sun Belt Conference school. His teams have produced impressive performances against Power Five competition, winning at Nebraska this season and at LSU in 2017. The Trojans also lost 30-24 at Clemson in 2016, the season the Tigers won the national title.

Brown was offensive coordinator at Kentucky for two years before being hired at Troy as one of the youngest head coaches in FBS. Before his two-year stint with the Wildcats he served at offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Texas Tech (2010-12) and Troy (2008-09). He is part of the Air Raid offense tree that stems from former Kentucky coach Hal Mumme and Washington State coach Mike Leach. Brown played receiver at Kentucky under Mumme from 1998-2000.

Brown took over a Troy program that had a history of success under longtime coach Larry Blakeney but had regressed in the early 2010s. The Trojans went 4-8 under Brown in 2015 but have won double-digit games each season since. Troy won the Sun Belt in 2017 and went 20-3 in the conference over the last three seasons.

Holgorsen went 61-41 in eight seasons at West Virginia.

University of Houston Hires Coach Holgorsen Away from West Virginia

Houston hired West Virginia’s Dana Holgorsen as its coach Wednesday, ending his eight-year run with the Mountaineers.

Holgorsen was 61-41 and 33-30 in the Big 12 as he helped guide West Virginia through the transition from the Big East. Houston competes in the American Athletic Conference, which was formed from the remnants of Big East football after it was torn apart by realignment earlier this decade.

Holgorsen spent two seasons as Houston’s offensive coordinator in 2008-09, when it was in Conference USA, before serving a season in the same position under Mike Gundy at Oklahoma State in 2010.

“We are thrilled to welcome Dana back to Houston as the next leader of our football program. His offensive acumen with an emphasis on student-athlete development, on and off the field, is a perfect fit for our program, university and city,” athletic director Chris Pezman said.

Houston fired coach Major Applewhite on Sunday after two underwhelming seasons. Applewhite, who took a school-friendly deal in 2016 to replace Tom Herman, went 15-11.

Holgorsen is making a unique move, leaving a Power Five school for one outside the high revenue conferences. No coach has willingly made that move since the College Football Playoff was established in 2014.

But Holgorsen was in a tricky spot at West Virginia. He had probably has most talented team in Morgantown, West Virginia, this season. Led by quarterback Will Grier, the Mountaineers were in contention for a Big 12 title and playoff spot entering November.

They fell short of a spot in the Big 12 title game, losing to Oklahoma at home in the regular-season finale to finish 8-3. With Grier and star offensive tackle Yodny Cajuste sitting out, the Mountaineers lost the Camping World Bowl to Syracuse last week. West Virginia is facing a significant rebuild next season with Grier, Cajuste, star receiver David Sills V and linebacker David Long all headed to the NFL.

Houston has been trying to work its way into a Power Five conference, preferably the Big 12, and is hoping Holgorsen can help make them a viable option in a process in which the school has little control.

Holgorsen is two years into a contract that runs through the 2021 season and pays him $3.5 million per year. Houston will owe West Virginia a $1 million buyout.

“I want to thank coach Holgorsen for his eight years at West Virginia,” West Virginia athletic director Shane Lyons said. “Our national search for his replacement has already begun, and I know it will be a successful one.”

Holgorsen initially was hired as West Virginia’s offensive coordinator and head coach-in waiting in December 2010. Fans were never fully enamored with Holgorsen after he replaced the popular Bill Stewart at the start of the 2011 season. A month after an intoxicated Holgorsen was escorted out of a West Virginia casino, he was named Stewart’s replacement after a former sports writer said Stewart approached him shortly after Holgorsen’s hiring to “dig up dirt” on his eventual successor.

Inheriting players recruited by Stewart, West Virginia beat Clemson 70-33 in the Orange Bowl after the 2011 season to finish 10-3. Holgorsen was given a five-year contract extension at the end of the 2016 regular season, when WVU also went 10-3.

Texas State Hires WVU Assistant Spavital as Head Coach

Texas State has hired West Virginia University offensive coordinator Jake Spavital as its next head coach.

Texas State announced the hiring this week. Spavital succeeds Everett Withers, who was fired after winning just seven games in three seasons.

Spavital guided one of the nation’s top offenses this season as No. 15 West Virginia went 8-3 and had a chance to play in the Big 12 title game until a 59-56 loss to No. 4 Oklahoma.

Texas State plays in the Sun Belt Conference and has been playing at the FBS level since 2012.

Spavital has been as assistant coach for 11 seasons, with previous stops at Oklahoma State, Houston and Texas A&M. He spent the last two seasons at West Virginia.