A few spring football notes before a headfirst dive into the NCAA basketball tournament:
When former WVU wide receivers coach Lonnie Galloway left Morgantown to join Louisville's staff, it was not only a disappointment within WVU's circle, but a surprise. The timing was during West Virginia's junior day camp. It was at the start of spring drills.
Galloway, though, obviously wanted that "coordinator" title. Also, the domino effect was from a surprise Illinois firing of Bill Cubit and hiring of Lovie Smith on March 7. Smith stole offensive coordinator Garrick McGee from Louisville and Bobby Petrino stole Galloway from West Virginia.
Mountaineers coach Dana Holgorsen, meanwhile, is immersed in spring drills. The team has one more practice before heading out for spring break. And word I'm getting is the head coach will wait until returning before re-starting the hiring process.
Of course, every WVU follower knows losing Galloway was a blow. But if Holgorsen replaces him as he did Brian Mitchell, all might be fine. Just ask defensive coordinator Tony Gibson, who is more than happy with the hire of new cornerbacks coach Blue Adams from the Miami Dolphins.
"He came highly recommended," Gibson said. "I called three or four guys I trusted and they kept bringing him up.
"I wanted to target the NFL for recruiting purposes. He's a hell of a coach. He's smart, a good technician."
It was quite a coup for WVU to steal from the Dolphins. Blue had been there four years and representatives I spoke to in Miami all loved the guy. With the Dolphins, though, he was an assistant defensive backs coach and not in charge of the position room.
Blue, by the way, was a graduate assistant at Purdue and secondary coach at Northern Iowa before moving to Miami. He played for Rick Minter at Cincinnati, was a seventh-round draft pick and played seven years of professional ball.
nnn
Recently, I asked Gibson about his defense's depth chart.
"Good question," he said. "I don't know. My first goal is to get 11 guys to go out and get in a stance."
On Tuesday, however, the DC confirmed the current spring depth chart at linebacker goes like this:
At the strong-side (Sam), 1. Xavier Preston, and 2. Justin Arndt; at the middle (Mike), 1. Hodari Christian, and 2. Al Benton; and at the weak-side (Will), 1. Sean Walters and 2. David Long.
"The Sams and Wills are interchangeable," he said, "we'll let those six battle it out."
I've asked specifically about Long, the redshirt freshman from Cincinnati who Gibson has always liked.
"It's not going to surprise me if he wins a job somewhere, Sam, Will, somewhere because of the way he plays," Gibson said. "Very physical kid. I think he's going to be really, really good here. Is it going to be next year? I don't know, but he's going to be a really good player at West Virginia."
On Tuesday, Gibson said he expects incoming linebackers Zach Sandwisch and Adam Hensley, both coming off shoulder surgery, to be ready for fall camp. Of course, he also has prized recruit Brendan Ferns coming.
"We got some guys we feel good about coming in," Gibson said. "I told them not to worry about redshirting now because we're not in a position to redshirt anyone on defense."
He said Ferns will play one of the two outside positions.
"He moves; he runs; he can play anywhere," Gibson said.
Including offense, where he played at times in high school?
"No!" Gibson said emphatically, but with a smile. "He's not going to offense!"
nnn
You might remember all the coaching "analysts" being hired by Alabama coach and West Virginia native Nick Saban.
Well, he's at it again. It's been announced that former Philadelphia Eagles "analyst" Shea Tierney will be an "offensive analyst" for the Crimson Tide.
nnn
And finally...
A few notes from WVU's football camp:
First, the Mountaineers held the second of their non-padded spring practices Tuesday with the final one before the break scheduled for Thursday. The first day was this past Sunday.
Second, from what I'm hearing William Crest is getting a lot of reps at inside receiver behind Daikiel Shorts. And, third, I'm hearing David Sills has been almost exclusively at quarterback rather than receiver.
Galloway might be gone, but the Mountaineers should be flush with talent at the receiver position. Which should make it easier for Sills to stick at QB. And which should make it easier for Holgorsen to attract an assistant coach.