The prevailing reaction to the Shane Lyons hire was that West Virginia found a pretty firm fit for a pretty demanding job. Lyons has the resume and the experience, as well as some of the important personal variables, to sell this to supporters and skeptics alike. Ask around, and people respect the guy and project he’ll be suited fine to handle what awaits him.

Lyons has worked with schools, too, of course, most recently at Alabama, where he had oversight of a $120 million athletics budget. He spent four years with the Crimson Tide and three years (1998-2001) at Texas Tech, where he was the associate athletic director for compliance.

He also spent nearly a decade with the NCAA, where he was first hired in November of 1989. He stayed there until August of 1998, when he left for the Texas Tech job.

While at the NCAA he worked with Alfred White, a long-time friend who is now the associate commissioner of Conference USA. White said Monday that Lyons “has seen it all,” which makes the first-time athletic director suited for the lead role.

“Now that he’s going to become an athletics director he’s going to have a perspective not many people sitting around the table with him are going to have,” White said. “He’s going to know what it’s like being in the trenches on a college campus, but he’s also going to know how everything will be dealt with and handled at the NCAA and then the conference level. That’s really invaluable, those experiences and perspectives.

“That will benefit WVU in ways that are sort of indescribable,” White added. “I don’t think there will be anything that will confront WVU in the coming years that will be totally foreign to Shane.”

It is an ideal combination, an athletics official with state ties who understands the industry and its challenges, the culture here and the built-in hurdles that exist.

“It is an important factor that he understands and values this state and believes in its future,” Gee said.

Ah, that last part.

As you might expect, introductory conference call yesterday trended toward celebratory for the Parkersburg native and WVU graduate. There are certain marks that must be hit when WVU announces a hiring and brings someone back to WVU. I get that, you appreciate that and we all take it in stride.

But Lyons, who preaches patience and the value of listening and learning in a leader, has a really interesting claim to stake himself to his new position.

When he was visiting his family in Parkersburg for Christmas, his mother showed him a genealogy book. She’d discovered Lyons’ great-great uncle is Eli “Rimfire” Hamrick, who’s the model for the mountaineer statue at the state’s capitol building.

There may be no better bona fides for the man now in charge of the athletic department and its expanding budget at the state’s land-grant institution.

“I think the more I looked at it, it seemed like the stars were lining up for me,” he said.

@jaredwv @mikecasazza here it is, honoring those that fought for the union but not regular army, home guard pic.twitter.com/ddiLW5bMSh

— Drew J. Ross (@drewjross) January 6, 2015