Blow out a candle for Shane Lyons today. It was one year ago when he was announced as West Virginia’s new athletic director. He’s hired a volleyball coach, not fired a football coach, organized and commissioned some facility projects, revived the Backyard Brawl and generally been a presence around the athletic department, though it’s probably true to say he hasn’t been as visible or as vocal as his visible and vocal predecessor.

Different strokes, different folks, I guess, but this whole year has been different for Lyons, who had never been The Guy before.

His career began in 1988 as the assistant commissioner of the Big South Conference. The next year, he joined the NCAA as a senior membership services representative. He moved to Texas Tech in 1998 as the associate athletic director for compliance and then to the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2001 as an associate commissioner. In 2011, Lyons was named the deputy director of athletics at Alabama.

“Obviously, being No. 2 for a number of years in different capacities, you’re not the face of the program,” he said. “You’re doing a lot of work in the trenches. What changes is you become the face of the program, and in some ways you’re no longer in the trenches because you have a good staff around you to handle the day-to-day aspect of things and give me an opportunity to look at the athletic department as it is now and what it can be in three, five or 10 years.

“I don’t think that came as a surprise. There was an adjustment to some degree, yes, because it’s probably what takes up most of your time as you make the shift from being in the trenches and handling the day-to-day operations and all of that to being that person shaking hands and sharing that vision and telling Mountaineer Nation, ‘This is where we need to be.’”

And it was along those lines that he was compelled to spend some time Dec. 9 putting together and then releasing a statement supporting his football coach and assuring people Dana Holgorsen would be back in 2016. Lyons said again Monday he and his people are working with Holgorsen and his people on a contract extension and that relaxed schedules will help move this process along, though there is no deadline as national signing day approaches.

That’s Feb. 3, and the security of a coach matters and is manipulated in the process. Lyons understands that but is also curious about that. What good are hollow new years on an old deal? It can’t merely be new years upon the two already in Holgorsen’s pocket and has to be something that appeases both sides.

“What I’ve heard from coaches in almost 30 years of being in this business is it is important to recruiting,” Lyons said “Well, to some degree I believe in that, but another part of me is saying it’s just numbers.

“You have to look at what’s best, and that’s where you don’t look at the number of years being the most important aspect. Is three years better than four years? Is five years better than four years? I don’t know. Looking probably at most cases, you start out with a four-year contract and keep a couple years rolling on that. If I’m giving out numbers, probably four is more realistic.”