First things first: This is some file photo. That’s Dreamius Smith, Wendell Smallwood and Charles Sims.

Secondly, no, I do not think Lonnie Galloway will replace JaJuan Seider.

Now that we’ve cleared your mind about those items, let’s move on to more of your thoughts.

Neb Notrub said:

Any names being floated for Seider’s replacement? Seems like this move has been in works awhile.

It was indeed in the works before Thursday. We tweeted Seider was leaving at 2 p.m. Thursday. We tweeted the link to the story at 2:06 p.m. My fingers are not that fast. I wrote that story Jan. 17. Were people playing games with me? Were people acting in the pursuit of preservation? It’s all reasonably understood. But I also really don’t think Seider made up his mind to the point he was telling people about it until Thursday. Replacements? Well, I can’t say all of that and then chicken out and say it’s too soon to speculate, but I’ll chicken out and say I don’t know yet. I’ve heard three names and they all sort of make sense on different levels. I do think WVU wants name recognition with this one. No offense to Tyron Carrier, Blue Adams, Matt Caponi and Mark Scott. They may well be good coaches and satisfactory recruiters, but today, they all lack some of the cache Seider had, and I think you can argue WVU needs an extra-base hit. 

LoganvilleJeff said:

On the heels of a 50th ranked recruiting class, the hand ringing about how this is going to hurt our recruiting is laughable. WVU will be fine.

I can get behind this argument, and it’s not a knock on Seider’s skill and reputation. Recruiting is way bigger than one person. 

CC Team said:

Losing Seider is a blow. He is a good coach and recruiter. Did he get offered a better deal $$? It seems HCDH has a hard time retaining staff. How does WV coaching turnover compare to other programs of similar stature?

I hope people realize WVU lost a good coach, and I think that’s part of the explanation for why he left. To me, it seemed like he was getting painted as a recruiter, and that’s a tough label for an assistant coach to shed as he ages. I always felt like Tony Gibson dealt with that until he changed that. So Seider, who was passed over three times for the offensive coordinator job here, made a move out of his comfort zone and headed to a place where he’ll have to prove himself as both coach and recruiter. It’s good for him. It can answer questions about him. And in a way, it’s good for WVU. The turnover is high. Basically, Dana Holgorsen has turned his staff over three times in six offseasons. I can’t say how that compares nationally, and though I suspect it’s pretty high for a Power 5 program, it’s also increasingly common now. Coaches move around a lot. But let’s look at all of WVU’s changes — and let’s disregard Jeff Casteel, Bill Kirelawich and David Lockwood, who stuck around for the 2011 season and then joined Rich Rodriguez in Arizona. Quarterbacks coaches Jake Spavital and Shannon Dawson and Seider and fellow running backs coach Robert Gillespie took SEC jobs. Galloway went to the ACC. He, Spavital and Dawson became coordinators. Offensive line coach Bill Bedenbaugh went to Oklahoma. Defensive line coach Tom Bradley and linebackers coach Keith Patterson went to the Pac-12, and Bradley is the defensive coordinator while Patterson was the defensive coordinator at Arizona State. Gibson replaced Patterson who replaced Casteel. Bradley replaced Erik Slaughter. Dawson replaced Spavital. Seider replaced Gillespie. Heck, Joe Wickline essentially replaced Galloway. I think you can argue that WVU will be just fine when it comes to wooing a coach. 

smeer said:

say it ain’t so JaJo

pipeline to Florida is rusting out. Cogdell and Seider and?

but at least he was classy enough to wait until after signing day. he could have blown up some things if he announced before

I’m still not clear, after all these years, if it was JaJuan or Ja’Juan. I’ll just ask his little brother, Ja’SHaun. I’ll also reiterate that WVU is less concerned these days with south Florida recruiting — unless the Mountaineers are less impressed by or rewarded less often, and maybe that needs to be fixed. And I’m torn on the signing day thing, too. I have to go with people I trust, so I do believe this was on the table weeks before signing day, so I commend Seider for seeing it through for WVU, but I also feel for the kids who thought they’d play for him. 

Clarence Oveur said:

Coaches can jump ship whenever they please, yet “student-athletes” are penalized for or even blocked from transferring.

Totally fair.

I do agree with the sentiment, but Seider does owe WVU around $85,000 for leaving. I had people tell me a few times that would be a factor … and for a while, that seemed reasonable. 

ffejbboc said:

Galloway to Lousiville a few years back.
Seider to Florida this year.
So WVU loses arguably it’s two best recruiters over the last three years…yet manages to still plug away and still do alright.
I think Blue Adams and Tyron Carrier are up and coming and will do more than just fill the void.
I do worry that there is no “go to” recruiter for Florida kids now. Maybe Adams just moves south from Georgia to include Fla too?

I guess we’ll know how valuable south Florida or Florida in general is after we learn the identity of the replacement. That Damon Cogdell thing didn’t work out at all. The two-hour circle around the Atlanta airport is a big deal for WVU now, and it seems Adams can be productive there, but he’s also been recruiting in south Florida, where he’s from. I think that’s an immediate move for Holgorsen. And remember, Seider schooled Carrier on south Florida, as well

letsgomtrs said:

Who’s Doc’s current recruiting protege?

That’s funny, but it’s not irrelevant. Marshall’s south Florida recruiting has also dipped after Seider left following the 2012 season.

Grumpy said:

This sucks! I watch the MSN live feed and at least 3 times they said to him everyone says you have to say. I wonder if they knew and it was inside trolling.

This is a big loss IMO. If you look back, our big recruits have come from him. I have to think he is getting a big pay check to leave? or internal issues?

Here’s a list of his players at WVU and at Marshall.

Wayward Eer said:

This one is a little surprising.  Will be real interested to see the reasoning, family, money, clearer path to OC, does the Spavital hiring have anything to do with it.   Lots of potential angles.  The other side is do the hire another offensive coach or slide Burchett into the staff.    At the end though you hate to see him go.

I think the family stuff was an anchor in Morgantown. I think the career implications factor in more heavily. Seider was making good money here ($340,000 a year, and he was entering the second year of one of those rare multiple-year contracts), and I’d heard WVU was ready to revisit that in the offseason. But getting passed over for OC again has to matter. I think he’ll make at least comparable money, but if Florida’s offense sputters and the head coach has to make a change to something more spread-out, Seider’s right there. 

Wayne said:

This hurts but is probably something that we’ll see more often now. Salaries are going up at the big schools – Michigan now has 4 assistants making 1 Million+/yr. Good coaches will be harder to keep at all but but the big budget schools. The other Power 5 schools – like WVU – will just have to identify more good young assistants.

Agreed, and I think that’s one reason Shane Lyons has the stance he does on contracts. There comes a point where what WVU does for assistants just does not matter. WVU took care of Seider with raises and guarantees, and he still (amicably) left. Someone can always come in and write a check. If you’re the head coach at WVU or a school in a similar spot, you can’t miss many times, if at all, on the young assistants.

Karl said:

Surprised but not shocked to hear the news. We got four really good years from Coach Seider. Assistants move around all the time. He wasn’t going to leapfrog Jake Spavital or even Joe Wickline as offensive coordinator. We did the next best thing, which was continually throw him huge raises. A guy with his reputation is going to have options. Just like in our own careers, sometimes you hit a glass ceiling at a job you like working and need to leave for your own growth. I suspect this was that, with the opportunity sweetened by the chance to go home.

Football-wise, we’ll probably be throwing it more with Spavital back and Grier anyway. His value may never be as high as it was this year.

I really wanted to close with this, because it feels right. Nevertheless …

Loopy Hoopy said:

Now that Dana isn’t OC, he can coach the RBs.

Enjoy the weekend!