According to MetroNews, West Virginia administrators are wrapping up a 48-hour period in which they staged interviews with Cincinnati’s Luke Fickell, Troy’s Neal Brown and current Mountaineers defensive coordinator Tony Gibson. The aim is to name a replacement for football coach Dana Holgorsen by the weekend.

 

“We’re going to be thorough, but at the same time, we’re going to be swift,” athletics director Shane Lyons said Thursday.

 

Lyons had known for several days that Holgorsen was taking the job at Houston, but Holgorsen’s reps did not give West Virginia official notice until after 2 p.m. on Wednesday. In the meantime, Lyons began vetting candidates.

 

“We were hoping everything would happen quicker on the other end, but it wasn’t and I couldn’t slow down,” Lyons said.

 

The college football recruiting “dead period” ends Jan. 10, at which point West Virginia would like to have its new coach working to shore up a recruiting class that’s two-thirds complete

 

Lyons is leading the search with heavy input from WVU president Gordon Gee, who previously was involved with high-profile coaching transitions at Ohio State.

 

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Editor's Note: Photo by Ben Queen of www.benqueenphotography.com.