West Virginia Football: 5 reasons Will Grier will win the Heisman

2. Dana Holgorsen’s Offensive Philosophy

It’s no secret that the Big 12 is a spread ’em out, throw it 60 times a game conference. West Virginia is just as guilty as 80 percent of the conference when it comes to that philosophy, the only difference is, they do it just a little bit better than most. It seemed natural that West Virginia began running the popular Air Raid offense as soon as they joined the Big 12 conference in the fall of 2012.

Dana Holgorsen has learned from the founding fathers of the Air Raid offense. Hal Mumme, known as the creator of the Air Raid offense, was Holgorsen’s college head coach at Iowa Weslyan University in Mount Pleasant, Iowa. His offensive coordinator was the most successful Mumme disciple: former Texas Tech head coach and current Washington State coach Mike Leach. Holgorsen would spend years as an assistant under Kevin Sumlin and Mike Gundy as well.

It was a struggle for a few years when the Mountaineers initially joined the Big 12, however, Holgorsen has a team in the best position to win a Big 12 Championship since West Virginia came to the conference. Those hopes begin and end with his star quarterback, who will no doubt be a big extension of his head coach.