Houston Cougars: Three things Dana Holgorsen brings to the table

The Houston Cougars have made the signing of Dana Holgorsen official as the new head coach of the football team. Here are 3 things he brings to the table.

The Houston Cougars moved quickly after their stunning 70-14 Armed Forced Bowl loss to Army to replace Major Applewhite, the beleaguered head coach that knew he was a dead man walking as the season came to a close.

The team decided to nab West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen to try to lead this team back to respectability.  Last season was truly one of the most embarrassing seasons I’ve ever witnessed as a Houston Cougars fan and a change certainly had to be made.

Whether or not the team was going to make a change remained to be seen as Major Applewhite’s contract had a clause embedded for him to still get paid if he were fired.  According to Joseph Duarte, Applewhite will be owed $650K in base salary per season remaining on his contract.

Since he had three years left, the Houston Cougars still owe Applewhite $1.95 million.  Is this money the school was willing to eat in order to get their man in Holgorsen?  Apparently it was minute enough for them to take hit as Applewhite is now a distant, soon-to-be-forgotten memory as he rides off to the sunset with some extra cash in his pocket.

However, it’s unclear if Applewhite will be paid the lump sum or if they will stretch that amount out over the remaining three years of his deal, which certainly would be more cost-effective to the bottom line.

But any way, a new era of Houston Cougars football is upon us and it will make me damn proud when I walk through the turnstiles of TDECU Stadium once again, knowing that the Board of Regents has fan’s back like mine, making every effort to put a winning product on the field.

Holgorsen has been around this block before, as the offensive coordinator during the seasons Kevin Sumlin was at the helm back in 2008-09.  Although a lot has changed in the last decade while he has been gone — UH’s status as a research hub, having recently received Tier 1 status as well as world-class sports facilities — Holgorsen is going to have a lot of toys to play with.

But what does he exactly bring to the table?  Let’s look at three things that will make the Holgorsen hire special.

Let’s move.