Holgorsen has established a culture with WVU football program

SUBSCRIBE today to stay up on the latest in Mountaineer sports and recruiting.

West Virginia as a state has always been a melting pot of sorts and the football program is no different.

In a state with a limited population as well as a small number of prospects that can play at the highest level, the Mountaineers have become known for casting a wide net to find talent to fit the program and make it competitive at the highest level. That has been the blueprint for decades.

Now heading into his eighth season atop the Mountaineers football program, head coach Dana Holgorsen has followed that path. And in doing so, he has put his mark on the program as well.

But it didn’t happen overnight.

It takes time, it takes effort in order to put your stamp on it and establish what college coaches long to have in place for their collection of players. That is a culture and set of standards for players to follow.

“Our culture is pretty established after eight years so it just exists,” Holgorsen said.

A culture that has been established despite the roster being made up of players from over 20 states as well as even a different country in Sweden. The divide spans from neighboring states such as Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio and Virginia to even as far as California.

“We have kids from every different kind of background that you could possibly imagine,” Holgorsen said.

It isn’t always a perfect formula and sometimes you will deal with the ups and downs of attrition such as earlier this off-season when a total of 15 players left the program but perhaps the most important aspect is how it is fostered over time.

While the message comes from the top down and starts with the beginning stages of the recruiting process such as identifying players that fit the scheme and getting to know them on an individual basis, the true power of the culture of a program comes next.

That power is the rest of the makeup of the roster and how they pass the message on to newcomers. It starts after checking off the initial boxes if a player is a fit for the program and passes the responsibility of seeing if they can truly assimilate to the culture through a period of trial and error of sorts.

That period is simply how those players interact with the rest of their teammates in the locker room. After identifying that a player is the type that you want to represent your program, you eventually stick them in the locker room with their teammates and let that process take over.

“If you’ve got a culture that exists that’s positive then those guys will conform or they’ll kick them out of the locker room,” Holgorsen said. “And that’s kind of the best way to approach it.”

And it’s that aspect that helps West Virginia span the country to find pieces to the puzzle while maintaining the culture that the coaches want to see.

Enter the contest by clicking on the following link and choosing to subscribe to the channel: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=VideoGlide