Spavital Addition Should Mean Big Things for Offense

Late Friday night, it was announced that Jake Spavital would return to the Mountaineers. Jake was brought on as the offensive coordinator for the Mountaineers, replacing Joe Wickline’s role there. Wickline would move to coach the offensive line to help replace former co-offensive line coach Ron Crook, who’s contract was not renewed.

Jake, Joe and head coach Dana Holgorsen have a history together, having worked at Oklahoma State. During their one year stint at OSU, the three set numerous school records including: total yards, total points and passing yards.

Spavital and Holgorsen have been together for most of the duo’s coaching career. In 2009, Jake joined the Houston Cougars staff as a graduate assistant. There he joined offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen to give Houston the number one offense in the country. Behind quarterback Case Keenum, the Houston offense threw for nearly 500 yards per game. Keenum totaled 5,829 total yards, 1,500 more yards than his closest competitor.

Dana and Jake moved from Houston to Oklahoma State in 2010 and again set records. Behind quarterback Brandon Weeden, the Cowboys would win 11 games for the first time in school history while setting records for points, yards and passing yards. Brandon Weeden was fifth in the country with 342 pass completions and finished third in the country with 4,277 passing yards. The Cowboys finished first in total offense and third in scoring offense in the country.

In 2011, Dana and Jake took their show to Morgantown, WV. Despite a tumultuous start to his head coaching career, Dana and Jake were able to smoothly guide the Mountaineers to a 10-win season and a Orange Bowl drubbing of the Clemson Tigers. Geno Smith would finish sixth in the country in pass completions thanks to the Air Raid offense of Holgorsen and Spavital. Geno threw for 4,385 yards, ranking him fourth in the country. Geno was twelfth in the country in passing touchdowns and the West Virginia offense finished 15th in the country.

The following year as West Virginia transitioned to the Big 12, the offense carried the team to a national ranking of #5 after back to back wins over Baylor and Texas. Thanks to senior quarterback Geno Smith and receivers Tavon Austin and Stedman Bailey, the Mountaineers finished 10th in the country in total offense at 500 yards per game. Geno would finish third in the country with 4,205 yards and garnered early Heisman talk before a pourous defense let him down.

After the 2012 season, Jake left the Mountaineers to become the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Texas A&M. In 2013, Johnny Manziel finished second in the country in total yards under the tutelage of Spavital. Manziel was eighth in the country in passing yards. After three years at Texas A&M, Jake moved on to become the offensive coordinator at Cal. Despite losing Jared Goff, who would become the first overall selection in 2016 NFL Draft, Spavital guided the Bears to a Top 10 offense with over 513 yards per game.

Don’t forget, now we should get more FauxHolgorsen tweets and who can forget the great Twitter war of 2014.