West Virginia's football coaches are reeling in more highly sought recruits than any WVU staff in recent memory. In just two years under head coach Bill Stewart, the Mountaineers have made their presence known to prized prospects from Florida to Hawaii -- and countless locales in between. Last year alone, the Mountaineers landed four players who were rated among the nation's top eight players at their respective positions by at least one major scouting service: quarterback Geno Smith (Fla.), running back Tavon Austin (Md.), wide receiver Logan Heastie (Va.) and fullback Chris Snook (Ohio).

Mountaineers recruiting coordinator and associate head coach John “Doc” Holliday, a driving force behind WVU football's recruiting renaissance, sat down with EerSports on Tuesday night and explained the keys to success on the brutally competitive recruiting trail. Holliday, winner of a national championship while serving as an assistant under Florida Gators’ coach Urban Meyer, has more than 30 years of coaching and recruiting experience. He gave us an in-depth look at recruiting in this exclusive interview with EerSports.com's Jeremy Curtis.

JC:  In my estimation, this staff is reeling in talent that hasn’t been seen here -- on paper, at least. What's the key to your success?

DH: It’s all about relationships and trust. We’ve had great success, for example, with kids from the state of Florida. In 1988, we had about 14 starters from South Florida that played for the national championship that year. A lot of people can go into different areas and say: ‘Look, this is what’s going to happen. We’re going to do this, this and this.’ Well, we have track records with kids from that area that are going to be very successful on the field. They’ve also graduated and now their back in communities working. They are very successful people. I think trust is an important issue.

This program has a great reputation around the country right now. The Major Harris types, the two undefeated seasons in 1988 and 1993, all the kids we’ve had in the NFL, etc., the Pat White era -- people respect this program and kids know about us.

JC: It’s obviously a drastic change when one coaching regime steps out and another comes in an looks to put its stamp on a program and get its type of players enrolled. How long does it takes to transition a roster on offense and defense?

DH: Number one, I think it varies from program to program, based on the number of players they actually have. They key to winning football games, it doesn’t matter where you are, are the players. This is a players-run game. If you’ve got some good players, then you have a chance.

I think the worst mistake where a lot of coaches go in is they totally ventilate a lot of kids in a program for different reasons. There’s a lot of good coaches out there. For example -- Maryland -- when Ralph Friedgen went in there, there were some good players there and he won 10 games for the next three or four years. We kind of did the same thing with Florida. A lot of programs you go into have enough players that you can still win with. You need to add to that.

JC: Looking at what Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt has done on the recruiting trail and looking at their 7-1 record and No. 14 national ranking, are they a good example of staying the course and staying patient?

DH: I think the key to recruiting is relationships and establishing different guys that are established in their areas. Unless you’ve been in a place for a long time, that doesn’t happen over night. We’ve got Steve Dunlap in Ohio. We haven’t been there much. Now he’s going into his third year, so he’s established in Ohio a little bit. You have Jeff Mullen in there who has had some experience in Ohio. We’ve got everybody that’s been in those areas now. They know where the juniors are and where the seniors are for this year. They know where the juniors and sophomores are for the years to come.

(Pictured at right: Holliday and Pahokee, Fla, wide receiver Chris Dunkley -- the nation's No. 2 wide receiver prospect according to ESPN.com.

It takes a couple of years for your staffs to get in the areas and know the people and know the contacts and all that to get truly up and running. A lot of it depends on the guys you hire. A lot of guys that we have on our staff have had success in certain areas that they are recruiting right now.

JC: Bill Stewart is 16-6 since taking over at WVU. Looking at a coach like Georgia Tech’s Paul Johnson, who is 17-5 since taking over last year, considering all the changes a program undergoes with a coaching change, it still can be done. You guys are adapting and there are positive strides being made. What have you seen in those terms?

DH: I think one thing Paul Johnson’s done a great job of  with his program that’s kind of gone pretty quick is they’ve done a great job of adapting the kids that they have to their system. They’ve really developed those kids. Georgia Tech, for example, went from a totally different offensive philosophy, took the kids they had in the program and really developed them and won immediately because of it.

Evidently, there were some players in that program when he took it over. He just did a great job of evaluating and developing and getting those kids to play hard. I think the teams that have early success, they do a good job of doing that.

JC: But I would assume that would be really hard. You see Rich Rodriguez (pictured at left) at Michigan with a 3-9 record last year, and 5-4 this year. Is there any luck involved with winning early and with players who are there?

DH: I don’t know if it’s luck or not. A lot of it depends on the guys taking it over. I don’t know what the situation is there, player wise. Everybody, I would think ,would like to have more players.

But I think the thing you’ve got to try to do when you’re taking over a good program is really get the kids that you have in that program to buy into what you’re doing and do what they can do and take advantage of your talents.

JC: In the past, it was known that the receivers who were brought into WVU were intended to be run blockers. This is a completely different scheme. Do you feel the potential of the WVU receiving corps is is still on the horizon in terms of getting guys into place who better fit this offense?

DH: What you're talking about is totally correct. These guys probably blocked more than they ran routes prior to us getting here. Lonnie Galloway has done a nice job taking Alric Arnett and coaching him up to be a wide out. Wes Lyons has made improvements. Bradley Starks was a quarterback when we got here, and now he’s playing wide out and you’ve got Jock Sanders. There was some talent here. I think Lonnie’s done a great job of developing those kids. I think you could see it as the year progressed, a year ago. Early in the year, we weren’t near as good throwing the ball, as much as we were all the way up to the bowl game -- that included Pat White. Jeff Mullen did a great job developing Pat.

Are we a little different offensively? Yeah, we are. We are trying to throw the ball around a little bit, as well as run it. It’s just developing the kids you have here and trying to do a great job with it.

JC: Personnel-wise, do you think the WVU offense and defense of the future will look similar to the current team?

DH: We’re definitely trying to recruit kids that fit our needs in this offense. Our goal of course every year is to get better players at every position. We’re trying every year as a staff to go out and out recruit what you already have. Now that doesn’t always happen, but that’s your goal.

We’ve done that in some of the positions over last year. If you look back at what’s really happened, we had two weeks to recruit that first class. That first class was kind of thrown together. But that being said, there’s a Josh Jenkins (pictured at right) in that class. There’s a Robert Sands. There’s some kids that play pretty good football.

Last year’s class was really the first year that we had a total class. A lot of that was offensive linemen. That gets hard for those guys to play early. Those skill kids, corners, wide outs, etc., have a better chance of playing early than the big kids do.

JC: This staff is getting the attention of some of the highest caliber recruits. In years past, that sort of player may not even look WVU’s way. Does this staff feel there's no recruit that can’t be gotten?

DH: We’re going to recruit everybody that’s out there. All they can do is tell you no. I think the important thing as a staff is, you go after the best possible players that you feel you have a chance to win a national title with -- then you go after them.

We deal in numbers. Hopefully if you go out and recruit and do a great job, then you’ll get four, five or six of those guys that help us have a good chance to win.

Geno Smith was one of those guys a year ago. You go after them and you get them. You’re going to lose a few every year. It’s just the way it works.

JC: Is the current offensive and defensive philosophy part of the recruiting pitch? Some players we talk to mention getting to the NFL and for a high school player, those are obviously lofty aspirations…

DH: There’s nothing wrong with that. I want guys that have that dream. I hope I don’t recruit a guy out there that doesn’t dream of playing in the NFL. They got to get their priorities straight and make sure they walk out with a degree in one hand and an NFL contract in the other, three or four years down the road. That’s important.

You want guys that dream big and have confidence. I want guys that have that dream because they are going to work awfully hard to get to it.

JC: Continuing on the schemes, are the spread-the-wealth approach on offense and the 3-3-5 defensive alignment beneficial in recruiting?

DH: Sure it is, if you’re recruiting safeties. You need to try to sell your product. It’s like anything else. I think the one thing that our offense has done since we’ve been here is not only is Noel one of the top five rushers in the country probably, but we’ve also thrown the ball pretty well, too. At one time, we had one of the top three rushers in the country, and Jock was in the top five in receptions.

Whether you’re recruiting running backs or wide outs, you’ve got something to sell out there. That’s important, I think.

JC: When you left Florida, did you foresee having this sort of success on the recruiting trail at WVU? You have a national championship ring that you show recruits, I assume…

DH: I didn’t come back here not to win another one. When we’re out there recruiting, those are the kinds of kids we’re looking for.

There’s not a greater feeling in the world than to have a national championship and to be in that stage and play in that game.

I sure want to recruit guys and be around guys that eventually, that’s where they want to be because there is not a greater feeling in the world.

JC: Can you put enough emphasis on recruiting? Is it the most important aspect of the job?

DH: If you don’t have players, you have no chance. Xs and Os in my mind are overrated. It’s a player-driven game.

One thing I learned from Urban Meyer (pictured left), that’s probably the No. 1 thing -- that’s where it all starts. If you got great players and great guys at every position, you have a chance to win it all.

Recruiting is where it all starts.

JC: Continuing on Florida, which players were you involved in recruiting for the Gators?

DH: It wasn’t any different than it is here. We recruited areas. We had the South Florida end, just like I have now. We cross-recruited a little bit like we’re doing here. We’re doing things very similar here with what we did at Florida.

JC:  At WVU, your role of recruiting coordinator is a little different. Is it more difficult to do your job in recruiting players when you're also in charge with overseeing the entire operation?

JC: It wasn’t hard. It’s no different than your players. You try to find the strengths of all the coaches, as far as where their strengths are in what areas. You try to get them in that particular area.

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