MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Joe DeForest, the scapegoat coordinator of West Virginia’s porous 2012 defense before spending the past three seasons coaching safeties and special-teams, won’t have his contract renewed.
Damon Cogdell’s two-year stint as co-defensive line coach also is finished, sources confirmed. Both contracts expire Jan. 30.
Defensive coordinator Tony Gibson has targeted two candidates to replace DeForest as safeties coach—one of them a Power 5 assistant and the other an up-and-coming staffer at an FCS program.
Cogdell’s spot will be filled on the offensive side, sources said, rectifying an imbalance that occurred when head coach Dana Holgorsen chose not to hire an offensive coordinator in 2015.