Skydiving, fishing highlight Dana Holgorsen's first week as West Virginia ...

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — One of Dana Holgorsen’s first acts after taking over as West Virginia’s head football coach was to get away from his official duties.

Holgorsen spent time fishing in southern West Virginia this week with a group that included several boosters and basketball coach Bob Huggins. Holgorsen also went skydiving, taking a tandem jump over the New River Gorge with a U.S. Army parachute team

“It was very calm,” Holgorsen said at a news conference Friday. “There were no houses. There was no traffic. There was no motor boats, so there was some peaceful time that I could sit back and reflect on what’s going on.”

Holgorsen was hired away from Oklahoma State in December as offensive coordinator and head coach-in-waiting, then took over when Bill Stewart resigned June 10 following a meeting with athletic director Oliver Luck. It capped a tumultuous two weeks in which both Holgorsen and Stewart made headlines for the wrong reasons.

An intoxicated Holgorsen was escorted out of a casino last month, although no charges were filed. More recently, a reporter said Stewart had approached him shortly after Holgorsen’s hiring to “dig up” dirt on his eventual successor.

Holgorsen held his first team meeting on Tuesday, then met with his coaches and support staff Friday to discuss the program’s future.

“Six months ago when I sat here, I knew what was ahead of me and I felt very good about it due to the fact that I had a tremendous trust” in Luck and university President James Clements, Holgorsen said. “I knew it was going to happen eventually. We just expedited the process.”

Holgorsen’s offenses at Oklahoma State and Houston have been prolific, and he made a point to recognize the head coaches he’s worked under, specifically Houston’s Kevin Sumlin and former Texas Tech coach Mike Leach. Holgorsen said he picked up aspects of the profession from those coaches.

“It’s all about what’s ahead,” Holgorsen said. “You don’t look back. You use that as a resource, but you don’t use it to sit back and say that you’ve made it. It’s all about what you can do going forward.”

Holgorsen doesn’t plan to make scheme changes on the offense, defense or special teams this season in order to make the transition more seamless. He will continue as offensive coordinator and call plays in 2011.

Carrier that buried bin Laden may host hoops games | diego, sports ...

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Organizers say it's all but certain that the Michigan State-North Carolina basketball game on Veterans Day will be played aboard the USS Carl Vinson, the aircraft carrier that carried Osama bin Laden's body to a burial at sea.

The Carl Vinson returned from its deployment Wednesday to Coronado, across the bay from downtown San Diego.

Mike Whalen of the Morale Entertainment Foundation told The Associated Press that 40 to 50 people from his group, ESPN, the Navy and vendors will be at the ship on Monday and Tuesday for a site survey. A briefing for civic leaders and the media is planned for Monday evening at the San Diego Hall of Champions.

"Now that the Carl Vinson is back safe and sound and America is now well-aware of the important mission that was tasked to the Carl Vinson, we find it to be a source of pride that this ship will make history twice in 2011," Whalen said.

The Spartans-Tar Heels matchup on Nov. 11 will be the first NCAA hoops game played on a flat top.

Until now, the best organizers could say was that the game would be played on either the Carl Vinson or the Ronald Reagan. After meeting with Navy officials in Washington, D.C., this week, Whalen said there's a 99 percent chance the game will be on the Carl Vinson.

"It's strictly by schedule," Whalen said. "I know people don't think that. It's true. You can't make this stuff up. It's just the way it worked out."

The Carl Vinson was in the North Arabian Sea on May 2 when it received a Navy SEAL team carrying the body of bin Laden, the al-Qaida leader who was killed in a raid on his compound in Pakistan. The body was placed in a weighted bag, an officer made religious remarks and it was dropped into the sea.

A court and stadium seating for about 7,000 fans will be set up on the flight deck. In case of rain, the game will be moved below to the hangar deck, with bleacher seating for the fans.

Whalen said his group did a site survey on the Ronald Reagan in December.

"The other part of this is we have to be aware that if something comes up and they have to move a carrier around, this whole project is predicated on the fact we're not going to create any impediment for a U.S. Navy warship to be deployed in a timely manner," Whalen said.

The court and seating can be removed in 24 to 36 hours, if necessary.

"It'll be on the pier but they'll have their ship back," Whalen said.

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