Florida assistant head coach and safeties coach Doc Holliday, a longtime assistant who has spent 17 of his 29 coaching years at his alma-mater West Virginia, was among the first candidates to interview for the Mountaineers' football head-coaching vacancy created by Rich Rodriguez's exit to Michigan.

Holliday, a Hurricane, W.Va., native and three-year letterman at linebacker for the Mountaineers (1976-78), interviewed with West Virginia administrators on Monday, sources said.

Holliday has taken part in 18 bowl games as a player and coach, having won a national championship last January with the Florida Gators.

At today's Gators practice in Gainesville, Fla., where reporters failed to spot Holliday, Coach Urban Meyer was asked if Holliday was contacted by West Virginia.

"That's not my business," Meyer told The Gainesville Sun. He added of Holliday's strength, "I think he's an excellent recruiter. That's well known. To be an excellent recruiter, you have to have great people skills, which he has."

One source added that former West Virginia assistant head coach and offensive line coach Rick Trickett interviewed today in Morgantown, W.Va.