Assistant head coach Calvin Magee -- an award-winning offensive coordinator whose role in play-calling helped to turn West Virginia into a top statistical unit in Division I-A, not to mention a 48-28 winner in a school bowl-record, 525-yard performance Wednesday in the Fiesta Bowl -- highlighted a list of offensive coaches who formally tendered their resignations yesterday to join ex-Mountaineers coach Rich Rodriguez at Michigan.

Most of the strength and conditioning staff headed by Mike Barwis and safety coach Bruce Tall resigned to work for the Wolverines, as well.

Leaving with Magee -- the 2007 Assistant of the Year, awarded by the American Football Coaches Association -- were quarterbacks coach Rod Smith, a native of Franklin, W.Va., and offensive line coach Greg Frey, both of whom lasted barely one year with the Mountaineers after coming from South Florida.

That left receivers coach Tony Dews, who joined the staff in March from UNLV, as the only remaining incumbent offensive assistant under new head coach Bill Stewart, who worked with tight ends and fullbacks among his other duties.

Barwis long was a favorite of the Mountaineers' players, and his work was lauded for helping to physically build them into a national contender. He will be joined in Michigan by much of his West Virginia staff: director of skill development Chris Allen plus assistant strength coaches Parker Whitman and Kenato Tamura.

Aside from Tall, the defensive staff is intact ... for the time being. Defensive coordinator Jeff Casteel has a standing offer to go to Michigan, too, but he remains undecided. Stewart sat down with many, if not all, of these assistants in a continuing effort to keep them on the West Virginia staff, but some had decided to depart long before he became head coach.

Defensive line coach Bill Kirelawich, for 22 years a member of the Mountaineers' coaching staff, apparently turned down an offer to follow Rodriguez and will stay with West Virginia.