New West Virginia coach Bill Stewart opened his conference call about incoming Mountaineers' assistants yesterday with something of a tease: "We're bringing home a native ..."

Ladies and gentleman, let him introduce to you:

Steve Dunlap.

OK, so Doc Holliday -- like Dunlap a native of Hurricane, W.Va., former Mountaineers defensive player and longtime Don Nehlen assistant -- wasn't officially announced yesterday among the new Stewart hires, which included Dunlap as assistant head coach/safeties, David Lockwood as cornerbacks coach and Chris Beatty as running backs/slot receivers coach.

The Holliday hiring, however, appeared to be merely a formality after the proper paperwork and background check were completed.

He is expected to be announced this morning, when Stewart has another conference call. This means that the new associate head coach, fullbacks and tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator will be the same man West Virginia administrators had settled upon Dec. 20 to replace Rich Rodriguez.

Holliday apparently was placed on the Mountaineers' head coaching backburner when Gov. Joe Manchin intervened and the search process continued. Stewart was named head coach in the hours after West Virginia's 48-28 upset of Oklahoma in the Jan. 2 Fiesta Bowl.

Holliday's wife, Diana, confirmed to The Miami Herald that he has left Florida, where he was associate head coach and safeties coach, for his alma mater and home state. It probably doesn't hurt that West Virginia administrators have allowed Stewart to open the purse strings, something Rodriguez found to be tight by comparison: Sources said Holliday is expected to make about $400,000 guaranteed on a five-year Mountaineers contract. He earned $190,000 at Florida and another $177,000 from Gators camps. His salary would be more than double the amount ever received by a West Virginia assistant.

Holliday, a nationally recognized recruiter with a strong presence in South Florida, was on West Virginia's campus yesterday and in the Puskar Center football offices, BlueGoldNews.com reported.

"Regarding other people, we're still in conversation with many great coaches throughout America," Stewart said yesterday at the end of an afternoon conference call in which he took no questions. "There are all these names leaking out. There have been so many names coming out I would like to rein everything in. The cart's getting way ahead of the horse. Way ahead of the horse. We're taking our time. I'd rather go wiser rather than sooner."

Another coach reportedly close to being hired was former Southern Conference rival and Pitt assistant from 2006, Charlie Taafe, who was head coach at The Citadel when Stewart was at Virginia Military Institute.

Talks with Taafe were halted when reports of his impending hire reached the Hamilton Tiger Cats of the Canadian Football League, his current employer. He is under contract for two more season and would have to be released by the team.

Stewart announced the hiring of three assistants yesterday:

• Dunlap was defensive coordinator last year at Marshall after a long career that included stints at Syracuse, Navy and North Carolina State. He spent 17 years under Nehlen at West Virginia. "His knowledge is so vast, it confuses me," Stewart said of Dunlap, who joins defensive coordinator Jeff Casteel and defensive line coach Bill Kirelawich on the staff.

• Lockwood, a Media, Pa., native and ex-Mountaineers defensive back, was a four-year letterman. He coached defensive backs last year at Kentucky after previously working at Delaware and James Madison in Division I-AA and Memphis, Notre Dame, West Virginia (2000) and Minnesota, where he was defensive coordinator and recruiting coordinator.

• Beatty, who went 78-18 as a Virginia high school head coach, is a former Northern Illinois and Hampton assistant. Stewart said Beatty's precise role is subject to change: "Right now, [running backs and slot receivers], that's my thinking. That's where we are at this point. There's no hour-glass here pushing us. We want the right fit. The right match."