Spring football opened today at West Virginia, and the Mountaineers have a lot of work to do.

The spring season will be spread over six weeks, culminating with the:

• Blue-Gold spring game: April 20 at 2 p.m.

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Key storylines:

1. Replacing star power, and rebuilding the offense

Gone is Geno Smith, Tavon Austin and Stedman Bailey – the team’s most prolific quarterback in history and a pair of all-American level receivers.

Finding Smith’s replacement takes the lead as the most compelling storyline of the spring. Will it be backup Paul Millard, the only candidate with live game experience? Or will Ford Childress, the redshirt freshman once considered a pretty hot prospect take the lead by the end of spring ball? Throw in true freshman Chavas Rawlins who is considered a dual threat QB and things get interesting. Transfer Logan Moore adds some depth to help the competition.

At WR it's wide open. The team’s most productive returning receiver is actually a running back (Andrew Buie) so look for lots of new names and faces to be mentioned this spring.

And it all starts up front where the interior portion of the offensive line will need to be replaced. Pat Eger is expected to convert to center but won’t be at full go through spring after ankle surgery in the offseason.

2. A new staff coming together

It’s been played down in Morgantown, but Dana Holgorsen has one assistant left from his first season here, and that’s offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson. He’s had to replace an outgoing quarterbacks coach, offensive line coach and running backs coach fairly late in the offseason after he let two coaches go.

The hires he brought in seem to be strong replacements on paper, but of course only time will tell how this group gets together.

3. Defensive growth

Keith Patterson talked a lot this week about building a new culture on the team, and his first spring as defensive coordinator will be an important time for this group.

He returns most of the defensive line and some young breakout talent last year in LB Isaiah Bruce and S Karl Joseph. But this group had problems everywhere in the 2012 season, and Patterson has his work cut out for him.

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The good news

1. The running game shouldn’t miss too much of a beat this year, so that will give the offense some added ways to move the ball with the return of RBs Andrew Buie and Dustin Garrison.

Junior college transfer Dreamius Smith will debut with the team this spring and he has some size that Buie and Garrison don’t at 215 pounds.

2. Holgorsen has proven ability at building an offense even in seasons when there was no clear-cut quarterback to start spring. Consider 2008 at Houston, when Case Keenum eventually emerged.

JaJuan Seider will be the next running backs coach at West Virginia.

Coach Dana Holgorsen confirmed the hire on his twitter page tonight.

The tweet from @Holgorsendana read: Welcome Home WVU grad JaJaun Seider as WVU RB Coach. The T.E.A.M. is finally ready for Sunday's Spring FB #1.

The University later announced the hire in a press release, and included statement's from both Holgorsen and Seider.

Holgorsen: "It’s great to welcome JaJuan back to Mountaineer football. He is an energetic coach and recruiter, who knows our program and state very well. His coaching versatility and background will be an asset to our program, and I know he will bring a passion to succeed at his alma mater.”     

Seider: “I am very thankful to Coach Holgorsen for having the vision, trust and confidence to take a chance on a young coach like me. My family and I are excited to be coming back to Morgantown."

Marshall running backs coach JaJuan Seider is the leading candidate to replace running backs coach Robert Gillespie, who left for the same job at Tennessee, a Post-Gazette source has confirmed.

It's unclear if an offer has been made.

The Herald-Dispatch in Huntington, W.Va. has reported that Seider has been offered the job and accepted it already, but that has not been independently confirmed.

Seider joined the Marshall staff in January of 2010 as running backs coach and recruiting coordinator.

He was a graduate assistant at West Virginia prior to that.

From his current Marshall bio: "JaJuan is a great young coach who will be an asset to our staff," Coach Doc Holliday said. "I recruited JaJuan back in 1995 and I have known him and his family for a long time. He has great ties to South Florida and he is going to be a tremendous recruiter."

Dana Holgorsen did not reveal much about the coaching search on Tuesday at his pre-spring football luncheon, saying only: "I would imagine we will probably find a coach" though multiple sources indicated a name was likely to surface by the weekend.

Spring drills begin on Sunday.

Another assistant coach is leaving Dana Holgorsen’s staff at West Virginia.

Tennessee Coach Butch Jones tweeted tonight just after 8 p.m. that West Virginia running backs coach Robert Gillespie will be accepting the same position on his staff for the Vols.

The tweet read: “I want to welcome Robert Gillespie & his family to the Tennessee Football Family! Coach Gillespie will be joining our staff as the RB coach!”

Gillespie has spent the last two years on Holgorsen’s staff and is considered both a strong recruiter and position coach.

He is the third assistant to leave the program this offseason, following quarterbacks coach Jake Spavital who left for Texas A&M, and offensive line coach Bill Bedenbaugh who joined the staff at Oklahoma.

In fact, his departure leaves offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson as the last remaining coach from Holgorsen's original staff in 2011.