The expected departure of Dana Holgorsen from West Virginia to Houston has taken the first formal step. A source told Yahoo Sports on Monday that Houston officials have reached out to West Virginia to formally request permission to interview Holgorsen for the open coaching job at UH.

Houston is seeking a replacement for Major Applewhite, whom the school fired on Sunday after he’d gone 15-10 over his full two seasons as head coach. Even before Applewhite had been fired, there’d been a strong buzz in the industry that Houston would target Holgorsen. UH officials made a push to hire Holgorsen two years ago before they ended up hiring Applewhite.

Holgorsen has gone 61-41 over eight seasons at West Virginia, a solid but unspectacular tenure that was expected to dip with the departure of star quarterback Will Grier. Holgorsen has strong ties to the city of Houston and served as UH’s offensive coordinator in 2008 and 2009, leaving a strong impression on the brass there.

The delay in Holgorsen’s hiring has come because of his buyout at West Virginia. He needs to wait until Jan. 1 for the buyout to dip from $2.5 million to $1 million. In the immediate aftermath of reports linking Holgorsen to the job, he hadn’t been in touch with West Virginia officials, seemingly leaving his departure as an inevitability.

The first formal steps have been taken. The interesting aspect of this potential change comes with salary. Holgorsen made nearly $3.8 million last season, which is more than a million dollars higher than the largest salary in the American Athletic Conference. Houston paid Applewhite $1.75 million last season.

More from Yahoo Sports:
• NFL star’s record broken an hour after he sets it
• Steelers, fans get first-hand look at heartbreaking play
• Redskins player takes pettiness to an all-new level
• Black Monday: Tracking NFL’s head coaches fired