WVU Release WVU Football: Coach Dana Holgorsen Signing Day Media Conference

Vernon

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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (February 1, 2017) – West Virginia University football head coach Dana Holgorsen addressed members of the media on Wednesday at the Milan Puskar Center Team Room.

Opening Statement

Special thanks to (Director of Player Personnel) “Cleveland” (Ryan) Dorchester in the back. This is Ryan’s day. He embraces it, owns it. He did a great job of putting this class together. Take a few days off if you want.


Excited about these classes. It just feels so much different than it has in the past. Somehow we put together our roster now. If you look back when I first got here in 2011 and how some of these classes earlier in my tenure were put together as opposed to how we’re doing things now, it’s completely different. It starts with a couple of four-year transfers back in September, then you get 10 guys at mid-term, you get 13 guys today and we’re not done, and we’ll continue to add to this class. We’ll get there between now and August 1. Honestly, that’s what Ryan (Dorchester) does a great job of, as Director of Player Personnel of building this roster year in and year out. The goal is to get that roster as good as we can get it come August 1st, and I think we’re well on our way to being able to do that.


It’s unique. Overall 23 guys or 21 guys, 23 guys however you slice it with adding some transfers and stuff earlier in the year it counts against this class, so you kind of have to add them a little bit, but you’re talking about 13 to 14 different states with all of these guys, so it’s unique when it comes to that. I do want to mention and again this is kind of a pat on the back to Ryan (Dorchester) but we have like 15 pledges for walk-ons who have committed to coming into the program this summer as well, 16 actually and 12 of them are from the state of West Virginia, which makes 15 guys from the state of West Virginia, who have either signed or currently enrolled or will be joining us this summer. We made an initiative to focus on getting some of the players here from the state of West Virginia. Because of my son. I have been able to watch a lot more football in the state, and I think it’s improving and I think the talent is improving and I think the overall football aspect of it is improving, so we’re making a huge effort on trying to get some of these kids to stay home and play for the Mountaineers. That’s kind of where I am. I’ll open it up to some questions. If you want to talk about anyone specifically I would be happy to do that, but the biggest thing is that it just feels different, and I think it’s going to continue to do this. There’s been a lot of talk about early signing periods, and I think this day is honestly going to kind of go away a little bit. We’re kind of turning in that direction as we speak.


On getting recruits from junior colleges

Yeah, we have seven at mid-term so anytime you can add those guys to a mid-term class, and you’re able to lift them and run them and all of that stuff, it helps get that roster to where it needs to be toward August. Like I said it’s our overall goal. Coaches, strength coaches, position coaches, coordinators, head coach, we’re all in this for the same thing to just try to build the team as good as we can, leading up to where we can practice for a long time in August and get ready to play that first game, so adding guys who physically are ahead of the curve, which is what junior colleges are about and getting them at mid-term allows you to get that team ready a little bit quicker. It’s hard to play with freshmen. We liked the product we put out there last year. The only way to get it the same way is to keep building it the same way, so I think we kind of found our niche and the formula that we use. I don’t know the specific percentage of what our team is transfer wise, but that number is slowly growing, and we have had success with it, so we’re not bringing kids in here who are high risk or who are here for a very short period of time and leave without their degrees. That’s not happening very much. I think we have to plan on getting these guys in here and making sure it’s a good fit, having a plan for them academically, getting them graduated and getting them out in a couple of years.


On recruiting walk-ons

That’s why you try to target guys who are somewhat local because you try to keep them un-recruited as much as you can. There are advantages of that from the kids’ end, whether it’s some kind of instate scholarship or school scholarships, whatever it is, you try to keep them un-recruited so the more local they are, the more they can show up and it doesn’t count as an actual recruit. There have been times where we have recruited kids to be walk-ons but you have to play it by a little bit different set of rules with those guys, so that’s why we try to keep it as local as we can.


On the needs of this year’s team

I think with this class it was d-lines and safeties. We lost all of those good senior (defensive) d-linemen, so that’s why we went out and targeted. We a got a couple of good high school guys, brought in a couple of junior college guys who I think will help us immediately as well.

Safety wise, I think our starters are going to be as good as anywhere in the country, next year at safety. With (redshirt junior safety) Dravon (Askew-Henry) coming back, (junior safety) (White) and (redshirt junior safety) Toyous (Avery) finishing the season as good as they did. I guess the just don’t’ have much behind them and that spot right there at safety you have flexibility. A couple of kids like (safety) Derrek Pitts and (safety) Kenny Robinson are both very long-athletic guys who can run, who can play corner, some of these guys can grow into the outside linebackers. We have already moved a couple of safeties from last year, already in the linebacker room, so you never know where their bodies are going to go. You try to recruit as many of those guys as you can, one because they’re flexible to move and two we need some backups at those spots.


On less Florida recruits

I mean we brought guys in. Florida guys have a lot of options, right?


On having a predictable signing day

Okay, so I know where this is headed. From a media point of view, you want as many hat shows as you can get. I think that’s where it’s headed because of the different signing days that are going to be proposed. The anxiety levels that exists with hat shows and stuff are made for TV, ESPN all that good stuff, right? I can assure you there are no coaches support in that.


I think honestly it’s going to trim that direction, because I think you’re recruiting a different kid in December than you are in January, even if it’s the same kid that kid is different in December then they are in January or February. I hope it passes. We can ask Ms. Keli (Keli Cunningham, WVU Deputy Director of Athletics) over there, she’s the administrator who’s in all of these meetings, but from a head coaching point of view, we were at the (American Football Coaches Association) AFCA Convention and it was unanimous 100 percent, every head coach in the room raised their hand and said, ‘please, please, please, let there be a December signing period’ because it saves the school money. That month long babysitting stage doesn’t exist, kids don’t get bored and want to go take some more trips just because they can. It’s going to make things a little bit more tolerable from a recruiting perspective.


On 2017 signee running back Tevin Bush

A 1,000-yard receiver, a 1,000- yard rusher, right Ryan (Dorchester)? Probably have something at running back, and receiver. He’s kind of fun to watch, about that tall (hand gestures).


On having an early signing period in June

June, No! It is funny, so we go out to Phoenix every May and it’s head football, head men’s and women’s basketball and a couple of administrators and we get together and hold meetings. The basketball guys are all looking at us like ‘You guys are a bunch of idiots if you allow summer recruiting. You all will turn into a bunch of basketball coaches where you have to work 364 days a year.’ That is the only time of the year that we can take two or three deep breaths is in July. If you move that thing up, it’s non-stop year-round recruiting from visit perspectives and all of that. That isn’t going to happen. I don’t know who supports that. To me, it’s insane. December is good. The thing that is going to be different is that we tried to discourage in-season visits as much as we can, unless a guy is a mid-term guy. We have a couple of weeks in December that are available because of the championship game now in the Big 12 we are going to be able to utilize that week as a recruiting week if we aren’t in the championship game. As opposed to the way the Big 12 has been, which has nauseated me the last two years, we have had to play our 12th game on that championship Saturday and we lost a week of recruiting, while half of the other Big 12 schools were out recruiting. To me that was totally unfair so we aren’t going to have to deal with that anymore. That is going to make that week more important and it is going to make in-season visits more important. Which, we are going to have to be strategic and make sure that we have enough man power around the building to be able to handle in-season visits. That is going to be hard for coaches to juggle that. Just because you are going to have to get those guys visits. I would support this, we talked about this in the head coaching meetings. Why does a kid really need five visits? You can narrow it down to three pretty easy. If you limit those guys to three, they can figure out where they want to go. They take three in-season visits and make their decision in December.


On bringing back David Sills V

Yeah, David went and did his own thing. I encouraged him. He goes ‘I really want to play quarterback.’ and I said well go play quarterback. ‘I want to see if I can do it’ well then go see if you can do it. If you can’t then I know you can play receiver. When was signing day, December 21? December 14. So I called him December 12 and I said ‘Yo, whats up?’ and he said ‘nothing’ and I said ‘Are you ready to come back?’ and he said ‘Yeah” and I said ‘Ok, I will send you the papers tomorrow.’ I did and he signed them, and he was here in January. That was a fun recruiting process. He has been great since he came back. He is just a solid kid and a hard worker. He is becoming (redshirt junior quarterback) Will Grier’s best friend, smart kid.


On evaluating a class too early

No, I will in three years. Let’s talk about the 2012 recruiting class that was ranked, what, 52nd, 55th. It was (noise) right? How many NFL guys 12? They reranked it and it is first in the Big 12. So who cares what it ranks on paper and all of that stuff and what you think right now and what the experts and media and recruiting sites think this is about. We will figure it out in three years. I could probably do it in a year. I could probably give you a sentence or two after spring or after camp. I hate talking about guys. These guys are good fits, we have filled our needs. We got a lot of good fits. I like getting them here and working with them and then figuring out what they can do and what they can be.


On if he has seen any of the mid-year enrollees

We have in the weight room a little bit. We watched them run yesterday for the first time. We have been gone, we haven’t been here. They have been in the weight room for I guess this will be the third countable week. We watched them run a little bit yesterday. Hakeem Bailey (CB) has some length to him, ran pretty well; Out of shape. Jalen Harvey (DL) is a big, thick nose, out of shape. Dominique Maiden (WR) is every bit of 6-5 and he can run; his muscles are not developed; he is weak. Derrek Pitts (S) is long, is not developed and is out of shape. Quondarius Qualls (LB), he might be 6-3; he is long and has some thickness to him; he looks like a pass rusher. Actually, he is in pretty decent shape. Ezekiel Rose (DL) at 6-3, 275 needs weight room but can run. He runs with the linebackers, he doesn’t run with the d-line; he runs with the linebackers, his decision. (David) Sills (WR), hardest worker we have. Kelby Wickline (OL) is a hard, hard worker. Has no choice but to meet with pops all day and all night. (Maverick) Mav Wolfley (FB) is not 6-3, that’s a typo; that’s wishful thinking; he is excited to be here and is working his tail off.


On how the team looks after signing day

We have found our niche defensively. We are going into year four now with (Associate Head Coach (Defensive Coordinator/Linebackers) (Tony) Gibby (Gibson). We have our niche there. Special teams we have a plan moving forward. I don’t know what we are going to see offensively yet. I am happy to have (Assistant Coach (Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks) Jake (Spavital) back. I trained the kid for five years and he went out and did it for four and has had some success. We are merging some ideas. We have to look at what our personnel is and make some decisions. We have a better, more established, pocket quarterback, we all know that. I was excited to see(redshirt junior quarterback) Will (Grier) in the developmental practices for the bowl. We were watching some Cal tape and the kid that they had was the Senior Bowl MVP. He is a good, pocket quarterback. We aren’t going to lose sight of what we have become from a run game perspective. That has helped the overall aspect of the whole program, defensively, offensively, mentality and toughness. We aren’t going to lose sight of that, but we have to sit back there and throw it a little bit better. So, that is going to be fun to be able to work on throughout the spring.


On Assistant Coach (Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks) Jake Spavital

I wasn’t getting him if it wasn’t ‘Look, you are going to come do what you’ve done at (Texas) A&M for three years and at Cal for one year. He wasn’t coming back here to just be a position coach. He has proven that he can be a coordinator. It’s his room, and he will call the plays and he will do a great job of that. Now, you know where I am going to be. I am going to be lurking, but I am not going to be questioning. He knows what I want. We will sit in the room, and we will come up with a pretty good idea of where we want this thing to go. We have worked with (Assistant Coach) (Joe) Wickline a long time. (Assistant Coach (Running Backs) (Ja’Juan) Seider has a good grip of what is going on. (Assistant Coach (Receivers) Tyron Carrier has been in this offense for a long time. I’m excited about the personnel that we have coaching-wise on offense. That is going to do some really good things for us in the future.


Onif he considered a quarterback in this class

We aren’t done yet. We have three that can play. We have three that are eligible that are going to take a lot of reps in the spring. Three that are going to compete. We are good there, but you have to keep adding to that room. We have some flexibility with some numbers to continue to add what we need. When that happens, you have a whole semester to figure that out. Like I said, what we did in 2011, 2012, and 2013, some of those days we missed out on a couple of kids, and I just went and slammed my door and buried my head in my desk and was PO’d all day long. I know how to put together a class moving forward throughout the whole spring. We will keep our eyes and ears open for what we need.


On having extra space in the class and filling it throughout the spring

Well, for graduate transfers you kind of know now. Then, there are four-year transfers that you typically don’t know until after spring practice. Sometimes you know now, like Will Crest, I have given him my blessing, and we have released a statement. Sometimes you know now but a lot of times you don’t know that until after spring practice. Whether it is grad transfers, or four-year transfers or whether it is coach (Assistant Coach) (Joe) Wickline hitting all of these JC’s (Junior Colleges) in May finding these late-out guys. We have found late-out three-for-three guys before. Keep your eyes and ears open and you better have some room if you want to get some guys like (redshirt junior quarterback) Will Grier. Or Maurice Fleming, we added him last summer. Those guys have worked out pretty well. We will keep our eyes and ears open.