MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (September 12, 2017) – West Virginia University football coach Dana Holgorsen addressed members of the media on Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2017, at the Milan Puskar Center Team Room.
Opening statement
Much like last week at this time, I think our football team is in a place where the most important thing is to get to Saturday at noon and get out and play football. Especially early in the year, the focus is always on us; it was last week. I thought we did a great job of just preparing the way that we always do, practicing the way we always do and our guys were excited about playing. I don’t think this week will be any different. We have a plan for what we do on Tuesdays. I think we’re anxious to get out there and practice this afternoon and get back on schedule.
We had to give them two days off, which is rare for in-season. Based on how the games were aligned and all that, we had to give them off Sunday and Monday based on NCAA rules and regulations. So, I think everybody is pretty anxious about getting started back up again today. We’ll take today and go over all the video; we really haven’t had an opportunity to through that with the guys. There were a ton of snaps in that game, whether it was special teams or offense, defense and we played a lot of guys. We played upwards to 62 guys I believe is what it was, so there’s a lot we can learn from that. So, we’ll focus hard on watching that video and getting outside and trying to improve. We still have a lot of improvements to do. I don’t care what the score of that game was, we have a lot of improvements that we have to work on and focus on. This is a great week to be able to do that, and like I said, I don’t care who we’re playing.
I think we’ll be excited about attacking the week the appropriate way and getting to another noon kick. I love noon kicks; those are a lot of fun. The sooner it gets here, the better. So, Saturday at noon, we’re going to line up and try to improve. That’s our goal this week.
We always talk about respecting our opponent – Delaware State is no different than Virginia Tech when it comes to the 140 guys that are in this room. We have a bunch of video that we can watch and we will scheme them up based on what they do on all three sides of the ball. We’ll practice against specific things, we’ll do the same thing that we do each and every week and we expect our guys to line up on Saturday and try to focus on ourselves at this point in the season and try to improve. That’s the message this week, so I’m not going to answer a whole lot of questions when it comes to how are we going to approach the week. It’s pretty simple, we already have a plan for how we’re going to approach it and that’s what is going to happen. That’s what I expect our guys to do.
On what he thinks the offense still needs to improve on
There are all kinds of things. We were on the ground way too much. You can’t be a good football player if you’re on the ground. We had (offensive) linemen on the ground left and right, guys out of control, guys cutting when they’re not supposed to cut, guys falling down, it’s impossible to block or tackle when you’re on the ground. Try it, it’s tough. There was a lot of that. (Redshirt junior quarterback) Will (Grier) played well, he missed a couple of throws but that’s nit-picky stuff. Our backs, I thought, did a good job of hitting the hole. We ran decent routes. Our backups were sloppy; I don’t know if it was because of the score at halftime or whatever it was, but I felt like our second-team guys went out there and missed out on opportunities to improve. I can’t say that about (redshirt sophomore quarterback Chris Chugunov); I thought he looked as good as what he’s looked since I’ve been here. But a lot of receivers dropped balls, a lot of (offensive) linemen didn’t stay on blocks and were on the ground way too much. Defensively, guys leaving their feet, launching, as opposed to tackling the way that we want them to tackle, not playing the ball in the air. Safeties missed way too many tackles. Our (defensive) line was on the ground too much; you can’t fill gaps or make tackles if you’re on the ground. Special teams-wise, there were a lot of inconsistencies when it comes to our specialists and were they’re putting the ball. That’s an issue. I thought our coverage units and return units were better, but what that said, the consistency from the actual punters and kickers need to improve. I took that question in about three different directions, didn’t I?
On what he thought of redshirt freshman offensive lineman Josh Sills’ first career start
He played like a redshirt freshman. He’s big, he’s tough and he’s going to be a great player for us. He’s similar to where (redshirt sophomore offensive lineman) Colton (McKivitz) was last year as a redshirt freshman. I can’t begin to explain how many things he has to work on. I’m glad he’s here and he’s going to work hard and all that, but he needs to stay on his feet and do what we ask him to do and he’s got a long way to go to get to the point where I can say he’s going to do that.
On if he’s starting to find some depth along the offensive line
It’s still very much a work in progress. We have a couple of guys on the shelf that we need to get back at some point. (Redshirt freshman offensive lineman Jacob) Buccigrossi and (redshirt senior offensive lineman) Grant Lingafelter are guys that can play for us right now. I have to see how they’re doing here this week whether they’re going to play this week, next week, or into the bye week. Hopefully, it doesn’t last that long. We have to get those guys back but (redshirt sophomore offensive lineman) Kelby Wickline got in there and played a good bit of tackle snaps; he’s our third option at tackle. (Junior offensive lineman) Isaiah Hardy took some snaps; he has no idea which direction he’s going, but he’s just big and can cover people up. That’s why last week was good to be able to rotate those guys. I wasn’t real excited about cutting a couple of (defensive) linemen just absolutely loose when our starting quarterback is in there; that can’t happen. You can’t whiff and let guys run through the A and the B gap, I mean he’s sitting back there. That happened a couple of times too much. But with that said, that’s what you’re going to get when you’re playing young guys. In a perfect world, you’d have all juniors and seniors going up front. That’s not the situation we’re in, so those guys have to get better now.
On how he uses the team’s fitness numbers
It just monitors, one, how long they’re going and how far they’re going, but it also measures how hard they’re going for that period of time. There is a difference in walking 10 miles and sprinting 10 miles. I can walk 10 miles in about a week; (junior receiver) Gary Jennings sprinted 10 miles against Virginia Tech. That’s problematic. So, we monitor it every time they work out. If it’s Sunday night, or Tuesday’s practice or Wednesday’s practice or Thursday’s walk-through or Friday’s practice, we measure how far and how long and how hard they’re going. And the thing that I like about it, which has become neat, is we post these numbers in the weight room and the players sit there and compare it with how fast they’re going to their buddy or how long they went compared to their buddies. They compete with it a little bit. You can really tell if a guy was dogging it that day or if he was going hard that day. Those numbers support what you see on video a lot. I think the more we know about it, the more we’re going to use it. Those numbers, when they were approached to me two years ago, that meant nothing. Now, I can look at it and can see some things. We’re still learning about it, too. So, I think it’s a valuable tool that’ll continue to have more value as we move forward.
On how the hardware works
They have a bra. It’s like a sports bra. It has a little thing in the back, it’s like a little key fob, it’s about that big. When I was down watching the Texans, they had it sewn into their practice jersey and it had a little zipper. But our guys wear – it looks like a sports bra, especially on some of the linemen.
On moving freshman safety Kenny Robinson to cornerback
(Defensive Coordinator Tony Gibson) wanted to do that. Initially, we felt like we needed more safety help than corner help at the time. We needed to get them in here to see what we had. But when we recruited him, we were like, “I think that guy might be a corner.” We felt the same way about (freshman safety Derrek) Pitts, too, we thought he might be a corner. Just long athletic guys that can run, we’ve had lots of success with those corners with (Daryl) Worley and Rasul (Douglas). So, (Gibson) brought it up a couple of weeks ago and I was like, “Yeah, it doesn’t matter to me.” He’s not going to beat out any of the safeties that we have out right now and Kenny wants to compete right now, so he’s been lining up at corner for about a week. He got in there and competed. He didn’t look very good, but he competed and we’ll keep coaching him up. I like our competition at corner. Everybody is like, “You guys aren’t very good at corner,” but I disagree with that. I think we’re pretty good at corner; we have a lot of competition going on. Those guys, a lot of them who played last year for us and played pretty well, will continue to improve. They need to compete because we’re going to need more than two, I can assure you that. So, they need to compete and guys that improve will get more snaps.
On his thoughts on Kevin White’s recent injury
He’s my guy; I talk to him all the time and we have a great relationship. I support him, talk to him, love him, all the rest of it. What are you going to say? When you make the decision to play football, there’s risk with injuries, whether they’re short-term injuries or long-term injuries or whatever it is. It’s not fair and you never can tell when or why. Just put your head down and keep moving forward; he’s as positive as anybody I’ve ever coached and he’s optimistic. You can’t ask why in situations like that, you just have to do what you have to do to get back out there. But I talk to him and support him, there’s no doubt about that.
On the recent injury issues from some former players in the NFL
That’s no different than hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of other guys, too. It’s just a part of the game. It’s just guys that we are very, very, very familiar with. There were 1,300 NFL players that got cut 10 days ago. It’s competitive and it’s a business. That’s just the way it is. That’s one of the reasons why I love college football.
On if the blocking on punt returns is improving
Yeah, it did improve. I don’t know if you noticed it or not but we did a better job of fielding punts, I recognize that. Both (sophomore receiver) Marcus (Simms) and (freshman running back) Tevin (Bush) made two really good catches on punts. Those were not easy catches – two of them. And then there were three of them because the guy actually punted it back 45, 46 yards and they had the space to catch it – other than the one time where he got his head taken off. But the two times they caught it, one time we got a 27-yard return. And then Tevin, where he didn’t return it, he had a lot of space in front of him. That’s just a young guy that’s not wanting to make a mistake right now. We haven’t had that much space in a long time. So, yes, improvement and we need to build on that.
On sophomore receiver Marcus Simms returning to the field
He caught a post route. It was a good post route and a great throw. What he brings to the table is speed, which we need. I liked what I saw out of (freshman receiver) Reggie (Roberson Jr.), too, with his speed and the physical nature he played with. He can run too. We need guys out there that can stretch things. (Junior receiver) David (Sills V) gets behind people because he’s creative, but those guys can get behind people and scare people on video because they can run so fast. Marcus needs to be a lot more consistent than what he’s proven here in the last year and a half that he’s been here. He caught one pass and over the course of his career he’s caught, what, four? I’m not ready to talk about that. Now, he did do a good job on fielding the punts and did a good job on kickoffs. He needs to quit hesitating; if he catches the kicks and goes that way as fast as he can, he may have scored on both of them. By no means does he have things figured out. He has to keep working hard but I’m glad he’s in a good place to where he’s working hard.
On when he first experimented with playing junior David Sills V at receiver
Well, I recruited him because he’s tall and athletic and has a great football mind and is a great teammate and understands football as good as anybody I’ve ever had for an 18-year-old kid. When we have guys on scout team, we put guys everywhere. We’re using (sophomore quarterback) David Isreal at receiver and running back on scout team at times based on need. We did it with (redshirt junior receiver William) Crest (Jr.) for a long time, did it with David, do it with whoever is available to give guys good looks. Two years ago, we did that with David. (Defensive Coordinator Tony Gibson) wouldn’t quit ranting and raving about him, just how athletic he is. I’m like, “I know that.” “He has great hands,” and I go, “Well, I didn’t know that.” “He runs great routes, we can’t cover him,” “Well, that’s good news.” So, we just started repping him at receiver and I told him then, I was like, “If you commit to this, you could play for a long time.” I really believed that. He didn’t, which is why he wanted to continue to play quarterback. But once he put that to rest, he’s the hardest-working guy I’ve been around. He shows up every day and listens to everything that’s being said to try to pick up on something to become a better player. So, based on that, he will probably continue to get better.
On how vertical threats from inside receivers can help the overall offense
It’s important when you’re in three- or four-wide sets, especially four-wide sets. (Offensive Coordinator) Jake (Spavital) is doing a good job of making them cover the whole field. That opens up a lot of space in the middle. When you’re more pro-style, when you’re more like whatever we did the last couple of years, it obviously makes those outside guys pretty important because we were the only ones that were playing with them. In a pro-style offense, when you’re using tight ends and fullbacks and two backs and the run game, then it’s important to stretch it outside. When you’re sideline to sideline and doing a lot of the things that we’re doing right now, it’s every bit as important to be able to stretch it on the inside, which is what (junior receiver) Gary (Jennings) is doing right now. It’s just a different style of offense.
On what his biggest concerns are for Saturday’s game
It’s the same thing we always face when we play on Saturday – guys being in the right frame of mind to be able to go out there and prove and do their job to the best of their ability. I don’t care who we play.
Opening statement
Much like last week at this time, I think our football team is in a place where the most important thing is to get to Saturday at noon and get out and play football. Especially early in the year, the focus is always on us; it was last week. I thought we did a great job of just preparing the way that we always do, practicing the way we always do and our guys were excited about playing. I don’t think this week will be any different. We have a plan for what we do on Tuesdays. I think we’re anxious to get out there and practice this afternoon and get back on schedule.
We had to give them two days off, which is rare for in-season. Based on how the games were aligned and all that, we had to give them off Sunday and Monday based on NCAA rules and regulations. So, I think everybody is pretty anxious about getting started back up again today. We’ll take today and go over all the video; we really haven’t had an opportunity to through that with the guys. There were a ton of snaps in that game, whether it was special teams or offense, defense and we played a lot of guys. We played upwards to 62 guys I believe is what it was, so there’s a lot we can learn from that. So, we’ll focus hard on watching that video and getting outside and trying to improve. We still have a lot of improvements to do. I don’t care what the score of that game was, we have a lot of improvements that we have to work on and focus on. This is a great week to be able to do that, and like I said, I don’t care who we’re playing.
I think we’ll be excited about attacking the week the appropriate way and getting to another noon kick. I love noon kicks; those are a lot of fun. The sooner it gets here, the better. So, Saturday at noon, we’re going to line up and try to improve. That’s our goal this week.
We always talk about respecting our opponent – Delaware State is no different than Virginia Tech when it comes to the 140 guys that are in this room. We have a bunch of video that we can watch and we will scheme them up based on what they do on all three sides of the ball. We’ll practice against specific things, we’ll do the same thing that we do each and every week and we expect our guys to line up on Saturday and try to focus on ourselves at this point in the season and try to improve. That’s the message this week, so I’m not going to answer a whole lot of questions when it comes to how are we going to approach the week. It’s pretty simple, we already have a plan for how we’re going to approach it and that’s what is going to happen. That’s what I expect our guys to do.
On what he thinks the offense still needs to improve on
There are all kinds of things. We were on the ground way too much. You can’t be a good football player if you’re on the ground. We had (offensive) linemen on the ground left and right, guys out of control, guys cutting when they’re not supposed to cut, guys falling down, it’s impossible to block or tackle when you’re on the ground. Try it, it’s tough. There was a lot of that. (Redshirt junior quarterback) Will (Grier) played well, he missed a couple of throws but that’s nit-picky stuff. Our backs, I thought, did a good job of hitting the hole. We ran decent routes. Our backups were sloppy; I don’t know if it was because of the score at halftime or whatever it was, but I felt like our second-team guys went out there and missed out on opportunities to improve. I can’t say that about (redshirt sophomore quarterback Chris Chugunov); I thought he looked as good as what he’s looked since I’ve been here. But a lot of receivers dropped balls, a lot of (offensive) linemen didn’t stay on blocks and were on the ground way too much. Defensively, guys leaving their feet, launching, as opposed to tackling the way that we want them to tackle, not playing the ball in the air. Safeties missed way too many tackles. Our (defensive) line was on the ground too much; you can’t fill gaps or make tackles if you’re on the ground. Special teams-wise, there were a lot of inconsistencies when it comes to our specialists and were they’re putting the ball. That’s an issue. I thought our coverage units and return units were better, but what that said, the consistency from the actual punters and kickers need to improve. I took that question in about three different directions, didn’t I?
On what he thought of redshirt freshman offensive lineman Josh Sills’ first career start
He played like a redshirt freshman. He’s big, he’s tough and he’s going to be a great player for us. He’s similar to where (redshirt sophomore offensive lineman) Colton (McKivitz) was last year as a redshirt freshman. I can’t begin to explain how many things he has to work on. I’m glad he’s here and he’s going to work hard and all that, but he needs to stay on his feet and do what we ask him to do and he’s got a long way to go to get to the point where I can say he’s going to do that.
On if he’s starting to find some depth along the offensive line
It’s still very much a work in progress. We have a couple of guys on the shelf that we need to get back at some point. (Redshirt freshman offensive lineman Jacob) Buccigrossi and (redshirt senior offensive lineman) Grant Lingafelter are guys that can play for us right now. I have to see how they’re doing here this week whether they’re going to play this week, next week, or into the bye week. Hopefully, it doesn’t last that long. We have to get those guys back but (redshirt sophomore offensive lineman) Kelby Wickline got in there and played a good bit of tackle snaps; he’s our third option at tackle. (Junior offensive lineman) Isaiah Hardy took some snaps; he has no idea which direction he’s going, but he’s just big and can cover people up. That’s why last week was good to be able to rotate those guys. I wasn’t real excited about cutting a couple of (defensive) linemen just absolutely loose when our starting quarterback is in there; that can’t happen. You can’t whiff and let guys run through the A and the B gap, I mean he’s sitting back there. That happened a couple of times too much. But with that said, that’s what you’re going to get when you’re playing young guys. In a perfect world, you’d have all juniors and seniors going up front. That’s not the situation we’re in, so those guys have to get better now.
On how he uses the team’s fitness numbers
It just monitors, one, how long they’re going and how far they’re going, but it also measures how hard they’re going for that period of time. There is a difference in walking 10 miles and sprinting 10 miles. I can walk 10 miles in about a week; (junior receiver) Gary Jennings sprinted 10 miles against Virginia Tech. That’s problematic. So, we monitor it every time they work out. If it’s Sunday night, or Tuesday’s practice or Wednesday’s practice or Thursday’s walk-through or Friday’s practice, we measure how far and how long and how hard they’re going. And the thing that I like about it, which has become neat, is we post these numbers in the weight room and the players sit there and compare it with how fast they’re going to their buddy or how long they went compared to their buddies. They compete with it a little bit. You can really tell if a guy was dogging it that day or if he was going hard that day. Those numbers support what you see on video a lot. I think the more we know about it, the more we’re going to use it. Those numbers, when they were approached to me two years ago, that meant nothing. Now, I can look at it and can see some things. We’re still learning about it, too. So, I think it’s a valuable tool that’ll continue to have more value as we move forward.
On how the hardware works
They have a bra. It’s like a sports bra. It has a little thing in the back, it’s like a little key fob, it’s about that big. When I was down watching the Texans, they had it sewn into their practice jersey and it had a little zipper. But our guys wear – it looks like a sports bra, especially on some of the linemen.
On moving freshman safety Kenny Robinson to cornerback
(Defensive Coordinator Tony Gibson) wanted to do that. Initially, we felt like we needed more safety help than corner help at the time. We needed to get them in here to see what we had. But when we recruited him, we were like, “I think that guy might be a corner.” We felt the same way about (freshman safety Derrek) Pitts, too, we thought he might be a corner. Just long athletic guys that can run, we’ve had lots of success with those corners with (Daryl) Worley and Rasul (Douglas). So, (Gibson) brought it up a couple of weeks ago and I was like, “Yeah, it doesn’t matter to me.” He’s not going to beat out any of the safeties that we have out right now and Kenny wants to compete right now, so he’s been lining up at corner for about a week. He got in there and competed. He didn’t look very good, but he competed and we’ll keep coaching him up. I like our competition at corner. Everybody is like, “You guys aren’t very good at corner,” but I disagree with that. I think we’re pretty good at corner; we have a lot of competition going on. Those guys, a lot of them who played last year for us and played pretty well, will continue to improve. They need to compete because we’re going to need more than two, I can assure you that. So, they need to compete and guys that improve will get more snaps.
On his thoughts on Kevin White’s recent injury
He’s my guy; I talk to him all the time and we have a great relationship. I support him, talk to him, love him, all the rest of it. What are you going to say? When you make the decision to play football, there’s risk with injuries, whether they’re short-term injuries or long-term injuries or whatever it is. It’s not fair and you never can tell when or why. Just put your head down and keep moving forward; he’s as positive as anybody I’ve ever coached and he’s optimistic. You can’t ask why in situations like that, you just have to do what you have to do to get back out there. But I talk to him and support him, there’s no doubt about that.
On the recent injury issues from some former players in the NFL
That’s no different than hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of other guys, too. It’s just a part of the game. It’s just guys that we are very, very, very familiar with. There were 1,300 NFL players that got cut 10 days ago. It’s competitive and it’s a business. That’s just the way it is. That’s one of the reasons why I love college football.
On if the blocking on punt returns is improving
Yeah, it did improve. I don’t know if you noticed it or not but we did a better job of fielding punts, I recognize that. Both (sophomore receiver) Marcus (Simms) and (freshman running back) Tevin (Bush) made two really good catches on punts. Those were not easy catches – two of them. And then there were three of them because the guy actually punted it back 45, 46 yards and they had the space to catch it – other than the one time where he got his head taken off. But the two times they caught it, one time we got a 27-yard return. And then Tevin, where he didn’t return it, he had a lot of space in front of him. That’s just a young guy that’s not wanting to make a mistake right now. We haven’t had that much space in a long time. So, yes, improvement and we need to build on that.
On sophomore receiver Marcus Simms returning to the field
He caught a post route. It was a good post route and a great throw. What he brings to the table is speed, which we need. I liked what I saw out of (freshman receiver) Reggie (Roberson Jr.), too, with his speed and the physical nature he played with. He can run too. We need guys out there that can stretch things. (Junior receiver) David (Sills V) gets behind people because he’s creative, but those guys can get behind people and scare people on video because they can run so fast. Marcus needs to be a lot more consistent than what he’s proven here in the last year and a half that he’s been here. He caught one pass and over the course of his career he’s caught, what, four? I’m not ready to talk about that. Now, he did do a good job on fielding the punts and did a good job on kickoffs. He needs to quit hesitating; if he catches the kicks and goes that way as fast as he can, he may have scored on both of them. By no means does he have things figured out. He has to keep working hard but I’m glad he’s in a good place to where he’s working hard.
On when he first experimented with playing junior David Sills V at receiver
Well, I recruited him because he’s tall and athletic and has a great football mind and is a great teammate and understands football as good as anybody I’ve ever had for an 18-year-old kid. When we have guys on scout team, we put guys everywhere. We’re using (sophomore quarterback) David Isreal at receiver and running back on scout team at times based on need. We did it with (redshirt junior receiver William) Crest (Jr.) for a long time, did it with David, do it with whoever is available to give guys good looks. Two years ago, we did that with David. (Defensive Coordinator Tony Gibson) wouldn’t quit ranting and raving about him, just how athletic he is. I’m like, “I know that.” “He has great hands,” and I go, “Well, I didn’t know that.” “He runs great routes, we can’t cover him,” “Well, that’s good news.” So, we just started repping him at receiver and I told him then, I was like, “If you commit to this, you could play for a long time.” I really believed that. He didn’t, which is why he wanted to continue to play quarterback. But once he put that to rest, he’s the hardest-working guy I’ve been around. He shows up every day and listens to everything that’s being said to try to pick up on something to become a better player. So, based on that, he will probably continue to get better.
On how vertical threats from inside receivers can help the overall offense
It’s important when you’re in three- or four-wide sets, especially four-wide sets. (Offensive Coordinator) Jake (Spavital) is doing a good job of making them cover the whole field. That opens up a lot of space in the middle. When you’re more pro-style, when you’re more like whatever we did the last couple of years, it obviously makes those outside guys pretty important because we were the only ones that were playing with them. In a pro-style offense, when you’re using tight ends and fullbacks and two backs and the run game, then it’s important to stretch it outside. When you’re sideline to sideline and doing a lot of the things that we’re doing right now, it’s every bit as important to be able to stretch it on the inside, which is what (junior receiver) Gary (Jennings) is doing right now. It’s just a different style of offense.
On what his biggest concerns are for Saturday’s game
It’s the same thing we always face when we play on Saturday – guys being in the right frame of mind to be able to go out there and prove and do their job to the best of their ability. I don’t care who we play.