MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (Oct. 10, 2017) – West Virginia University football coach Dana Holgorsen addressed members of the media on Tuesday, Oct. 10, at the Milan Puskar Center Team Room.
Opening statement
We are ready to get back home and play a game – probably more than anything after the way we lost that game last week. The disappointment that was in the locker room – much like it was game one. The good news is that we get to do it again here this weekend. The guys are disappointed. They were, obviously. We are 3-2. A lot of people are disappointed in that. I think we lost to a couple of really good teams, and I think we are a really good team. That needs to get better. We have an opportunity to be able to focus on that and get better against a very good Texas Tech team.
There is a lot of excitement on our end about being able to play at home for the first time in a month. It’s homecoming. It truly is a homecoming when you have been gone for a month. It’s nice to be back home. It’s sold out. There is a lot of excitement for it. It’s ‘Stripe the Stadium.’ It’ll be a good time for everyone involved.
A special thanks to WVU Medicine and WVU Medicine Children’s. We have a great relationship with them, and they are sponsoring the game. They are a great partner for us to have, and we are happy that they are going to be a part of it. They are going to bring a lot of the kids over to the game. They’ll be able to watch the game as well, so that’s a heck of a deal moving forward.
Texas Tech is playing well. They are playing just as good or better than we have seen since the first year we played them when (Texas Tech head coach) Kliff (Kingsbury) was there. They played out here four years ago and beat our tail. They were playing pretty well then. They were ranked and undefeated. (They were) playing well together. That’s what I see now with their bunch. They are confident. They are playing well. They are playing hard. They are playing together better than I have seen them play. (Texas Tech head coach) Kliff’s (Kindsbury) offense has always been about the same. It seems like he has the No. 1 offense in the country every single year. I am still seeing that same stuff out of their offense. They have a defense to match it, and their special team is playing well as well. They are playing really well together, which is why they are 4-1, and they had a real shot at beating Oklahoma State at home. That went right down to the wire, or they could be sitting here at 5-0 coming to town. We have our work cut out for us when it comes to that, but I know our guys are going to be ready to roll. Like I said, the excitement surrounding this game is good, and I think our guys will be ready to get out there and play. We wish we could go play right now.
Offensively, I mentioned it. The one thing that stands out is that their quarterback has really improved. We just saw him briefly in a few of the games last year when (Patrick) Mahomes was kind of nursing the shoulder or whatever he had. (QB Nic) Shimonek went in there and played. He is a big kid that has a great arm. I see a lot of improvement fundamentally and how he is running the offense. They have improved up front. They are really doing a good job with their o-linemen, as far as the pass protection aspect of it. The thing that is different is (that they are) running the ball. They have been doing it more than they have been. They have four guys back there that are running the ball. The amount of times that they are handing that thing off is more than what they have been doing. Their philosophy is to have guys back there throwing it all over the place, and they can still do that. They have four wideouts that can go. They are all very capable of being able to score any time they throw them the ball. Then you add that running game element to it, it is a different deal. They are still doing well on third down. They are doing a great job with ball security as well. As a team, their turnover margin is as good as anyone in the country.
Defensively, (Texas Tech defensive coordinator David) Gibbs is coming into his third year now. I know this guy pretty well, and I know what they are doing pretty well. He is doing a good job at getting those guys to play. They have been playing the same guys over the last couple years, and they have been adding transfers over the last two years as well. It sounds familiar to what we started doing about four years ago. They are playing hard. They have a plan. There was a dial-up defense element to what they were doing over the last couple years. They are not doing that. They are sound with what they are doing. They have a plan, and they are executing it very well. I really feel like they are led with their linebackers. (Junior linebacker) Dakota Allen has a unique story, but he is playing well. (Sophomore linebacker) Jordyn Brooks was a big-time linebacker coming out of high school that played for them last year as a freshman. Those guys are everywhere. They are typically always in the box. They do a great job against the run, but they pressure the quarterback and go sideline-to-sideline as well. They are playing a lot better. It’s not surprising because I know (Texas Tech defensive coordinator) coach (David) Gibbs, and they are going to play hard for him. He has always done a great job at creating turnovers, so that is going to be a big thing moving forward.
Special teams, it’s kind of interesting watching them. You can tell that they are paying attention to it from a schematic point of view. They are doing a lot of different things. Their punter is kind of an interesting story. The rugby deal, the Australian punter – I have nightmares thinking about the LSU guy. After mentioning that in the press conference after last Saturday’s game from what TCU’s guy did to us and then mentioning (New York Giants’ punter) Brad Wing and turning on the video. Texas Tech has one of those guys, so he kicks that thing everywhere. He does a lot of good things with it. I don’t know what’s up with their kicker. They had an All-American candidate coming into the year. I guess he’s been hurt. He’s only played in one of the games, so they are kind of searching for who the other guy is going to be. They went through three or four of them, so we’ll have to keep our eye on that. When you have good receivers, you’ll probably have good returners. The (Texas Tech wide receiver Cameron) Batson kid back there really does a good job on the punt returns. He takes chances. Then he does good in the kickoff return game as well.
Overall, it’s going to be a good challenge for us. It’ll be a good test against a good team that is playing well, playing hard. I am looking forward to getting to homecoming this Saturday at noon.
On if the team has talked about finishing drives better
Well, we have been. Have we not? We have been getting down there and scoring touchdowns. We just didn’t happen to do it in that game. I’ll go ahead and address it. They did a great job of pinning us inside the five. There’s nothing you can do as a coach. If that guy makes that kick then I don’t know what you want me to do about it. You want me to put a guy on the one and tell him to field the punt? Then I’m sure you guys will have a bunch of other critical comments toward it. Their punter did a great job. Our punter needs to do a great job when he has the opportunity to do that. The guy created four out of five long fields in the first half. When you play against a really good defense, and then you get backed up inside the five, it makes it that much harder. A couple of those drives in the first half stalled out. The two times we got down there, we didn’t finish with touchdowns, but we have been doing that. I don’t know what you want me to change. I don’t want to change anything from what we have been doing. We need to finish drives better. Then the flipside of that, TCU got down there three times and scored twice. We got down there three times and scored one. In a close game, there’s a difference there. In that game, field position probably matters. Two turnovers matter, and how you finish drives matter. Those things were probably the difference between winning and losing. In close games, those things matter.
On if the team has ever put together plays at the end of the week to review
It’s a waste of time. I’m not saying we haven’t done it. I used to spend four hours a week with (Mike) Leach coming up with these plays, writing a thesis and complaining about it. You send them in and then the next week you have five more to send in. You complain about it again and spend five more hours. You create a list the next week, and then there are six plays on it. Then the next week there are seven. Then the next week there’s eight, and then the next week there’s nine. Where does it end? You aren’t changing anything, so I don’t spend time doing it. No. Has there been a couple of times where (associate athletic director/football) Alex (Hammond) sends in two or three of them based on the fact that he wants a rules explanation on it or something like that? Yeah, we probably have done that a couple of times. If it helps teach your players what the rule is and how you can improve on it, then we are going to get some confirmation from Walt (Anderson – Big 12 Supervisor of Officiating for Football). Will it make me feel better? No. Is it going to change the outcome of the game? No. So why spend that time doing it when we can sit there and coach our guys and prepare them for the next opponent. I think its counterproductive. I’ve done it in the past, and it’s counterproductive. I’m not going to change the way we are doing it.
On how much Texas Tech’s run game looks like what he did at Oklahoma State
I don’t know. There’s only so many running plays you can come up with. You have 10 personnel. You have 20 personnel. You have 11 personnel. We have all those personnel groupings. They have all those personnel groupings. The percentage of run plays with what the actual run play is out of those personnel groups is probably a little bit different now than when I was at Oklahoma State – let alone with what Texas Tech is doing right now.
On the team’s body language following the loss at TCU
Good. I think we have good leadership with some older guys. It means a lot to them, and they have been around here for a while. We came in, and I stood right here in front of the group on Sunday and gave them my two cents. They were attentive. We watched video. We went down stairs and lifted weights. We went outside, and we were bouncing around pretty good. They are excited about playing football. That’s all you can ask for. The effort has been good. I thought we prepared for that game as hard as any group I’ve been around with the way we practiced and the way the meetings went, especially later in the week on Friday. You could tell with the way the meetings went, how we traveled and how they acted at the hotel. I can kind of sense disinterest sometimes, and it was nothing but locked in and ready to go. I couldn’t be happier with the way they prepared, and I couldn’t be happier with the effort that they played with. It can get discouraging when that happens – when you don’t get a few breaks and don’t win a game that you had a chance to win. TCU played pretty good too, and they are a good team. They are a top-five team right now, but we had an opportunity to win. We need to make a few corrections and improve in specific areas. It felt the same way at Virginia Tech. I said the same thing after Virginia Tech. If we get in that situation again, let’s get to a point where we can win that game. We didn’t unfortunately, which means that we need to continue to practice and continue to improve. We are probably going to be in that situation again here moving forward this year. When we are, hopefully, we can finish it. I like where they are at. We have a great group of kids that like to play and continue to work hard. They compete hard, and as a head guy, that is all you can ask for.
On the success he has had defending Texas Tech’s offense in the past and how much of that comes from his understanding of the offense
I can’t take any credit for it. If I did, then I can say that about 80 percent of the offenses out there in the Big 12. Everyone runs some sort of version of how it all originated. (Associate head coach/defensive coordinator/linebackers) Tony (Gibson) has done a great job defending these guys, whether it’s our scheme or (associate head coach/defensive coordinator/linebackers) Tony (Gibson) having a bead of what’s going on or our players matching up well with them. I think it’s a combination of all of it. We didn’t do very well four years ago when they were here. They kind of got the best of us there with Davis Webb and that tight end (Jace Amaro) who we couldn’t cover, but we competed hard against them since. Now of that is going to carry over. I can assure you that. We have to look at what they do now. They have done some things different. They are doing some things different. They are in a much better frame of mind. We need to be ready to roll.
On when it becomes critical to get more receivers out there contributing instead of just four
August 1.
On not seeing the production from the team’s wide receivers out there
Can we go back to what I said August 1? How many more times do I have to continue to complain about it? Depth is still an issue. It’s an issue at receiver. It’s an issue at o-line. I think we have some good backs that for whatever reason aren’t doing what we need them to do. It was addressed after the game. It needs to happen now. To answer your question, it needs to happen now. It needed to happen two months ago, so we are going to focus on a lot of those second team guys. Whatever is preventing them from helping us win, we are addressing it now.
On switching his punter and kicker during the TCU game
(Redshirt junior kicker/punter) Billy (Kinney) cramped. I don’t really understand it, but he did. (Redshirt freshman kicker/punter) John Young has been hurt, and recently within the last week became healthy, so that was good. (Redshirt junior kicker/punter) Billy (Kinney) was cramping, so I said ‘(Redshirt freshman kicker/punter) John (Young) get in there and punt.’ I liked his demeanor going in there. That was good. (Redshirt freshman kicker) Evan (Staley) has been doing a really good job for us, but I was little nervous about No. 25 back there going into that wind. No. 25 is pretty good. We had No. 25 corralled up on that first one. He got out to the 40. We had him dead to rights inside the 20, and he just stuck his toe on the ground and went. He is pretty good, so I was a little nervous about kicking to him with a little wind that could have hung up there just a little bit. We were going to try and sqib it to keep it away from him, but that didn’t work out very well. We need to perform better. I thought (Redshirt junior kicker/punter) Billy (Kinney) was pretty good. He’s hanging the ball up so him that no one can return the ball on us. That’s very important. Our net is not as good as it needs to be based on (Redshirt junior kicker/punter) Billy (Kinney) not kicking it how I think he can kick it. The first two were 47-48, and then he hits a 37-38, and I’m mad. There was still no return. We are as good as anyone in the country at preventing punt returns. I’m happy with that, but you still need other guys. If (Redshirt junior kicker/punter) Billy (Kinney) is going to keep cramping, then I have to get a second team guy ready to go. I am really happy with (Redshirt freshman kicker) Evan (Staley) at this point. He is placing the ball really well, and that is really helping our football team a lot. Competition is always good. I don’t care what position it is, so if it takes competition to improve performance, then we sure are going to do it at every position.
On if he is for or against penalty reviews
It’s tricky. The length of the game is too long. Is it not? I think everyone would agree. I think it’s too long. That’s the problem with reviews. We had this discussion with Walt (Anderson) in the spring meetings. They review too much, and he said that there are only 2.2 reviews per game. I said ‘there is no way that is true.’ I was thinking more along the lines of 10 – it seems like. Every time they review a play, TV won’t go to timeout because they think that is the most interesting thing throughout the whole game I guess. The suspense of ‘oh, is it really a penalty or is it not.’ They won’t go to commercial, so they sit there and wait for five to six minutes at times. Then they make the call, and then they go to commercial. Then you end up sitting there for another four minutes. What’s wrong with every time they review a play to go to commercial? If the ref has his answer and you want the suspense, then wait until TV comes back and let them say it. If you want it made for TV type situations, then that’s the way to do it. That’s very frustrating to me, and it’s frustrating to the referees, but TV controls all this stuff and there is nothing you can do. If you open it up to let’s review pass interference calls to where we can be first and 10 on the 35 as opposed to first and 25 on the -25 then I think we should probably review it. We might all be a lot happier right now, but if you start giving them the opportunity to do that, then we are going to be there for five hours.
Opening statement
We are ready to get back home and play a game – probably more than anything after the way we lost that game last week. The disappointment that was in the locker room – much like it was game one. The good news is that we get to do it again here this weekend. The guys are disappointed. They were, obviously. We are 3-2. A lot of people are disappointed in that. I think we lost to a couple of really good teams, and I think we are a really good team. That needs to get better. We have an opportunity to be able to focus on that and get better against a very good Texas Tech team.
There is a lot of excitement on our end about being able to play at home for the first time in a month. It’s homecoming. It truly is a homecoming when you have been gone for a month. It’s nice to be back home. It’s sold out. There is a lot of excitement for it. It’s ‘Stripe the Stadium.’ It’ll be a good time for everyone involved.
A special thanks to WVU Medicine and WVU Medicine Children’s. We have a great relationship with them, and they are sponsoring the game. They are a great partner for us to have, and we are happy that they are going to be a part of it. They are going to bring a lot of the kids over to the game. They’ll be able to watch the game as well, so that’s a heck of a deal moving forward.
Texas Tech is playing well. They are playing just as good or better than we have seen since the first year we played them when (Texas Tech head coach) Kliff (Kingsbury) was there. They played out here four years ago and beat our tail. They were playing pretty well then. They were ranked and undefeated. (They were) playing well together. That’s what I see now with their bunch. They are confident. They are playing well. They are playing hard. They are playing together better than I have seen them play. (Texas Tech head coach) Kliff’s (Kindsbury) offense has always been about the same. It seems like he has the No. 1 offense in the country every single year. I am still seeing that same stuff out of their offense. They have a defense to match it, and their special team is playing well as well. They are playing really well together, which is why they are 4-1, and they had a real shot at beating Oklahoma State at home. That went right down to the wire, or they could be sitting here at 5-0 coming to town. We have our work cut out for us when it comes to that, but I know our guys are going to be ready to roll. Like I said, the excitement surrounding this game is good, and I think our guys will be ready to get out there and play. We wish we could go play right now.
Offensively, I mentioned it. The one thing that stands out is that their quarterback has really improved. We just saw him briefly in a few of the games last year when (Patrick) Mahomes was kind of nursing the shoulder or whatever he had. (QB Nic) Shimonek went in there and played. He is a big kid that has a great arm. I see a lot of improvement fundamentally and how he is running the offense. They have improved up front. They are really doing a good job with their o-linemen, as far as the pass protection aspect of it. The thing that is different is (that they are) running the ball. They have been doing it more than they have been. They have four guys back there that are running the ball. The amount of times that they are handing that thing off is more than what they have been doing. Their philosophy is to have guys back there throwing it all over the place, and they can still do that. They have four wideouts that can go. They are all very capable of being able to score any time they throw them the ball. Then you add that running game element to it, it is a different deal. They are still doing well on third down. They are doing a great job with ball security as well. As a team, their turnover margin is as good as anyone in the country.
Defensively, (Texas Tech defensive coordinator David) Gibbs is coming into his third year now. I know this guy pretty well, and I know what they are doing pretty well. He is doing a good job at getting those guys to play. They have been playing the same guys over the last couple years, and they have been adding transfers over the last two years as well. It sounds familiar to what we started doing about four years ago. They are playing hard. They have a plan. There was a dial-up defense element to what they were doing over the last couple years. They are not doing that. They are sound with what they are doing. They have a plan, and they are executing it very well. I really feel like they are led with their linebackers. (Junior linebacker) Dakota Allen has a unique story, but he is playing well. (Sophomore linebacker) Jordyn Brooks was a big-time linebacker coming out of high school that played for them last year as a freshman. Those guys are everywhere. They are typically always in the box. They do a great job against the run, but they pressure the quarterback and go sideline-to-sideline as well. They are playing a lot better. It’s not surprising because I know (Texas Tech defensive coordinator) coach (David) Gibbs, and they are going to play hard for him. He has always done a great job at creating turnovers, so that is going to be a big thing moving forward.
Special teams, it’s kind of interesting watching them. You can tell that they are paying attention to it from a schematic point of view. They are doing a lot of different things. Their punter is kind of an interesting story. The rugby deal, the Australian punter – I have nightmares thinking about the LSU guy. After mentioning that in the press conference after last Saturday’s game from what TCU’s guy did to us and then mentioning (New York Giants’ punter) Brad Wing and turning on the video. Texas Tech has one of those guys, so he kicks that thing everywhere. He does a lot of good things with it. I don’t know what’s up with their kicker. They had an All-American candidate coming into the year. I guess he’s been hurt. He’s only played in one of the games, so they are kind of searching for who the other guy is going to be. They went through three or four of them, so we’ll have to keep our eye on that. When you have good receivers, you’ll probably have good returners. The (Texas Tech wide receiver Cameron) Batson kid back there really does a good job on the punt returns. He takes chances. Then he does good in the kickoff return game as well.
Overall, it’s going to be a good challenge for us. It’ll be a good test against a good team that is playing well, playing hard. I am looking forward to getting to homecoming this Saturday at noon.
On if the team has talked about finishing drives better
Well, we have been. Have we not? We have been getting down there and scoring touchdowns. We just didn’t happen to do it in that game. I’ll go ahead and address it. They did a great job of pinning us inside the five. There’s nothing you can do as a coach. If that guy makes that kick then I don’t know what you want me to do about it. You want me to put a guy on the one and tell him to field the punt? Then I’m sure you guys will have a bunch of other critical comments toward it. Their punter did a great job. Our punter needs to do a great job when he has the opportunity to do that. The guy created four out of five long fields in the first half. When you play against a really good defense, and then you get backed up inside the five, it makes it that much harder. A couple of those drives in the first half stalled out. The two times we got down there, we didn’t finish with touchdowns, but we have been doing that. I don’t know what you want me to change. I don’t want to change anything from what we have been doing. We need to finish drives better. Then the flipside of that, TCU got down there three times and scored twice. We got down there three times and scored one. In a close game, there’s a difference there. In that game, field position probably matters. Two turnovers matter, and how you finish drives matter. Those things were probably the difference between winning and losing. In close games, those things matter.
On if the team has ever put together plays at the end of the week to review
It’s a waste of time. I’m not saying we haven’t done it. I used to spend four hours a week with (Mike) Leach coming up with these plays, writing a thesis and complaining about it. You send them in and then the next week you have five more to send in. You complain about it again and spend five more hours. You create a list the next week, and then there are six plays on it. Then the next week there are seven. Then the next week there’s eight, and then the next week there’s nine. Where does it end? You aren’t changing anything, so I don’t spend time doing it. No. Has there been a couple of times where (associate athletic director/football) Alex (Hammond) sends in two or three of them based on the fact that he wants a rules explanation on it or something like that? Yeah, we probably have done that a couple of times. If it helps teach your players what the rule is and how you can improve on it, then we are going to get some confirmation from Walt (Anderson – Big 12 Supervisor of Officiating for Football). Will it make me feel better? No. Is it going to change the outcome of the game? No. So why spend that time doing it when we can sit there and coach our guys and prepare them for the next opponent. I think its counterproductive. I’ve done it in the past, and it’s counterproductive. I’m not going to change the way we are doing it.
On how much Texas Tech’s run game looks like what he did at Oklahoma State
I don’t know. There’s only so many running plays you can come up with. You have 10 personnel. You have 20 personnel. You have 11 personnel. We have all those personnel groupings. They have all those personnel groupings. The percentage of run plays with what the actual run play is out of those personnel groups is probably a little bit different now than when I was at Oklahoma State – let alone with what Texas Tech is doing right now.
On the team’s body language following the loss at TCU
Good. I think we have good leadership with some older guys. It means a lot to them, and they have been around here for a while. We came in, and I stood right here in front of the group on Sunday and gave them my two cents. They were attentive. We watched video. We went down stairs and lifted weights. We went outside, and we were bouncing around pretty good. They are excited about playing football. That’s all you can ask for. The effort has been good. I thought we prepared for that game as hard as any group I’ve been around with the way we practiced and the way the meetings went, especially later in the week on Friday. You could tell with the way the meetings went, how we traveled and how they acted at the hotel. I can kind of sense disinterest sometimes, and it was nothing but locked in and ready to go. I couldn’t be happier with the way they prepared, and I couldn’t be happier with the effort that they played with. It can get discouraging when that happens – when you don’t get a few breaks and don’t win a game that you had a chance to win. TCU played pretty good too, and they are a good team. They are a top-five team right now, but we had an opportunity to win. We need to make a few corrections and improve in specific areas. It felt the same way at Virginia Tech. I said the same thing after Virginia Tech. If we get in that situation again, let’s get to a point where we can win that game. We didn’t unfortunately, which means that we need to continue to practice and continue to improve. We are probably going to be in that situation again here moving forward this year. When we are, hopefully, we can finish it. I like where they are at. We have a great group of kids that like to play and continue to work hard. They compete hard, and as a head guy, that is all you can ask for.
On the success he has had defending Texas Tech’s offense in the past and how much of that comes from his understanding of the offense
I can’t take any credit for it. If I did, then I can say that about 80 percent of the offenses out there in the Big 12. Everyone runs some sort of version of how it all originated. (Associate head coach/defensive coordinator/linebackers) Tony (Gibson) has done a great job defending these guys, whether it’s our scheme or (associate head coach/defensive coordinator/linebackers) Tony (Gibson) having a bead of what’s going on or our players matching up well with them. I think it’s a combination of all of it. We didn’t do very well four years ago when they were here. They kind of got the best of us there with Davis Webb and that tight end (Jace Amaro) who we couldn’t cover, but we competed hard against them since. Now of that is going to carry over. I can assure you that. We have to look at what they do now. They have done some things different. They are doing some things different. They are in a much better frame of mind. We need to be ready to roll.
On when it becomes critical to get more receivers out there contributing instead of just four
August 1.
On not seeing the production from the team’s wide receivers out there
Can we go back to what I said August 1? How many more times do I have to continue to complain about it? Depth is still an issue. It’s an issue at receiver. It’s an issue at o-line. I think we have some good backs that for whatever reason aren’t doing what we need them to do. It was addressed after the game. It needs to happen now. To answer your question, it needs to happen now. It needed to happen two months ago, so we are going to focus on a lot of those second team guys. Whatever is preventing them from helping us win, we are addressing it now.
On switching his punter and kicker during the TCU game
(Redshirt junior kicker/punter) Billy (Kinney) cramped. I don’t really understand it, but he did. (Redshirt freshman kicker/punter) John Young has been hurt, and recently within the last week became healthy, so that was good. (Redshirt junior kicker/punter) Billy (Kinney) was cramping, so I said ‘(Redshirt freshman kicker/punter) John (Young) get in there and punt.’ I liked his demeanor going in there. That was good. (Redshirt freshman kicker) Evan (Staley) has been doing a really good job for us, but I was little nervous about No. 25 back there going into that wind. No. 25 is pretty good. We had No. 25 corralled up on that first one. He got out to the 40. We had him dead to rights inside the 20, and he just stuck his toe on the ground and went. He is pretty good, so I was a little nervous about kicking to him with a little wind that could have hung up there just a little bit. We were going to try and sqib it to keep it away from him, but that didn’t work out very well. We need to perform better. I thought (Redshirt junior kicker/punter) Billy (Kinney) was pretty good. He’s hanging the ball up so him that no one can return the ball on us. That’s very important. Our net is not as good as it needs to be based on (Redshirt junior kicker/punter) Billy (Kinney) not kicking it how I think he can kick it. The first two were 47-48, and then he hits a 37-38, and I’m mad. There was still no return. We are as good as anyone in the country at preventing punt returns. I’m happy with that, but you still need other guys. If (Redshirt junior kicker/punter) Billy (Kinney) is going to keep cramping, then I have to get a second team guy ready to go. I am really happy with (Redshirt freshman kicker) Evan (Staley) at this point. He is placing the ball really well, and that is really helping our football team a lot. Competition is always good. I don’t care what position it is, so if it takes competition to improve performance, then we sure are going to do it at every position.
On if he is for or against penalty reviews
It’s tricky. The length of the game is too long. Is it not? I think everyone would agree. I think it’s too long. That’s the problem with reviews. We had this discussion with Walt (Anderson) in the spring meetings. They review too much, and he said that there are only 2.2 reviews per game. I said ‘there is no way that is true.’ I was thinking more along the lines of 10 – it seems like. Every time they review a play, TV won’t go to timeout because they think that is the most interesting thing throughout the whole game I guess. The suspense of ‘oh, is it really a penalty or is it not.’ They won’t go to commercial, so they sit there and wait for five to six minutes at times. Then they make the call, and then they go to commercial. Then you end up sitting there for another four minutes. What’s wrong with every time they review a play to go to commercial? If the ref has his answer and you want the suspense, then wait until TV comes back and let them say it. If you want it made for TV type situations, then that’s the way to do it. That’s very frustrating to me, and it’s frustrating to the referees, but TV controls all this stuff and there is nothing you can do. If you open it up to let’s review pass interference calls to where we can be first and 10 on the 35 as opposed to first and 25 on the -25 then I think we should probably review it. We might all be a lot happier right now, but if you start giving them the opportunity to do that, then we are going to be there for five hours.