MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia University football coach Dana Holgorsen addressed members of the media on Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2017, at the Milan Puskar Center Team Room.
 
Opening Statement
There's nothing like facing another Top-15 opponent. We're really excited about that. Iowa State is playing well, it's very well-documented. Everybody that watches any TV or gets on Twitter or whatever understands what they've done the last month. Ever since that Thursday night game against Texas, and they're sitting there at 2-2, they had the quarterback change heading into Oklahoma – that's not a very favorable situation for anybody – and they've done nothing but have success since then. Give them all the credit in the world, give their coaches credit, give their players credit, give the whole program credit for being in the situation where they're sitting here at 6-2 and 13th or 14th in the country, or whatever it is, and very deservingly so. They lost a tough one to Iowa early, which that one can always go back and forth, and then the Texas situation that we all watched. Since then, they've played so well. The win at Oklahoma, which as we know is extremely hard, shutting out Kansas, winning in Lubbock, which is always hard and then basically shutting out TCU. They're playing well as a whole team, not just one side. They're playing well as a whole team.
 
If you look offensively, nobody takes care of the ball better than they are. Since they made the switch to (Kyle) Kempt, who we recruited him and know a lot about him, tall guy that can throw the ball extremely well from Massillon, Ohio, he does a great job of taking care of the ball. He just doesn't screw up. He has three or four 6-4, 6-5, 6-6 receivers that he can throw to that they high point a lot. Obviously, the one that everybody knows about is (Allen) Lazard. He's been there for a decade, it seems like, but they have more than just him that they can throw to. They have a couple other big, tall guys that are starting to come onto the scheme, a big tight end, the (Chase) Allen kid, I think is going to be a really good player. The (Trever) Ryen kid, No. 19, is an interesting story. That guy makes all kinds of plays and is their best special teams player. He's the best punter returner I've seen since Wes Welker, and that's not an exaggeration. So, he's dynamic with everything that he does. He covers punts and has, I think, pinned five inside the five, so he's just a good all-around player that does a lot of good things.
 
It starts with their running back. (David) Montgomery is as good as I've seen; he's made more people miss and has broken more tackles than I've seen yet this year and we've played a lot of good backs. They give it to him about 20 times a game, and then they have (Mike) Warren backing him up, which everybody would like to have him as well. They're big up front, they play hard. It's the same story, regardless of what side you're saying, they're well-coached, they have a lot of older guys that have bought into what they're doing and they're playing very mistake-free, very smart football. They don't get penalized; they're No. 1 in the league in penalties, No. 1 in the league in lack of turnovers, turnover margin, that sort of thing.
 
Obviously, there's a ton of improvement on defense. They're multiple with what they do. They get into four-down fronts, they get into three-down fronts. They'll move their people all around to create confusion. They drop eight a lot and have big, thick guys up front that just hold gaps and play their tails off. Everybody wants to talk about the story with Joel Lanning, which is deservingly so. That guy has to at this point played more snaps in college football than anybody ever with how much he's played offensively and now how much he's played defensively. He plays special teams as well. It's a great story, deservingly so, and he makes just a ton of tackles. The guy next to him, the (Marcel) Spears (Jr.) kid has been Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week twice, so he's all over the place and makes a ton of tackles as well. Their safeties are all fifth-year seniors – (Evrett) Edwards and (Reggie) Wilkerson, and the one everybody wants to talk about (Kamari) Cotton-Moya – they are all three the same; they are sure tacklers and are tough and cover well. They aren't giving up any yards or points, so that's that.
 
Special teams-wise, it's collectively the best specialists we've faced. Their punter hits it exactly where they want him to hit it, his operation time is unbelievable. The place-kicker is almost perfect, he's missed a couple field goals that missed by this much, so he's solid. The kickoff guy kicks it into the end zone, I mentioned the punt returner, the kickoff guys and their coverage units are as good as can be. They've very sound, very smart, very tough. They are just overall a very good football team.
 
We have some work to do, and we have to play well. We have to improve on the things that we didn't do well last week if we want to win this game. I know our guys will be motivated to play, motivated to practice to get a couple of things fixed to where we can go out there and we can compete hard and get a victory this Saturday, which we fully expect to do.  
 
On if Iowa State does anything fancy or just executes well
They're well-coached. That group has been together for a while. I know it's the second year at Iowa State, but the majority of them came over from Toledo. It's just a bunch of Ohio guys that are really good football coaches. Matt (Campbell)'s pedigree, everybody knows. He's grown up in it, he does a great job. He had a lot of his guys come with him to develop this; I mean they're multiple offensively, they want to run the ball, they shift a lot, they motion a lot, they create matchups, they have big receivers that can make plays when they're covered, they're well-coached. Defensively, they get into a bunch of different things and get guys in the right position. They're disciplined with what they do; Iowa State has always kind of been that team. They've always kind of been a hard-working, disciplined, over-achieving bunch. You add that with some top-end players, you add that with really good coaching, a lot of fifth-year seniors, you have the makings of a really good football team. That's what they are is a good football team.
 
On how he's approaching to move forward following last week
I would think determined. If you can't be determined to get out there and coach harder and play harder and practice harder and get to a point where you play harder, then why do you do it? We got beat; they beat us. My assessment of not having the right mentality – and I always pinpoint the run game just because that's where you can see it on the stat sheet – but there are examples everywhere for every position of not having the right mentality that you need to win. The first thing back there on that thing is "toughness". I don't care what program you're talking about, I could argue that it probably doesn't even matter what sport you talk about. If you don't have that, then you're going to have a hard time being successful. You can look at everything that happened from blocking to tackling to sustaining blocks to getting off blocks to running hard and not running hard, all that stuff. We just didn't play as hard as we need to, bottom line. Then, it gets into the turnover aspect of it, it's good to get turnovers and we did a good job forcing some turnovers. You could argue that we forced five with the blocked punt. There were some things that happened, but if you don't have the right mentality to be able to take that and play football, then you're not going to be able to capitalize on that stuff. So, I would think determined. I'm as anxious as anybody to see the determination of our team moving forward.
 
On how much of his job is dealing with mentality and how he got the expertise to handle that
Twenty years of coaching kind of does it. I'm spending more time with it now than I did when all I worried about was drawing plays and getting first downs. Part of the CEO aspect of it is the overall mentality of the whole team. There are individuals that you need to spend a little bit more time with but this message moving forward is going to be important.
 
On how difficult it can be to instill toughness at this point in the season
We're going to go out and practice; that's the only way I know how to. Things have been addressed with the staff and with expectations of each and every one of their players. It all starts with me; I have to be in the right frame of mind when this meeting starts in a couple of hours and how we teach and go outside to prepare. We have to get out there and work hard; there's no easy way to do it. Roll the sleeves up and get out there and practice your tail off. That's about it.
 
On timing being off on offense
It's the same mentality I've been talking about. If you think for a minute about having a mentally and physically tough football player, they run routes fast, they break off resistance, they attack the ball, they're fast. Then, you have up front guys having to lock things down and create space to be able to make that throw. We put a lot of (redshirt junior quarterback) Will (Grier), there's no question about that, we put a lot on Will, but there's a toughness that needs to exist with the quarterback in the pocket of setting your feet and being mentally tough and working the pocket like he's done great at all year and setting the feet with proper technique and throwing the ball like he knows how to throw it. It's everybody. If the whole team was not in the right frame of mind mentally, then that's 100 percent on me. The timing that didn't exist with our pass game last week – and we can sit here and talk about the run game if you want to, you know what's going to come out of my mouth – there's a toughness that has to be able to exist from the passing game as well. Receivers have to line up the right way and come off the ball and fight through people that are going to try to cover you and attack the ball and create separation and keep your feet and go vertical. You didn't see that out of one of our receivers last week; they were every bit as bad as anybody up front when it came to having to protect or having to run block the appropriate way. There's no one I can excuse offensively. It's everybody that lined up.
 
On what he's seeing out of the run game
It's us not being very physical or tough or whatever it is. You can say, 'Well, that's because the (offensive) line doesn't run block the way we want to", but it does not stop there; my finger is not pointing at the five guys up front. It kind of starts there because you can really gauge it at the point of attack – and we can get to defense if you want, I can say the same thing about basically everybody on that side as well – the point of attack is important. But then there's the aspect of running backs understanding things and hitting it the right way and running hard. It's okay to break a tackle every now and then; the guy that we're about to face breaks a whole lot of them. Get hit and move forward. Then, there are receivers that are involved that once the back gets out in the open, it's okay to run fast and put their hands on people and block people. That's how you spring people. It's the same mentality. And, again, every bit of this is 100 percent on my shoulders. The way that we approach practice, the way we go through practice, it needs to be better moving forward. I don't think that we're far off, we've had that mentality a lot here over the last three, four years, and we did earlier in the year as well. We have to get it back now.
 
On redshirt sophomore linebacker David Long Jr.
I'd hate to sit here and talk bad about that kid. I'm not talking bad about anybody, I'm just saying collectively, as a whole group, the mentality that needs to exist. We've been bragging about David for quite some time. He had a great freshman year, lost him in the summer, which we felt like we lost our best defensive player. Then, he comes back on-time and probably took him a couple of weeks to get his feet underneath him a little bit. He played outstanding; you can't block him. He keeps his feet, he's getting banged up, and he still makes tackles. Outstanding performance for him. I've been bragging about (redshirt senior linebacker Al-Rasheed Benton) all year, and Al has been playing well. There's nine other positions out there that if those nine other positions don't play like that, we're going to give up 50. That's about the bottom line. You can't play defense with one or two guys. Everything starts up front; we have some young kids that need to not be young anymore, which is unfortunate and it's hard to have to play with young guys. We need all those guys to play hard, play physical, be tough, grow up, man up. It starts up front, but then we need the back-end to play better as well. There were way too many missed tackles, way too many guys stuck on blocks.
 
On how many of his former quarterbacks could play linebacker like Iowa State's Joel Lanning
Well, it wouldn't be Clint (Trickett). I haven't had many, I think Skyler (Howard) had that mentality. He was tough and physical and smart and could run. But the Lanning kid is a different breed. He's tough at quarterback; if you're not tough at quarterback, then I doubt you could have a chance at being tough at linebacker. Everything I'm saying about the mentality that needs to exist, he clearly has it. I don't know him but I'm assuming he's a pretty smart kid as well. He sees a lot. We've talked a lot about (junior wide receiver) David Sills (V) and his quarterback background allows him to be able to do some smart things in running routes, I'm sure that helps him as well, just seeing things and studying film, he see things happen probably before they happen, which I think (redshirt senior linebacker Al-Rasheed Benton) has a lot of those qualities as well. High football IQ.
 
On if the team has lost the right mentality over the course of the season
I don't have those answers, honestly. It's not like we quit talking about it. I don't think we've practiced a whole lot different. We have some inexperienced guys that need to grow up and do a little better. It's an excuse that nobody wants to hear, but it hurts losing probably six fifth-year seniors that are (offensive) line guys, (defensive) line guys, especially over the course of the season. It probably showed last week for the first time.