MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Each year, coaching staffs across the country assemble and go over all of the things their teams did well, all of the things they didn't do well and all of the things they want to see improved during the spring.
 
West Virginia's Dana Holgorsen is no different.
 
Prior to today's practice, Holgorsen said he was happy that his offense was able to score more efficiently in 2017.
 
"We finished drives better with touchdowns," he said.
 
It was better - a lot better. Two years ago, when the Mountaineers won 10 games and finished tied with Oklahoma State for second place in the Big 12, West Virginia moved the football comfortably between the 20s but frequently ran into a brick wall once it got close to the other team's end zone.
 
Holgorsen discussed often the need to recruit bigger, more physical wide receivers to help West Virginia score more touchdowns in the passing game.
 
So, in came 6-foot-4-inch, 204-pound wide receiver David Sills V and up went the Mountaineer touchdown total. Sills was responsible for a nation's-best 18 himself, helping WVU go from a 58-percent red zone touchdown efficiency rate in 2016 to a 68-percent touchdown red zone touchdown success rate last season.
 
That's a significant jump, and it's a credit to the coaching staff for addressing the area and making the necessary changes to get it right.
 
"We have had multiple conversations about this; we need to score a little bit more and finish with more touchdowns," Holgorsen said. "That Will Grier and David Sills connection has something to do with that."
 
The Mountaineers also got more rushing touchdowns from senior tailback Justin Crawford, who nearly doubled his rushing TD output from four his junior season to seven last year.
 
Crawford is gone so the onus is on this year's group of running backs, which will also include touted prep standout Leddie Brown, who arrives later this summer.
 
Junior Kennedy McKoy crossed the goal line seven times last year and 11 times for his career. Junior Martell Pettaway got into the end zone twice a season ago and three times for his career.
 
Redshirt freshman Alec Sinkfield is another threat at running back the coaching staff is high on.
 
"I don't know if we are going to have a featured, 1,000-yard guy, I'll let that work itself out," Holgorsen said. "The three we have there right now, those guys look pretty good to me. It's going to be fun to watch those guys compete.
"The run game probably has a little more to do with what those guys up front do," Holgorsen added. "How they are targeted, how much mass they have and how they can move people. We will have a ton of success with it, but exactly who are the guys that are going to end up doing it, I don't know."
 
Holgorsen said he was also content with the field position his team was getting on punt returns. Marcus Simms didn't rip off any long returns last year, his longest being 23 yards, but he consistently caught the ball in the air meaning the football wasn't bouncing backwards another 25, 30 yards from where it landed.
 
Hidden yardage was not a big issue at all last season.
 
"Punt return was not great when you look at it," he said. "But I don't measure punt return with how many yards per return we have. That's a stat we keep, but to me it's irrelevant. I thought we did a great job fielding the thing and having some space to field it; we just didn't get any of them out."
 
Two of the areas Holgorsen said his team needs improving this spring and beyond are the two companion areas to red zone scoring and punt return - red-zone defense and punt coverage.
 
The defense in 2016 was terrific keeping opposing offenses out of the end zone once it reached the 20. Teams were only successful 50 percent of the time scoring touchdowns against the Mountaineers when entering the red zone.
 
Last year, that number increased to 62 percent, which resulted in 12 additional touchdowns for the opposition.
 
"We have been pretty good at preventing touchdowns - drives ending with touchdowns, and we weren't very good with that last year," Holgorsen pointed out.
 
Punt coverage also was pretty solid in 2016, but it slipped a little bit last season.
 
"Billy (Kinney) and our personnel had something to do with that," Holgorsen said. "We didn't do a very good job, and we have to improve on that. We'll emphasize that - what's the margin between punt and punt return."
 
Holgorsen said he could list another 15 to 18 examples of things they must emphasize this spring to work on before fall camp begins.
 
"We'll do that in-house, and it's going to take a bunch of time to be able to get our points across," he said. "We'll take something today and try to get a little better at it. That isn't going to change over the summer, and that isn't going to change in August either."
 


Practice Bits: Holgorsen announced Wednesday that quarterback Chris Chugunov, defensive lineman Jaleel Fields and wide receiver Ricky Rogers will graduate this spring and will not be members of the squad in 2018 … The backup quarterbacks behind Grier this season will be Miami transfer Jack Allison and true freshman Trey Lowe III … Holgorsen said Allison "spins it around pretty good" and had a "good scout team for us all year" … Holgorsen said the best way not to have short quarterbacks in your program is to not recruit short quarterbacks … Allison is the tallest of WVU's QBs, standing 6-feet-6 inches … Lowe has good size as well at 6-feet-2 inches and 210 pounds … Holgorsen indicated Wednesday there could be a couple of current players on the squad who could wind up earning scholarships by the beginning of fall camp, "I could probably tell you who they are, and I think I would probably end up being right, but I'd rather let those guys compete hard in the spring before we can technically put them on," he said … One area of the offense that is undergoing a significant change is tight end, which now has a couple of scholarship guys there in senior Trevon Wesco and Miami transfer Jovani Haskins - and will have a couple more coming on board this summer …  Holgorsen indicated he is not sure how much of what they work on with the tight ends will be a part of the offensive package this fall … "It's pretty exciting to be able to mess around with that stuff, that's for sure," he said … One area that could be really strong for West Virginia this season is placekicker, where emerging sophomore Evan Staley will battle Western Kentucky transfer Skyler Simcox this spring … Simcox made two 50-yard field goals at WKU, scored 118 points during his sophomore season and was a Groza Award candidate … "We are going to come up with a bunch of different ways for these guys to be able to compete against each other," Holgorsen said … Staley made significant improvement toward the end of last season and converted 85.7 percent of his field goal attempts while being responsible for 27 touchbacks on kickoffs … The team will practice again today, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday this week.