MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Coach Bill Stewart, Coach Kirelawich and Coach Johnson quotes following Saturday afternoon's practice:

Head Coach Bill Stewart

The day started off today with a nice one vs. one drill and that got everyone excited. Then we worked on our kicking game, and today Pat McAfee missed a couple of hits, but, he hit a big 49-yard field goal; I’m not worried about him. We were down two points and we had 1:30 on the clock, and that was good on both sides. I thought the defense did a nice job of ‘icing’ him and that seems to fire Pat (McAfee) up, so that was good on their part.

The drills were intense. Our pass skeleton drill went well, and there were a couple of interference calls made today. I was frustrated with that but that is why you have the BIG EAST officials. That was neat that they were there, and it was really good that they came to help us.

On the offense
Pat (White) was sharp, Jarrett (Brown) was sharp and Bradley (Starks) was sharp. Both of those guys (Jarrett Brown and Bradley Starks) could have played today, but when I rolled the dice, and I saw JT Thomas making big hits, you hate to baby them, but you have to keep that in mind.

Noel (Devine) and Jock Sanders were in gold shirts today, and they were moving very quickly, making plays, and they are doing a tremendous job. I kept them out today, because being the last day of camp, I didn’t want anyone to fall on them. We have two weeks to go and maybe I’m paranoid, but I feel so bad for all of our athletes all over America right now that can’t play because of an injury. It’s sickening to see young men out there trying to do the best they can do and low and behold, they get hurt. I keep praying hard, not only for the Mountaineers but for young men all over this country to stay healthy. It’s really frustrating to see people get hurt, and I’m praying that it doesn’t happen to us. I hate that it happens to other people.

But that is why I kept both Noel and Jock out; both can play and both are good and now both are frustrated with me. That’s ok, and I’m big enough to handle those two little munchkins. They better tag team if they want to take this guy on.

What was good today was that we had No. 11 play No. 5 to start the scrimmage and that was neat. Now the No. 2’s went in there, and Coley (White) played and it’s a little too fast for him right now, but he is quick with his hands.

On the number of plays
I was counting plays, and we had 40 plays with the No. 1’s, without the two minute drill which was good for them. Then we had 30 plays with the No. 2’s so that was good. We then went onto the two minute drill and that added nine more plays.

One of the most frustrating things today was the illegal formation, because that’s just a lack of concentration and coaching-that’s on Bill Stewart. No. 28 was lined up in the back field, and he cost us a big third down. Then Don Barclay was trying to handle Larry Ford, and I’ll tell you that he is bringing some stuff to us. He was in the back field trying to get some help and then we had a holding call. Larry Ford is pretty good. When you see Zac Cooper and Larry Ford coming, you better be pretty good. For a red-shirt freshman, he’s doing ok. They called it chop block, and I’m going to have to look at film hard because we don’t let our guys chop, and we never have, except on screens. I saw the block by Selvish Capers, but I didn’t see the one by Mike Dent. I don’t know if he had a hand on him or what, but he is a very good blocker. That call frustrated me, because I was watching that nobody got their legs hurt. It looked to me that Josh Taylor had an ankle rolled up, and this is what we preach to the guys-don’t cut your buddy.

There were a lot of good things out there today, and I think our defense played outstanding. Again, two interference calls with one in the pass skeleton drill and the other one which was frustrating to see. The bottom line is that we gave the No. 1’s good work with 40 plays, the No. 2’s 30 plays, and we got points when we were down two and we made the kick. That was a big kick by Pat McAfee.

On the kick off
The kick off was live. I told them to stay up, and don’t tackle the guys who were returning the ball. That looked pretty good from field level, but I will watch the film tomorrow.

I was pleased with our quarterbacks, and they are doing a really nice job doing their schemes. Alric Arnett and Tito Gonzales had some big catches. No. 21, Dorrell Jelloh has an infection in his foot, and he is on antibiotics, so we held him today. The doctors are going to check him late tonight, and he’ll have treatment tomorrow, because we don’t want it to fester so he was the only one that didn’t play much today.

Tyler Urban is going to be a good one, and he is going to be special. He made some big catches. He did some good work to get the drive going. I would have liked to see Noel (Devine) and Jock (Sanders) in the two minute drill, but we’d been doing it all camp, and I just didn’t want anyone to fall on them.

The offensive line had a good camp, and today they looked good. The No. 2 offensive line struggled a little bit today but they did handle some things so we have to work on that.

On the defense
Defensively, I thought the secondary competed pretty well. Ellis Lankster got caught looking in the back trying to throw a deep ball, and he just missed it so he got an interference call. I thought Brandon Hogan, again, made some nice plays. Robert Sands is going to be a player. Boogie Allen got a little stinger, and he did some nice things. Blitzing, I saw No. 11, Sidney Glover coming off the edge and Nate Sowers had a nice blitz. We’re going to bring it, and people better be able to block us. I really thought our defense played outstanding today, and they did a very nice job. It looked like what Mountaineer defense should, would and has.

On the team’s progress
We are where we need to be right now, and we have two weeks to get ready for our first opponent. We can’t wait to play. The guys have their families in town tonight, and I hope they have fun and stay out of the news. We talked to them about being mature adults and not being the weak link. They are still under curfew, and they will be under curfew until I tell them otherwise, which will probably be sometime in January. You have to keep them focused.

On Julian Miller
Julian Miller No. 97 got rolled up, but he came back and played.

On Larry Ford
No one could block him today. In the two minute drill, he was smoking and that cat was rolling. Coach Kirelawich was pushing him hard, and it was nice to see that. Zac Cooper, Pat Liebig, and Larry Ford are huge for us. Josh Taylor too, he’s tough.

On the kick return
The return we use is based upon hand signals. Our guys will see the flight of the ball, they don’t have to worry where it’s kicked, and they put their eyes on one guy. Noel Devine makes the call and then we put our hips a certain way and let them run. It’s an outstanding return, and it’s what we led the league with. These returners are such slashers and if you had a slasher, this is the return that you’d use. Our slasher last year was Steve Slaton, and the other one was Noel Devine. We didn’t use them as much but now we’re back to that return.

On Pat White
He did force a ball but he with Pat, has such a quick release. If you were down there on the red zone, Pat took the ball on the snap, cocked his eyes and immediately threw a bullet. He would have never made that play before. What we did was that we used motion and flooded him with quads. If the defense, shifts we use the flood. He was caught one time in camp by Mortty Ivy.

Today, he had a couple touch sacks, but they never would have gotten him. You can’t bring that kid down with one hand because he’s gone.

If we put No. 5 and No. 7 in the game, we’ll score a touchdown on anybody. Mark Rodgers made a couple big runs today, and that was special. I know what No. 7, No. 9 and No. 5 can do. Today, I wanted to see what our receivers could do and what our offensive line could do. That is why we threw the ball so much today. I want to see them under fire. In the past, when we’re under fire and we have to throw, we’re not that successful, so that’s what we’ll work on.

Defensive Line Coach Bill Kirelawich

On Julian Miller
He babied himself today, and he needs to grow up. I can’t stand that. Football is a game where you get knocked around, and it’s a game of bumps and bruises and that’s what happens. Live with it.

His overall thoughts on the defensive line
Overall the effort has been okay. We’re very athletic, and I think we have to get better. We make too many mistakes, and I think our conditioning has to get better as a unit. We have to be ready to go, eight or nine plays in a row, and I don’t think we’re there yet. I think they learn quickly, they’re easy to coach and they are good kids. No coach ever thinks he has enough depth, and I’m one of them. You can’t have too many good players.

When you’re in a situation like we’re in, we have good players and then we have game-ready players. A guy can be good, but he may not be ready to be put in the game just yet in a rotation. If you think of a baseball rotation, it’s the same thing. Every fourth or fifth day, you are going to pitch. You have x amount of guys that you are going to rotate in and out of the game so you have a number of guys that can play different position.

Next week, I’ll start with Pat Liebig at tackle, Chris Neild is going to stay at nose and Scooter (Berry) is going to go to end, because I want a bigger group. If someone wants to get snot-nosed with us or try to push the ball down our throat, I want to get the big guys out there who can hang in there with them. Now, if they want to throw the ball, I’ll have Larry at one end and Zac Cooper at the other and I’ll have a quick team. This is the flexibility, and I can add Julian to that too because he’s getting better by the week. He’s the most improved kid from summer until now. I like to have the flexibility to do that.

On Larry Ford
Larry has done pretty well. This is what some of the younger guys don’t understand, there is playing football and then there is our way of playing football. That’s an awful, egotistical, self-serving thing but there is our way of playing football. We play fast, we get to the ball, and we hit. We do all of the little things that the other guys wish their teams did. When the recruits come in here, they have to understand that they have to take what they have and take it to another level. We’re not going to ask them to do it; we’re going to demand that they do it. They are going to do it, or they will be gone. Our way or the highway and that’s the way it’s going to be. I say that without trying to sound mean, because I don’t mean to be but there is a certain level you have to perform at here. We play different here than were he came from.

You are going to have to play when he’s tired, and Larry found that out today. He’s going to have to push himself when he’s tired, because that’s what good football players do. Good football players play hurt. Good football players push themselves when they’re tired. Good football players go above and beyond what they have to. Larry is a good football player and he’s going to do all of those things. It just has to be made known to him that there are no exceptions, that’s the rule.

On Pat Liebig
There’s a little bit of rust, and there has to be. It’s not as much rust as you think. The more he’ll play, the better he’ll be. I have no worries about Pat Liebig, because he’ll fit right in and has fit right in already.

Offensive Line Coach Dave Johnson

His overall thoughts on the offensive line
I think we’re progressing, and that we have a long way to go but we’re making strides. We have great leadership in Ryan Stanchek and Greg Isdaner. We have some guys that are leaders, and we’re making progress. I’m not satisfied right now where we are, but we’re going in the right direction. I think they do a lot of things well. They are mature and that is something that has settled inside of me as a coach, because they can be handed certain situations. It gives you freedom as a coach, because they can make decisions on the line of scrimmage. We do give them different techniques for different things, and they get to choose which one they want to use in some cases. They have the maturity to do that. Things happen so fast and during changes so quickly at the line of scrimmage that those guys give you the ability to adjust. It’s nice to have seven or eight guys you can trust.

On Mike Dent
He does. He is so competitive, and those guys forget that the snap is job number one. He wants to go run his face into someone so hard and so quick, but it’s something that he has to focus on. Sometime he holds on to the ball to late because you do get tense but that’s when it goes different places. That’s something we have to continue to work on, and we do it everyday. He needs to focus on that and he needs to remember that job No. 1 as a center is to make sure that the quarterback gets the football.

On the first string position
There are still some battles. I am satisfied with the No. 1’s, but there are some questions that will be answered in the next couple days. Looking at this tape, we will make decisions but there is always room for movement, and you want a competitive situation. You don’t want anyone to relax and you want to keep guys fresh. We’re not solid on it yet. We’re trying to make a decision on the best guys. They will separate themselves and it is close, but it comes down to preparation. It’s who gets the reps and we will know.

You have to have a plan if someone goes down. You try to prepare guys in different spots, because if that does happen, you are ready to put your next best lineman in that spot. That’s what we’ve been trying to do this week, because if you we do have an emergency, we want our next best player in the spot, and not necessarily the back up to that position.

On Josh Jenkins
The next snap is big for him, and the next play is big for him. Every play, just about is a new learning experience for him. He’s learning about the speed of the game and the strength of the players. He has to learn to work with fellow lineman to work schemes so he is learning every day. Every series and every play is big for him. All that stuff is new to him and so are the techniques. I’m pleased with him, because he knows who to block but not very pleased on how he blocks. That comes with time-he’s a freshman. He’s very talented. He has some punch and some power to him so I’m pleased where he is. He just needs to continue to play hard and learn his play book. He spends a lot of time with Ryan Stancek and they watch film together to learn. That’s good.