IT'S GAME WEEK!
August 29, 2011 01:15 PM | General
After nearly a month of practice, it’s about time to start getting some answers about just how good Dana Holgorsen’s first football team at West Virginia University is. The predictions run the gamut from as high as No. 4 in the nation by the New York Daily News to just outside the Top 25 in the preseason ESPN/USA Today Coaches’ Poll.
Holgorsen is just like the rest of us – anxious to see how his team performs for the first time this Sunday in the Friends of Coal Bowl against Marshall.
“We’ve had a good three weeks,” Holgorsen said on today’s Big East Conference coaches’ teleconference. “Every year at this time you get to the point when, one, you don’t know how good you are and, two, you can’t get any better until you play a game. Our guys are anxious and excited about game week, and this is our second week of being in school and they’ve kind of got into a bit of a routine.”
Holgorsen said the players are off today and will begin delving deeply into the Marshall game plan beginning on Tuesday.
“I haven’t talked too much about (Marshall) because I’ve been worried about ourselves getting a little bit better, but we will really hone in on Marshall. We will watch film today as a staff, develop our game plan, and then tomorrow we’ll bring the kids in and really get them to understand what Marshall is about,” Holgorsen said.
“There is a lot of familiarity,” he added. “We played them last year. I coached against them a couple of years ago. They are a very young team. This is the second year that Coach (Doc) Holliday has been there so they are going to be more familiar with what all of their schemes are and then all those young kids who played last year are going to be a year better.”
Teleconference tidbits …
- Holgorsen said he is no closer today to naming a starting running back than he was two weeks ago and will likely wait until the end of the week to see who practices the best.
“The three true freshmen, based on them being true freshmen, we don’t know how they are going to handle that situation,” he explained. “What you do in practice is one thing. Once you get into an actionable game situation will probably be better for one or two of them, and probably it won’t be as good for one or two of them. All three of those guys will play. We will probably figure out who practices well this week and that will determine who goes in first. I can’t name a starter but I can tell you all three of those guys are going to play.”
Holgorsen has said that a total of seven different running backs will play against Marshall in some capacity. He reiterated that once again on Monday.
“There are seven bodies and all of them will play special teams as well. It’s hard to get all seven of them the ball,” Holgorsen said. “Three of them will be bigger fullback kind of guys, which we use those guys in a variety of ways … from fullbacks to tight ends to wing guys and all that stuff – try to create some leverage and some gaps to try and get them the ball down the field. Whichever one of those skilled guys actually gets the hot hand is the one we will try to go with.”
- Holgorsen was asked by a Tulsa reporter why he doesn’t use a paper playbook. Holgorsen provided an interesting response, “It all stems back to Hal (Mumme) and Mike (Leach) and those guys just having a good idea of what they’re doing. When we were at Texas Tech Mike hired myself, Bill Bedenbaugh and Robert (Gillespie) – guys who all knew the system as well. I guess the thought process on it is that we don’t want people staring at a piece of paper.
“We want them to understand it based on watching film, seeing how it’s done right, seeing how it’s done wrong, and then going out there and trial-and-error it on your own. And then watching yourself do it and if it’s wrong you make adjustments,” Holgorsen said. “We put together a few mini-playbook things that are always on video, it’s never on paper. It makes more sense to us.”
- Holgorsen said sophomore Pat Eger has nudged ahead of redshirt freshman Quinton Spain at the right tackle position.
“If we’re playing tomorrow we’re playing Pat,” he said. “He’s just been playing better, so we’ll put him down as the starter. Obviously all positions are what-have- you-done-for- me-lately? as far as we will have four good practices this week and if we still think Pat is ahead of Quinton then we will play Pat. Quinton right now will be the backup to both tackles. He’s our third tackle and if we need him to go into the game we feel comfortable putting him into the game.”
Overall, Holgorsen said most of the positions battles are becoming clearer to the coaching staff, although he is not all that hung up on who starts because many guys will play anyway.
“You guys (media types) care about starters more than we do, and probably the players think about being a starter more than we do,” he said. “All of the skill positions those things just keep rotating. You are going to see a lot of guys rotating until they really establish themselves. It’s not something we focus on too much. You want continuity but you want it over time, you don’t just want to give it to a guy. You want to make him earn it.”
- Holgorsen was asked his thoughts on defensive end Bruce Irvin becoming an every-down player this fall.
“He has been practicing every down all through camp. Whether he can be every down as good as he is on specific pass rush things time will tell,” Holgorsen said. “He set the bar pretty high as being a third-down pass rusher. You want a guy out there who does everything right and is good at all facets. I don’t know if he can play to that level on all downs, but you’ve got to get him into a game and make him play 60-70 snaps to figure that out.”
- All coaches prepare for ghosts and unknowns in the season opener and Holgorsen admits he will have to do some guesswork trying to figure out who will be Marshall’s starting quarterback and running back. Holgorsen said Marshall will have to do some guesswork figuring out West Virginia’s personnel and schemes as well.
“It’s just part of the problems you face every year the first game or two,” he explained. “There are always unknowns. There are things offensively that we are doing, if you look at every tape last year from Oklahoma State, you are not going to see some of that stuff. There are some things we are doing defensively over the course of an off-season Jeff (Casteel) and the guys got together and wanted to change some things. That’s the natural reality of playing a first game. You do your best to try and anticipate what they are going to do. You get your kids prepared to, one, go out there and play mentally and physically and be fired up about it but, two, also be able to make adjustments throughout the game when you actually figure out what they’re doing.”
- Holgorsen said defensive end Julian Miller should be good to go for Sunday. Miller has been bothered all camp by a nagging ankle injury.
“He was in the red for quite some time and then got elevated to a green, which was obviously some precaution last week,” Holgorsen said. “From what we understand, he is supposed to be cleared for the whole week - he ran around pretty good yesterday.
As for the interior of the defensive line, Holgorsen says defensive line coach Bill Kirelawich would like to see more from the three guys trying to replace stalwart Chris Neild, now playing for the Washington Redskins.
“If you ask Kirlav we don’t have any, we’re just going to delete that spot from the defense,” Holgorsen joked. “Jorge Wright is there and he’s been off and on. We want him to be more consistent. He’s shown flashes of being pretty good and he’s shown flashes of being a little lazy. We’ve got him and a couple of other guys and we will plug them in there and see how they do.”
Holgorsen is just like the rest of us – anxious to see how his team performs for the first time this Sunday in the Friends of Coal Bowl against Marshall.
“We’ve had a good three weeks,” Holgorsen said on today’s Big East Conference coaches’ teleconference. “Every year at this time you get to the point when, one, you don’t know how good you are and, two, you can’t get any better until you play a game. Our guys are anxious and excited about game week, and this is our second week of being in school and they’ve kind of got into a bit of a routine.”
Holgorsen said the players are off today and will begin delving deeply into the Marshall game plan beginning on Tuesday.
“I haven’t talked too much about (Marshall) because I’ve been worried about ourselves getting a little bit better, but we will really hone in on Marshall. We will watch film today as a staff, develop our game plan, and then tomorrow we’ll bring the kids in and really get them to understand what Marshall is about,” Holgorsen said.
“There is a lot of familiarity,” he added. “We played them last year. I coached against them a couple of years ago. They are a very young team. This is the second year that Coach (Doc) Holliday has been there so they are going to be more familiar with what all of their schemes are and then all those young kids who played last year are going to be a year better.”
Teleconference tidbits …
- Holgorsen said he is no closer today to naming a starting running back than he was two weeks ago and will likely wait until the end of the week to see who practices the best.
“The three true freshmen, based on them being true freshmen, we don’t know how they are going to handle that situation,” he explained. “What you do in practice is one thing. Once you get into an actionable game situation will probably be better for one or two of them, and probably it won’t be as good for one or two of them. All three of those guys will play. We will probably figure out who practices well this week and that will determine who goes in first. I can’t name a starter but I can tell you all three of those guys are going to play.”
Holgorsen has said that a total of seven different running backs will play against Marshall in some capacity. He reiterated that once again on Monday.
“There are seven bodies and all of them will play special teams as well. It’s hard to get all seven of them the ball,” Holgorsen said. “Three of them will be bigger fullback kind of guys, which we use those guys in a variety of ways … from fullbacks to tight ends to wing guys and all that stuff – try to create some leverage and some gaps to try and get them the ball down the field. Whichever one of those skilled guys actually gets the hot hand is the one we will try to go with.”
- Holgorsen was asked by a Tulsa reporter why he doesn’t use a paper playbook. Holgorsen provided an interesting response, “It all stems back to Hal (Mumme) and Mike (Leach) and those guys just having a good idea of what they’re doing. When we were at Texas Tech Mike hired myself, Bill Bedenbaugh and Robert (Gillespie) – guys who all knew the system as well. I guess the thought process on it is that we don’t want people staring at a piece of paper.
“We want them to understand it based on watching film, seeing how it’s done right, seeing how it’s done wrong, and then going out there and trial-and-error it on your own. And then watching yourself do it and if it’s wrong you make adjustments,” Holgorsen said. “We put together a few mini-playbook things that are always on video, it’s never on paper. It makes more sense to us.”
- Holgorsen said sophomore Pat Eger has nudged ahead of redshirt freshman Quinton Spain at the right tackle position.
“If we’re playing tomorrow we’re playing Pat,” he said. “He’s just been playing better, so we’ll put him down as the starter. Obviously all positions are what-have- you-done-for- me-lately? as far as we will have four good practices this week and if we still think Pat is ahead of Quinton then we will play Pat. Quinton right now will be the backup to both tackles. He’s our third tackle and if we need him to go into the game we feel comfortable putting him into the game.”
Overall, Holgorsen said most of the positions battles are becoming clearer to the coaching staff, although he is not all that hung up on who starts because many guys will play anyway.
“You guys (media types) care about starters more than we do, and probably the players think about being a starter more than we do,” he said. “All of the skill positions those things just keep rotating. You are going to see a lot of guys rotating until they really establish themselves. It’s not something we focus on too much. You want continuity but you want it over time, you don’t just want to give it to a guy. You want to make him earn it.”
- Holgorsen was asked his thoughts on defensive end Bruce Irvin becoming an every-down player this fall.
“He has been practicing every down all through camp. Whether he can be every down as good as he is on specific pass rush things time will tell,” Holgorsen said. “He set the bar pretty high as being a third-down pass rusher. You want a guy out there who does everything right and is good at all facets. I don’t know if he can play to that level on all downs, but you’ve got to get him into a game and make him play 60-70 snaps to figure that out.”
- All coaches prepare for ghosts and unknowns in the season opener and Holgorsen admits he will have to do some guesswork trying to figure out who will be Marshall’s starting quarterback and running back. Holgorsen said Marshall will have to do some guesswork figuring out West Virginia’s personnel and schemes as well.
“It’s just part of the problems you face every year the first game or two,” he explained. “There are always unknowns. There are things offensively that we are doing, if you look at every tape last year from Oklahoma State, you are not going to see some of that stuff. There are some things we are doing defensively over the course of an off-season Jeff (Casteel) and the guys got together and wanted to change some things. That’s the natural reality of playing a first game. You do your best to try and anticipate what they are going to do. You get your kids prepared to, one, go out there and play mentally and physically and be fired up about it but, two, also be able to make adjustments throughout the game when you actually figure out what they’re doing.”
- Holgorsen said defensive end Julian Miller should be good to go for Sunday. Miller has been bothered all camp by a nagging ankle injury.
“He was in the red for quite some time and then got elevated to a green, which was obviously some precaution last week,” Holgorsen said. “From what we understand, he is supposed to be cleared for the whole week - he ran around pretty good yesterday.
As for the interior of the defensive line, Holgorsen says defensive line coach Bill Kirelawich would like to see more from the three guys trying to replace stalwart Chris Neild, now playing for the Washington Redskins.
“If you ask Kirlav we don’t have any, we’re just going to delete that spot from the defense,” Holgorsen joked. “Jorge Wright is there and he’s been off and on. We want him to be more consistent. He’s shown flashes of being pretty good and he’s shown flashes of being a little lazy. We’ve got him and a couple of other guys and we will plug them in there and see how they do.”
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