Football: Coach Holgorsen Press Conference
August 05, 2011 09:51 PM | General
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Coach Dana Holgorsen's press conference following the first day of the 2011 WVU football camp.
On the first day of camp....
From day one standards, it was ok. Obviously that wasn’t real football, but it was really exciting for everyone involved – the coaches, players, administrators – to get out there and just play football. That was probably the big thing from today. We got into a routine today, and we’ll show up tomorrow with basically the same routine and get a little bit better.
On the team’s conditioning as a whole…
You can tell some of the guys didn’t do what they were supposed to. I think we had a good summer and coach (Mike) Joseph did a good job. A lot of our bodies were better. There were some guys that didn’t do much because academic situations prohibited them, and you can tell that took a toll on them. There are about 10 of them, and I’m not going to comment on them. Academics always come first, and they had to try to get eligible.
On those that stood out from a conditioning standpoint…
Tavon (Austin) looks good. Both of the freshmen running backs looked good. Devon Brown looked good, physically. I can’t really think of anyone from the offensive line, because we weren’t in pads and it doesn’t count.
From the defensive side, Keith Tandy looked spectacular. Again, this is day one, on grass and without hitting.
Eain Smith was out there again – he looked good. Darwin Cook looked good, and Pat Miller made a few plays. Najee Goode looked good. The defensive line – again, you can’t really tell.
On the health of the team…
Brad Starks is limited. He’s playing, but you can tell he’s weak. He wasn’t exactly Hercules before his injury, and he hasn’t been able to lift much, upper-body wise, since he got hurt. You can tell he’s weak, but he’s playing.
Everyone is good to go but Josh Jenkins, which is obvious since Josh won’t be playing until the spring.
On the installation of the offense…
It’s the same thing (as spring ball). That doesn’t change. Offensively, we’re doing the same thing, and Jeff (Casteel) has been doing the same thing for some time now. I think he may install things a lot simpler than we do, which I think is part of what makes them so good.
We’re just focusing on trying to get better at a couple of things, which we did. We did day one, and they (the defense) did their day one installation. Tomorrow, we’ll do our second third, and on Monday we’ll do our third third.
On what needs to be worked through before game preparation…
I’ve got two or three dozen things, based on what I just saw.
From a team perspective, the thing that I have been up here talking to them about more than anything, and this is the same thing I said a few months ago, is that we need to become the best team that we can. We talked about getting on the same page as a team. We want the offense to make the defense better, and the defense to make the offense better. It’s not about beating the other side, it’s about competing and making the other side better.
Turnovers are a big thing. Jeff (Casteel) really preaches those, and he felt that was an area they could really improve upon from last year. That’s the one stat that means more than anything. There are a lot of stats that matter, and a lot that don’t, but that’s the No. 1 thing that matters.
We also talked about taking it just one day at a time. There are a lot of mistakes that are going to be made, but you have to come in the next day with the right frame of mind and believe that you are going to get better from your previous day and continue to just press forward.
On the team’s retention from the spring…
We will revisit this day on Tuesday, which is when we will be back to these specific plays that we ran today. We will watch this film before practice and refresh our memories of what we were bad at and what we were ok at. Then, we’ll go out there and run practice and work on the specific areas that we feel we need to improve on.
On finding a third quarterback…
Yes. I’m looking. I don’t have an answer for it right now. We’ll continue to address it every single day. The one that that doesn’t make sense is to have some coaches out there throwing the ball around.
On the expectations for Paul Millard due to the lack of quarterback depth…
It doesn’t change anything. Paul was clearly No. 2 in the spring and got 50 percent of the reps. I think we understand where we were at with it, and where we are at now. He keeps saying he’s going to beat Geno (Smith) out, and that’s the proper attitude to have.
Geno looked good. There were some things that didn’t look good, but he bounced around well like he usually does. Paul made some good throws, like he usually does. Paul busted about five or six communication issues between him and me, which he usually does. It’s a process. He’s young.
On the importance of a third quarterback…
You really need five. This is the first time I’ve been to a camp when there haven’t been five, and it is something that will be addressed, I can assure you that. We can’t just make them appear at this point.
On how many seasons he’s gone through without a quarterback injury…
Every one. I haven’t had one yet. (knocks on wood) I’m 20-for-20.
On today’s competition between the running backs…
Yes, but not as much as we’d like. We have so many backs, it’s hard to get them a lot of reps. We’ll narrow it down, but it’s too early. It’s the first practice. We’ll watch film, and then play, and keep doing that. We’ll keep adjusting the depth chart – move people up and down. It’s far from over.
I told the whole team it doesn’t matter if you’re first or third right now. We have 20 odd practices here to prove yourself and get better.
On the special teams coaching assignments…
Bill Bedenbaugh stepped in, probably around practice No. 10 in the spring, and we changed some PAT stuff then, and he’s doing it all now.
I’ve got the task of watching the kickers kick. I can’t tell them what they are doing right or wrong, but I can count how many times it goes through the uprights. I’ll make the decisions on who is kicking, and he’ll get the lines squared away up front.
Punt team – Steve Dunlap is doing well. He’s been working with them for the last several years. Dave Lockwood has been working with them. We gave Daron Roberts and Robert Gillespie some more duties with the punt team. Everything else will be the same as it was in the spring.
On what he’s seeing from the kick team…
They made them more than they didn’t make them. Our problem in the spring was that every other one was blocked, so I couldn’t tell you how many were good.
Today, we were on air, and we’ll be on air again tomorrow. Monday, when we put pads on, we’ll start getting a rush and they’ll have to speed things up. We aren’t charting stuff yet.
On the differences between today’s practice and the spring practices…
(There were some). I’ve said it since day one – I’m not interested in trying to coach the defensive scheme. I think we have a good handle on that. I’m interested in trying to figure out who all of the defensive guys are and what motivates them. I want to get to know them. I watch to see how they practice and I watched some of their drills – I didn’t do that in the spring.
Shannon (Dawson), Jake (Spavital) and those guys have a lot more to do with the drills than I do. I did more of that in the spring, but I knew that was going to happen.
On how the new guys looked…
I know some of the defensive guys got yelled at a little bit. I guess that’s nothing new. The two receivers and the two backs did well. They’ve been out there doing seven-on-seven for the last two months, so they are ahead of schedule.
The three linemen that we have didn’t get any reps because that’s the hardest position to come in and learn.
We probably have to give Cody Clay a few more reps.
On narrowing the field down at running back…
We just have to play a lot of football. We have to give them as much time as we can. We’re obviously not the only team that’s in this position right now. I’m not sure if there are a lot of teams that have eight out there.
Just play. Get out there and give them a bunch or reps. We need to evaluate them and see who’s doing well, and those guys will get more reps. That’s the only way to do it. You just have to play a lot of football and figure out who you like and who you don’t.
On keeping his quarterbacks healthy…
I think it has to do with the scheme. We sort out the protections pretty well. We coach the quarterback to get rid of the ball, and we call plays to keep pressure off of him. It’s a lot of scheme and a little bit of coaching.
On whether the team will be more run-heavy or pass-heavy…
Personnel wise, it’s going to take some time to gauge. Just from a personnel point, with the kinds of bodies we have, we are way more similar to Oklahoma State than Houston. Before I came here, I would have guessed the other way – a lot of faster, smaller, down-field guys as opposed to bigger backs, a lot of fullbacks and tight ends.
On redshirting freshmen…
(I lean toward) playing them. We had 16 true freshmen at Oklahoma State last year. We didn’t bring in that many true freshmen, but we’ll play them. I think that’s where all of college football is headed right now because of numbers and lack of depth. It’s typical to play them, especially the skill kids because they’re here all summer and can get adjusted. Linemen are hard. Defensive line is easier than offensive. I haven’t had one o-lineman play in 12 years. It’s hard.
On the first day of camp....
From day one standards, it was ok. Obviously that wasn’t real football, but it was really exciting for everyone involved – the coaches, players, administrators – to get out there and just play football. That was probably the big thing from today. We got into a routine today, and we’ll show up tomorrow with basically the same routine and get a little bit better.
On the team’s conditioning as a whole…
You can tell some of the guys didn’t do what they were supposed to. I think we had a good summer and coach (Mike) Joseph did a good job. A lot of our bodies were better. There were some guys that didn’t do much because academic situations prohibited them, and you can tell that took a toll on them. There are about 10 of them, and I’m not going to comment on them. Academics always come first, and they had to try to get eligible.
On those that stood out from a conditioning standpoint…
Tavon (Austin) looks good. Both of the freshmen running backs looked good. Devon Brown looked good, physically. I can’t really think of anyone from the offensive line, because we weren’t in pads and it doesn’t count.
From the defensive side, Keith Tandy looked spectacular. Again, this is day one, on grass and without hitting.
Eain Smith was out there again – he looked good. Darwin Cook looked good, and Pat Miller made a few plays. Najee Goode looked good. The defensive line – again, you can’t really tell.
On the health of the team…
Brad Starks is limited. He’s playing, but you can tell he’s weak. He wasn’t exactly Hercules before his injury, and he hasn’t been able to lift much, upper-body wise, since he got hurt. You can tell he’s weak, but he’s playing.
Everyone is good to go but Josh Jenkins, which is obvious since Josh won’t be playing until the spring.
On the installation of the offense…
It’s the same thing (as spring ball). That doesn’t change. Offensively, we’re doing the same thing, and Jeff (Casteel) has been doing the same thing for some time now. I think he may install things a lot simpler than we do, which I think is part of what makes them so good.
We’re just focusing on trying to get better at a couple of things, which we did. We did day one, and they (the defense) did their day one installation. Tomorrow, we’ll do our second third, and on Monday we’ll do our third third.
On what needs to be worked through before game preparation…
I’ve got two or three dozen things, based on what I just saw.
From a team perspective, the thing that I have been up here talking to them about more than anything, and this is the same thing I said a few months ago, is that we need to become the best team that we can. We talked about getting on the same page as a team. We want the offense to make the defense better, and the defense to make the offense better. It’s not about beating the other side, it’s about competing and making the other side better.
Turnovers are a big thing. Jeff (Casteel) really preaches those, and he felt that was an area they could really improve upon from last year. That’s the one stat that means more than anything. There are a lot of stats that matter, and a lot that don’t, but that’s the No. 1 thing that matters.
We also talked about taking it just one day at a time. There are a lot of mistakes that are going to be made, but you have to come in the next day with the right frame of mind and believe that you are going to get better from your previous day and continue to just press forward.
On the team’s retention from the spring…
We will revisit this day on Tuesday, which is when we will be back to these specific plays that we ran today. We will watch this film before practice and refresh our memories of what we were bad at and what we were ok at. Then, we’ll go out there and run practice and work on the specific areas that we feel we need to improve on.
On finding a third quarterback…
Yes. I’m looking. I don’t have an answer for it right now. We’ll continue to address it every single day. The one that that doesn’t make sense is to have some coaches out there throwing the ball around.
On the expectations for Paul Millard due to the lack of quarterback depth…
It doesn’t change anything. Paul was clearly No. 2 in the spring and got 50 percent of the reps. I think we understand where we were at with it, and where we are at now. He keeps saying he’s going to beat Geno (Smith) out, and that’s the proper attitude to have.
Geno looked good. There were some things that didn’t look good, but he bounced around well like he usually does. Paul made some good throws, like he usually does. Paul busted about five or six communication issues between him and me, which he usually does. It’s a process. He’s young.
On the importance of a third quarterback…
You really need five. This is the first time I’ve been to a camp when there haven’t been five, and it is something that will be addressed, I can assure you that. We can’t just make them appear at this point.
On how many seasons he’s gone through without a quarterback injury…
Every one. I haven’t had one yet. (knocks on wood) I’m 20-for-20.
On today’s competition between the running backs…
Yes, but not as much as we’d like. We have so many backs, it’s hard to get them a lot of reps. We’ll narrow it down, but it’s too early. It’s the first practice. We’ll watch film, and then play, and keep doing that. We’ll keep adjusting the depth chart – move people up and down. It’s far from over.
I told the whole team it doesn’t matter if you’re first or third right now. We have 20 odd practices here to prove yourself and get better.
On the special teams coaching assignments…
Bill Bedenbaugh stepped in, probably around practice No. 10 in the spring, and we changed some PAT stuff then, and he’s doing it all now.
I’ve got the task of watching the kickers kick. I can’t tell them what they are doing right or wrong, but I can count how many times it goes through the uprights. I’ll make the decisions on who is kicking, and he’ll get the lines squared away up front.
Punt team – Steve Dunlap is doing well. He’s been working with them for the last several years. Dave Lockwood has been working with them. We gave Daron Roberts and Robert Gillespie some more duties with the punt team. Everything else will be the same as it was in the spring.
On what he’s seeing from the kick team…
They made them more than they didn’t make them. Our problem in the spring was that every other one was blocked, so I couldn’t tell you how many were good.
Today, we were on air, and we’ll be on air again tomorrow. Monday, when we put pads on, we’ll start getting a rush and they’ll have to speed things up. We aren’t charting stuff yet.
On the differences between today’s practice and the spring practices…
(There were some). I’ve said it since day one – I’m not interested in trying to coach the defensive scheme. I think we have a good handle on that. I’m interested in trying to figure out who all of the defensive guys are and what motivates them. I want to get to know them. I watch to see how they practice and I watched some of their drills – I didn’t do that in the spring.
Shannon (Dawson), Jake (Spavital) and those guys have a lot more to do with the drills than I do. I did more of that in the spring, but I knew that was going to happen.
On how the new guys looked…
I know some of the defensive guys got yelled at a little bit. I guess that’s nothing new. The two receivers and the two backs did well. They’ve been out there doing seven-on-seven for the last two months, so they are ahead of schedule.
The three linemen that we have didn’t get any reps because that’s the hardest position to come in and learn.
We probably have to give Cody Clay a few more reps.
On narrowing the field down at running back…
We just have to play a lot of football. We have to give them as much time as we can. We’re obviously not the only team that’s in this position right now. I’m not sure if there are a lot of teams that have eight out there.
Just play. Get out there and give them a bunch or reps. We need to evaluate them and see who’s doing well, and those guys will get more reps. That’s the only way to do it. You just have to play a lot of football and figure out who you like and who you don’t.
On keeping his quarterbacks healthy…
I think it has to do with the scheme. We sort out the protections pretty well. We coach the quarterback to get rid of the ball, and we call plays to keep pressure off of him. It’s a lot of scheme and a little bit of coaching.
On whether the team will be more run-heavy or pass-heavy…
Personnel wise, it’s going to take some time to gauge. Just from a personnel point, with the kinds of bodies we have, we are way more similar to Oklahoma State than Houston. Before I came here, I would have guessed the other way – a lot of faster, smaller, down-field guys as opposed to bigger backs, a lot of fullbacks and tight ends.
On redshirting freshmen…
(I lean toward) playing them. We had 16 true freshmen at Oklahoma State last year. We didn’t bring in that many true freshmen, but we’ll play them. I think that’s where all of college football is headed right now because of numbers and lack of depth. It’s typical to play them, especially the skill kids because they’re here all summer and can get adjusted. Linemen are hard. Defensive line is easier than offensive. I haven’t had one o-lineman play in 12 years. It’s hard.
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