HOLGORSEN PLEASED WITH WIN
September 06, 2011 10:32 AM | General
Dana Holgorsen was reasonably pleased with the way his football team performed in Sunday’s season-opening 34-13 victory over Marshall in the 2011 Friends of Coal Bowl at Milan Puskar Stadium.
West Virginia’s retooled offense scored on five of its eight offensive possessions, the defense limited Marshall to just six offensive points, and the special teams produced a 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown and had 155 total yards in returns.
On the flip side, the punt team gave up an 87-yard return for a touchdown, the offense wasn’t able to convert a fourth and short at midfield in the second quarter, and the running game mustered just 42 yards on 26 carries – West Virginia’s lowest rushing output since 2001 during a 35-0 loss to Virginia Tech.
“The only thing I was disappointed with offensively was not converting on the fourth and short,” Holgorsen said on Monday’s Big East teleconference. “Other than that, I thought we moved the ball well; we had zero turnovers, were 50 percent on third down and Geno (Smith) made some good plays.
“Special teams we were pretty solid for the exception of one punt. We punted one time and they got it out, which was the only touchdown they got against us. That was a coverage issue that we will be able to get corrected,” Holgorsen said. “Defensively we gave up two drives but we ended up stopping them and we only got six points on our defense.”
Holgorsen was also pleased with the atmosphere at the stadium despite two long rain delays that eventually whittled the attendance to a fraction of the announced 60,758 that showed up at kickoff.
“We had 60,000 people here and it was loud and rambunctious,” Holgorsen said. “The players handled the situation pretty good. When you have a five hour delay kids can get restless, obviously, but I was really proud how our guys handled the situation and showed maturity and we were able to hang in there and get the win.”
Holgorsen said there is plenty to work on this week in advance of Saturday’s Norfolk State game that will air locally on ROOT SPORTS.
“We need to make routine plays more than anything,” Holgorsen said. “Offensively, we didn’t do a great job of taking what they were giving us. Both from a coaching standpoint and a playing standpoint, I think we were trying a little bit too hard to make big plays where it’s all about just putting the ball in play. We had way too many negative plays.
“I give Marshall credit for that because they did some things defensively that got to us that we were not anticipating.”
More from Holgorsen’s Monday call …
- Holgorsen is impressed with the Big East’s 8-0 start to the non-conference schedule that included wins over Wake Forest and Notre Dame.
“It’s a thing that on the outside looking in over the past several years, the thing that you knew about it was everybody was pretty good,” Holgorsen said. “Periodically you would have a great team and there have been some great ones that have made some pretty good runs, but over the course of the years it’s been about parity, which when you look at this weekend in the Big East going 8-0 is certainly shows something about the parity of the conference.”
- Freshman Andrew Buie ended up earning the starting nod at running back against Marshall but he left midway through the game after taking a big hit on a bubble screen.
“He took a good shot that welcomed him to college football, which was a receiver breakdown. He didn’t get his block and the guy shot through the gap and blew him up and ended his day a little early,” Holgorsen said. “I give Marshall credit defensively. They did a lot of things to take away the run, so he had a hard time getting loose. He got out two or three times, but also had a couple of negative plays due to scheme more than him. He’s got some juice and he’s got to touch the ball a lot.”
Holgorsen said Buie will eventually be OK, but he is questionable for this week’s game against Norfolk State, as is sophomore Trey Johnson.
“We thought it might have been a collarbone but it wasn’t and I don’t know if he’s going to be out this week or not,” Holgorsen said of Buie. “He’s going to be a good player. He’s young and we need to continue to get better up front to the point where we can get him loose.”
- Holgorsen was asked about the play of West Virginia’s offensive line and he admitted there were some breakdowns in the first game.
“There was some of that first-game stuff when you don’t know what to expect,” Holgorsen explained. “They did some things schematically that we didn’t know what they were going to do. Sometimes it takes four quarters to figure some of that stuff out and I really felt like if we had another quarter offensively we would have continued to do a little bit more things against them.”
Helping the offensive line and the running game was Smith’s ability to feel pressure and elude the rush. He was only sacked once despite facing constant pressure.
“Geno does a good job of getting himself out of some situations and when defenses blitz as much as that then there is going to be pressure,” Holgorsen said. “We’ve got to do a better job, receiver-wise and coaching-wise as far as getting Geno into situations where he can get the ball out of his hands a little bit quicker.
“He scrambled I think twice and both times he did it I thought he made the right decision,” Holgorsen said of his two first-down runs. “They were getting out of there and getting deep. We didn’t throw the ball over top of them for a reason because they were getting really, really deep.
“They were showing a lot of people up and blitzing and getting the back end deep, or they were showing a lot of people up to discourage the run and then they were getting their backers way deep on the second level,” Holgorsen said. “The decisions for him to take off and run were good based on him getting about 16 yards to get the first down. That just depends on what they were doing defensively.”
Holgorsen will meet with the media later today at Milan Puskar Stadium to preview the Norfolk State game.
West Virginia’s retooled offense scored on five of its eight offensive possessions, the defense limited Marshall to just six offensive points, and the special teams produced a 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown and had 155 total yards in returns.
On the flip side, the punt team gave up an 87-yard return for a touchdown, the offense wasn’t able to convert a fourth and short at midfield in the second quarter, and the running game mustered just 42 yards on 26 carries – West Virginia’s lowest rushing output since 2001 during a 35-0 loss to Virginia Tech.
“The only thing I was disappointed with offensively was not converting on the fourth and short,” Holgorsen said on Monday’s Big East teleconference. “Other than that, I thought we moved the ball well; we had zero turnovers, were 50 percent on third down and Geno (Smith) made some good plays.
“Special teams we were pretty solid for the exception of one punt. We punted one time and they got it out, which was the only touchdown they got against us. That was a coverage issue that we will be able to get corrected,” Holgorsen said. “Defensively we gave up two drives but we ended up stopping them and we only got six points on our defense.”
Holgorsen was also pleased with the atmosphere at the stadium despite two long rain delays that eventually whittled the attendance to a fraction of the announced 60,758 that showed up at kickoff.
“We had 60,000 people here and it was loud and rambunctious,” Holgorsen said. “The players handled the situation pretty good. When you have a five hour delay kids can get restless, obviously, but I was really proud how our guys handled the situation and showed maturity and we were able to hang in there and get the win.”
Holgorsen said there is plenty to work on this week in advance of Saturday’s Norfolk State game that will air locally on ROOT SPORTS.
“We need to make routine plays more than anything,” Holgorsen said. “Offensively, we didn’t do a great job of taking what they were giving us. Both from a coaching standpoint and a playing standpoint, I think we were trying a little bit too hard to make big plays where it’s all about just putting the ball in play. We had way too many negative plays.
“I give Marshall credit for that because they did some things defensively that got to us that we were not anticipating.”
More from Holgorsen’s Monday call …
- Holgorsen is impressed with the Big East’s 8-0 start to the non-conference schedule that included wins over Wake Forest and Notre Dame.
“It’s a thing that on the outside looking in over the past several years, the thing that you knew about it was everybody was pretty good,” Holgorsen said. “Periodically you would have a great team and there have been some great ones that have made some pretty good runs, but over the course of the years it’s been about parity, which when you look at this weekend in the Big East going 8-0 is certainly shows something about the parity of the conference.”
- Freshman Andrew Buie ended up earning the starting nod at running back against Marshall but he left midway through the game after taking a big hit on a bubble screen.
“He took a good shot that welcomed him to college football, which was a receiver breakdown. He didn’t get his block and the guy shot through the gap and blew him up and ended his day a little early,” Holgorsen said. “I give Marshall credit defensively. They did a lot of things to take away the run, so he had a hard time getting loose. He got out two or three times, but also had a couple of negative plays due to scheme more than him. He’s got some juice and he’s got to touch the ball a lot.”
Holgorsen said Buie will eventually be OK, but he is questionable for this week’s game against Norfolk State, as is sophomore Trey Johnson.
“We thought it might have been a collarbone but it wasn’t and I don’t know if he’s going to be out this week or not,” Holgorsen said of Buie. “He’s going to be a good player. He’s young and we need to continue to get better up front to the point where we can get him loose.”
- Holgorsen was asked about the play of West Virginia’s offensive line and he admitted there were some breakdowns in the first game.
“There was some of that first-game stuff when you don’t know what to expect,” Holgorsen explained. “They did some things schematically that we didn’t know what they were going to do. Sometimes it takes four quarters to figure some of that stuff out and I really felt like if we had another quarter offensively we would have continued to do a little bit more things against them.”
Helping the offensive line and the running game was Smith’s ability to feel pressure and elude the rush. He was only sacked once despite facing constant pressure.
“Geno does a good job of getting himself out of some situations and when defenses blitz as much as that then there is going to be pressure,” Holgorsen said. “We’ve got to do a better job, receiver-wise and coaching-wise as far as getting Geno into situations where he can get the ball out of his hands a little bit quicker.
“He scrambled I think twice and both times he did it I thought he made the right decision,” Holgorsen said of his two first-down runs. “They were getting out of there and getting deep. We didn’t throw the ball over top of them for a reason because they were getting really, really deep.
“They were showing a lot of people up and blitzing and getting the back end deep, or they were showing a lot of people up to discourage the run and then they were getting their backers way deep on the second level,” Holgorsen said. “The decisions for him to take off and run were good based on him getting about 16 yards to get the first down. That just depends on what they were doing defensively.”
Holgorsen will meet with the media later today at Milan Puskar Stadium to preview the Norfolk State game.
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