Dana Holgorsen News Conference
April 17, 2012 08:37 PM | General
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Dana Holgorsen addresses the media following practice on Tuesday, April 17:
Opening Statement
This practice today was No. 13, so it is winding down as it is every year. In spring, you are not preparing for an opponent, and the guys get tired of doing the same thing. They are tired of practice, and they are tired of going against each other and all that stuff. The guys that really truly love the game are the ones that can push through it. So you start separating some guys that think football is just fun and guys that it really means something to which is kind of where we are at now. With that said, we have got one more practice on Thursday without pads and then the spring game on Saturday. So it is winding down. We have shown tons of improvement all over the board. The one thing that I like about this team more than anything is the back and forth nature that happens. I have been on some teams where it is completely one-sided, and you don’t win a whole bunch of games with it being like that. Defense is probably making a whole lot more improvement then the offense is. Offense is starting to get a little complacent. I don’t know if they are reading too much about how good they are or what, but they are getting a little complacent, and the defense is flying around and making some plays. I am excited about what is happening. That is where we are at, and we will see what happens on Thursday.
On comparing today to a year ago
The one thing that I remember, toward the end of spring last year was that all the roles were reversed. Last year, we had more experience on defense, guys knew what they were doing, and we came in offensively and with change, comes a breath of fresh air for specific individuals. Towards the end of spring defensively, we knew we were going to be pretty good, but offensively, we started getting things together and started understanding what to do and had some success in the spring game if you remember offensively. This year, it is kind of just the opposite. Offense knows what they are doing and defense, there is kind of a breath of fresh air over there, and it seems like they are anxious and eager to get out there and get better every day. If I were to guess, I would fast forward to the spring game, and I would say the defense will probably play pretty good and offense will go out there and think they are good and go through the motions and not get any better. That would be my guess.
On the improvements made by the defense
They still got some guys that have a long way to go obviously, but just their energy is good. They get out there, and they fly around. They are anxious to get better. They have a little bit of something to prove and a chip on their shoulder probably. So we will go out there and just motivate them a little bit more.
On how the spring game will run logistically
It will be similar to what we did last year and similar to a scrimmage. We will go ones on twos and twos on ones with very little special teams, just because there is so many moving parts with special teams. We have a lot of work on our special teams in the spring. All of our units have got a lot of work which you want to keep working it but for the sake of time and putting jerseys on people and disorganization and making a whole bunch of people mad, because it looks bad, we are not going to do it. It will basically be offense on defense. There will be a scoring system if the defense stops us, then they will get some points. If we score, then we will get points. That will pretty much be it.
On if the one team will always be facing the two team in the spring game
That gets distorted very quickly. We will attempt to go with that format early but then you are running people on and off the field from a defensive line perspective and a receiver perspective. It will look like the same people out there quite a bit.
On what he is expecting from the Gold/Blue game
Something festive more than anything. I would challenge you to find one coach across the country that gets a kick out of the spring game. You got to do it. We want to do it for the fans. The players get a kick out of it, because they get to put their nice uniforms on, and they go out there in front of a bunch of people and try to make a play. It’s the end of spring, and you want to get out healthy. We want it to be festive, and we want everyone to kind of get a glimpse of the younger kids more than anything.
On how the team played in the practice scrimmage on Sunday
I will give you a guess based on what I just said. Defense did better. Defense played well. On offense, we didn’t make as many plays and its been kind of a changer lately. Write all kinds of bad stuff about the offense if you guys would.
On the defensive pace
Having the ability to be able handle it, yes. We don’t just sit there and just go fast and tempo and tempo them. We let them line up, but they have the ability to be able to do that which is good.
On the offensive switching it up and not going fast all the time
Good ones can. The ones that just go fast all the time probably hurt themselves more than they help themselves.
On Jeff Braun
He had done a good job. He has been kind of a vocal guy that didn’t have a whole lot of confidence last year for whatever reason. He missed last spring which probably had something to do with it. He switched positions from the year before. He has settled in, I think, and he has got some confidence, and he is a senior. The more seniors we can get out there with confidence, the better off we are going to be.
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