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Dana Holgorsen Media Conference: Texas
November 10, 2015 12:54 PM | Football
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Coach Dana Holgorsen addressed members of the media on Tuesday, Nov. 10, at the Milan Puskar Center Team Room.
Opening Statement
I want to let everyone know that we are aware that Veteran’s Day is tomorrow. It is an awesome national holiday, and I want to thank our nation’s veterans for all their hard work. We will be here working, and I know you guys will probably have the day off. All joking aside, many thanks to our nations veterans.
It was good to get the win. It always makes things a little better and a little easier to come back to work after a win. We went back to work on Sunday. We watched the video. There is always things that we can learn from, and there were many things that happened out there that we can learn from. We went outside, and we had a good, spirited Sunday night practice. We also flipped the switched and moved on to the Texas Longhorns just as quick as we possibly could. Texas has great personnel, great coaches, great resources and great facilities. They have darn near every advantage that you could possibly ask for. We have our work cut out for this week. There is no question about that. I am looking forward to playing at home again and feeding off of the positive energy that Mountaineer field holds and what the fan base brings. What our fans do affects our players positively and negatively. We need everyone to come out and be ready to cheer loud. We want them to make it a great Big 12 environment on Saturday. I know it’s a noon kick again. I know people get upset about the noon kick. There is obviously nothing that we can do about that. Regardless, it’s another opportunity to come watch a storied program at Texas and another opportunity to watch the Mountaineers get out there and play their heart out. I know all of them will once again (play their hearts out again) this Saturday.
As far as Texas personnel and where they are at, they are 4-5. They played a tough schedule just like we have. They played a tough schedule, and they lost some close games. They are a very young team. They have a lot of true freshmen and a lot of redshirt freshmen. They are playing a ton of bodies. I am talking about almost three deep at some of these defensive spots. Their starting lineup has been all over the place. Offensively, they have had a lot of different bodies in and out of the game. I think they have made a decision that they are going to play a lot of different people to try and figure out who are going to be their dudes for the future. Their bodies look the same since I started competing against Texas back in 2000. They have a lot of good four and five star players that have played the part.
Offensively, they are going to try and run the ball. They switched quarterbacks in week three and went with the freshman (Jerrod) Heard, but nothing has really changed in what they do. They have two great, quality backs with (senior running back Johnathan) Gray and (sophomore running back D’Onta) Foreman that are going to run the ball a good bit. Upfront, they are starting a couple young guys, but they have a decent rotation. I know coach (offensive coordinator/offensive line Joe) Wickline is coaching those guys up hard in order to get better. They are a run first team. They are going to run it all over the place, and we have to be physical and stop the run. It looks to me like four or five of these receivers are guys that are going to be playing for a long time. They are long. They are fast. They are athletic. They will continue to improve their timing just like I have been talking about with improving our timing. That’s going to continue to improve. They are doing a great job at taking care of the football. They only had seven turnovers in nine games. That’s the one thing that stands out. They do a great job at protecting the ball. They spread the ball around to a lot of different people, and they are going to continue to get better.
Defensively, you all know (Texas head coach) Charlie’s (Strong) background with the defense. I think they are playing great on defense. I really do. I thought they were potentially the best defense we faced last year. They had four or five guys that were on last year’s team that are in the NFL. You look at them, and you can say how they have been up and down as a team. Defensively, I don’t see that. I see a bunch who are playing hard on defense. They are playing a lot of different bodies. They are playing a lot of young guys. Their scheme is the same as it’s always been with (Texas head coach) Charlie (Strong) running the show. They are in a good place. Defensively, they don’t have effort issues. They don’t have assignment busts. They don’t have players taking plays or games off. They are giving up about 4.5 yards a play, which is really good. They are one of the best teams in the country in sacks and tackles for loss. They play a lot of different man coverages with great athletes. Even though some of them are young, they are still some of the better athletes across the country. It’s going to be a challenge for us. They do a great job of mixing up their fronts, and they try to put a bunch of bodies in the gaps to stop the run, so we have our work cut out for us. We have to do some creative things in order to run the ball. With them giving us the opportunity to throw the ball and with our protection, we have to execute better than we did a week ago.
As always, the special teams is solid. They have a couple really good return guys. They have a new punter who’s showing a lot of signs in order to be a difference maker in the game. Their coverage units are good. Just like any team with unbelievable talent, they have good guys in the backfield. Our job doesn’t stop. They may not have a return guy that is leading the nation, but they have quality guys that we have to cover hard on. Overall, it will be a big test for us. One that I know our guys are looking forward too. We will get out there and get back to work today, and hopefully, we will prepare the way that we need to in order to win.
On if it is difficult for the defense to readjust to a run first team after experiencing five spread offenses in a row
I don’t think so. Oklahoma was going to run the ball, and we did a good job at slowing that down. You can say that Baylor is a spread offense, but they are a run first football team. Oklahoma State is without a doubt a run first football team who continues to get better at that. We faced Texas Tech who likes to throw the ball 100 percent of the time, and they even try to run the ball as much as they possibly can. Plus, they go against us, and we turned into the ultimate ground and pound team ever. We have competed against them for quite some time. They will use more tight ends and more quarterbacks stuff. They are physical. It is a little bit different, but with that said, it seems like everyone tries to do that now. You can be a spread offense and throw the ball when you need to, but you still have to be able to run the ball. Our job is to stop those guys and account for those quarterbacks. Then when they put the ball in the air, we have to cover.
On his stance of the two quarterback system
We always went with one. It’s no secret. That is the way that I have done things since I have been here. That’s the way we have done it for the last 15 years. There are some teams that are having some success with it. I think Texas is having some success with it. Oklahoma State is certainly having some success with it. I will promise you that if they had their choice, then everyone would have one that they would go with until you can’t ride with them anymore. That’s the way our philosophy is anyway.
On why he hasn’t tried the two quarterback system
You decide on one, and then you give that one the reps and get them ready to play. Later on, that guy typical starts elevating his game.
On junior quarterback Skyler Howard’s responsibilities on a given play in the run game
Its many different things. You have to be able to look at the play that we gave you, and you may have to flip that play to the other side and mirror it or use a completely different play altogether based on what we have seen throughout the week in film. That’s stuff that he has really embraced, and he has done good with it. He does that just as good as any quarterback I have been around. He understands the run game. He is looking for the different looks, and he is getting us into the right plays. You have to be able to go from run to pass and know when to pull it and when to throw it. There has been times where they can outnumber you in the box. You can continue to run it in there if you want to, but one of those guys are going to be on blocks, so at that point, you might want to change the play to a true pass play altogether with different protections and stuff. He has the authority to be able to do that. He sees it, and he does a good job with that. Then there is the element of being able to go forward with your feet. He does a good job of knowing when to pull the ball. He does a good job with that, and I think he protects the ball good. I think he moves forward and reads the blocks well. They have to account for him as well. It’s kind of a collection with all of that stuff.
On adding the run game
We clearly went that direction. It doesn’t take you long to throw the film on and see that we are doing that more than we are doing the old school, pass game, air-raid type stuff. Whatever you have to do to move forward. Whatever you have to do to get first downs. That’s what we are going to do.
On if personnel has dictated his style of play
Yeah. Some of it is philosophy. We made a decision a couple of years ago to kind of move toward this direction with what we are doing upfront – without adding the quarterback with the reads, the powers and the draws. We made an effort three years ago. That’s why (assistant coach/offensive line) Ron (Crook) is here, because he knew a lot about that put your hand down in the dirt and move forward with it. Then adding (junior quarterback) Skyler (Howard) with his feet and his ability to understand it, has allowed us to take it another step forward. However, I prefer it not to be the only thing that we are doing. I’m not naïve. I understand that we have to do better in the pass game. We completed a little bit over 50 percent of our passes. We had seven first downs with 150 yards. We average 12.4 yards a completion, and that is not where I want to be.
On if it is more of a timing issue
Again, we have talked about this a lot. You can blame it on timing. You can pinpoint inexperienced receivers and dropped balls that had an impact. You can talk about confidence. You can talk about pass protection. You can talk about accuracy and where the ball is going from point A to point B. All that stuff has to improve. It will take me a little while to list the order of what the problem is, but they are all in there somewhere.
On what his completion percentage goal is
66 percent completion is always what we shoot for. I never thought about yards per completion. If you want to average 300 or 400 yards a game, I don’t look at it that way. The defense dictates a lot of that. If we are going to face a team that is going to drop eight, then we are not going to just sit there and throw the ball a lot. If they are not going to let people behind you, then we are not going to have a high yards per completion. Right now our yards per completion is high, because people stop the run, and we are able to connect on balls downfield. I haven’t done that as much as I wanted to over the last two games, but we have attacked people deep and were able to complete those balls deep.
On the changes with the offensive line
(Redshirt offensive lineman) Yodny (Cajuste) wasn’t ready to go last week. We’ll see what he looks like today, but one of the things that really helped us in the run game was by moving (redshirt junior offensive lineman Adam) Pankey back inside. He’s more comfortable inside, and he’s really good, especially in the run game, coming off the ball. (Redshirt junior offensive lineman Adam) Pankey and T.O. (redshirt junior offensive lineman Tyler Orlosky) are obviously our most consistent and best linemen. (Redshirt sophomore offensive lineman) Kyle Bosch had his best game last week. Those three guys on the inside really allowed the run game to get going. We’ll keep looking at it and evaluating it. We will keep practicing some other guys to the point where we get what we want out of these guys.
On why he wanted to switch from an air-raid offense to a run game offense
I never claimed to be. I never used that, but I don’t know, maybe it was a mistake. No, I’m just picking. I think you have to continue to evolve a little bit and that’s the area that I wanted to evolve in. Again, without going through exactly how everything’s transpired over the last six years, I wanted to do something a little bit different than everyone else in the league. Now, we have to continue to get better at it.
On if the climate played any part in it
Not really.
On how the first victory was without senior safety Karl Joseph
You have to keep lining up, keep playing and keep improving. I haven’t really looked at it that way. He’s not gone. He’s still a part of what we’re doing. He met with the seniors last week, and he was right there in the middle of that meeting. He had as big of a voice as anyone. He was the first one in the locker room after that game. He’s still a part of what we’re doing and still wants to win as much as anyone. We have to continue to develop the identity that we have defensively. We’re still leaning on a lot of the upperclassmen, the older guys that played a lot of ball here. I think it means a lot to them, so they’re going to give us everything that they have. It’s going to take another big performance defensively again this week in order to get another win.
On his thoughts on the Missouri football team and staff situation
We’re in a leadership role. There’s no questions, both the coaching staff and the players are in a role where what they say is going to make a difference. Not only in this building, on this university. That’s kind of the situation that we’re in, so we need to embrace that. We need to understand that what we do and what we say makes a difference on the outside. I haven’t followed that specific situation as much as you all have. I have a lot of respect for (Missouri head coach) Gary Pinkel. I can tell you that. He’s a great leader, and he’s won a bunch of ball games.
On what he’s seen on film in terms of how Texas attacks the quarterback
They blitz as much and as often as anyone I’ve seen. You name it. They look like we look at times with stacking things up. They have three defensive linemen, three backers, an outsider defensive end, a linebacker tight, two safeties and a free safety down. A lot of interchangeable people with corners coming off the edge. They blitz as much and in as many ways as possible. I haven’t seen that in a long time. Not only can their three defensive lineman can get there, they have an abundance of other ways of getting there as well.
On if Texas’ blitzes more than defensive coordinator/linebackers coach Tony Gibson in practice on Tuesday and Wednesday
Without a doubt. There will be some familiarity with the three-man fronts and where they are all coming from. Both (redshirt junior offensive lineman) T.O. (Tyler Orlosky) and (redshirt senior offensive lineman) Stone (Underwood), and even our guards and our quarterbacks, have seen a lot of that. We’re going to have to identify it, and then comes the challenge of being able to block the people man-for-man. It’s challenging with what they do.
On (head coach) Charlie (Strong) and him going up against each other in a different conference
Yes, we’ve talked about that a little bit. Obviously, we don’t spend a whole lot of time together other than some of this Big 12 stuff that we do. Our backgrounds are completely different. There’s been some talks about what it was like in the Big East. It’s a little bit different now in the Big 12. The quality of the team’s week-in and week-out. It’s a challenging, difficult conference. (Texas Tech head coach) Kliff (Kingsbury) and I were talking about that before the game as well. It’s challenging. I’ve been in the Big 12 for 15 years now. It’s as challenging as it has ever been, and it doesn’t matter who you’re playing. It does not matter who you’re playing. If you would have told me 10 years ago that Baylor and TCU would be doing what they’re doing now, I would have called you crazy. It’s a challenging league that you have to understand that’s what you signed up for, and you have to lineup every week be ready to play.
On what he thought when he first saw redshirt sophomore wide receiver Ka’Raun White play
I liked him. Obviously, there was a little bit of a history there because of the older brother, but I knew he was there. He popped in once or twice. Who are you? I found out who he was, so I started following him. I watched him up at Lackawanna College, and I thought he had ability and talent. The academic part of it, he flourished with up there, and he got his degree real quick. That allowed him to transfer early. Having him for three years is going to play dividends at the end. He’s only been here for a few months, so he’s just now getting his feet wet.
On redshirt sophomore wide receiver Ka’Raun White being compared to his older brother
Yes, we’ve probably been a little bit more conscious of that than he has, because it’s not fair. It’s not fair to compare him to Kevin (White) because of the year that Kevin (White) had. That’s building expectations that are not fair to put on anyone. With that said, there’s the name, there’s the look and there’s the style of play. At this point who cares? He’s comfortable with where he is, and he knows that he has a chance. He’s on track. There’s no question that he’s on track. Now, whether he can have that same kind of year in the future has something to do with who the quarterback is and the relationship that exists, and who the other receivers are, but he’s on track. He did some things that I didn’t see out of Kevin (White) until his senior year.
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