MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Coach Dana Holgorsen addresses members of the media on Tuesday, Sept. 8, at the Milan Puskar Center Team Room.
 

I know there is probably going to be a few questions on the game last week. I’m going to take the same approach that I told our team, we are going to move on as quick as we can. We came in and watched tape on Sunday. We moved on to Liberty real quick. It’s really the only thing that is going on in our world right now. There is a lot of things that happened that we need to improve on. There is always going to be a lot between game one and game two. This gives us a great opportunity to get back to work today, and work on a lot of things that we need to work on in order to be the team that we know we can be at some point this season.

 

Liberty will be a challenge for us. They are a good team. It happens every year. If you take them (FCS teams) lightly and don’t respect your opponent then it will come back to get you. It happens a lot of times. It seems like it’s at a point where it might happen every week. Last year, they went 9-5. They really got on a run toward the end of the year. I think they won seven of their last nine games. They have everyone coming back on offense.

 

Their quarterback (senior quarterback Josh Woodrum) has been there for a long time. He’s a big kid, and has a quick release. The ball comes out fast. They have an All-American receiver (senior wide receiver Darrin Peterson). (Senior wide receiver Darrin Peterson) No. 13 is a guy that has made a ton of plays for them. They have an experienced offensive line, and they have two running backs that they have spent time with last year because of an injury. They are not a spread it out and throw it all over the place outfit. They are going to be multiple with what they do. Our defense is preparing for that, and they are excited about preparing for a semi-pro style, normal type of offense as opposed to what they have been prepping for the last few weeks. It will be good to see how they will handle that.

 

Defensively, they lost a lot of guys from last year. They were a pretty veteran group on defense last year. They were extremely solid. I’m glad some of those guys that were playing last year are gone. Last week, they played a lot of people from new starters to true freshmen. They play a lot of people. They are not quite as multiple as they were last year based on inexperience. You never know when that will change. Their front is going to give us problems. They have ends that can rush. (Senior defensive end Chima Uzowihe) No. 52 has about 20 sacks in his career, so he can get to the quarterback. They are going to test our tackles more so than what was tested last week. I am pretty anxious to see that.

 

The thing that stands out on special teams is that we are going to have a battle between two of the better kickers in the country. I was pleased with how (redshirt sophomore kicker) Josh (Lambert) responded last week. He was our special teams’ player of the week and was perfect on extra points. The (senior kicker John) Lunsford kid that they have is a First Team All-American. The dude made a 60-yarder last year. That’s pretty special. He has pro potential. They are going to be range once they cross midfield, so that’s something to keep your eye on as well.

 

With that said, I’ll take some questions. Obviously, we are back to work. I thought last week’s game environment was awesome. The guys were fired up. Mountaineer Field was pretty energetic. Night games are special as we all know. This one will be a little different with it being a 3 p.m. game. We will see how our guys will respond with playing in the heat of the day. Hopefully, its 95 degrees out there like it’s going to be today, and we will see how we will handle that type of a situation. I’m sure we will handle it just fine. I’ll take some questions.

 

We came out of it really well. We came out of it good. Playing a team like that, you’re nervous about the chop blocks and being on the ground a lot, but we are in good shape.

 

I remember him being a hell of a quarterback. That’s what I remember. I don’t pay any attention to coaches. I pay attention to the players. He’s had a bunch of success. I followed him when he was at Buffalo. I bumped into those guys a lot at Nebraska. I played against them. As the head coach at Buffalo, I remember him being pretty good. He turned that program around. He is going on his fourth year at Liberty, and had a winning record every year. That’s not surprising. He’s been around the game for a long time, and he is adapting from being a great player to a great coach.

 

Blocking and tackling; especially on special teams. That is where they are the most exposed. It’s where we have a lot of our backups and there is a lot of space. I thought our coverage units were good last week. I thought our blocking was average, but we didn’t have as many opportunities. I think there was five punts, and we had to peter call most of them. We didn’t make the best decisions when it came to that, but the blocks fall off when you have to do that. You can’t see them finishing blocks. I don’t have a lot of information on how we finished blocks in the return game. We only had one kickoff return, and that was a touchback. I thought our coverage units were good. Our awareness of where we are at is probably the biggest thing that we need to look at. There are some things that we need to sew up on our PAT/field goal team.  There were too many leaks on our PAT/field goals. Our operation time is so good that it didn’t affect it, but some of the bodies coming through there are going to be twitchy, faster and longer where we have to get some of that stuff sewn up. I thought we tackled really well on defense. I referenced that some after the game. Looking back at it, it’s the best we have tackled since I been here. I was pleased with that. Blocking wise, I thought we were pretty physical up front, but we have to finish blocks up front. We blocked fairly decent on the perimeter. Overall, blocking and tackling. When you look for improvement, that’s where you have to start.

 

It’s a little bit of both. Having that experience on defense is irreplaceable. Those guys were motivated. They were tuned in. They were locked in. They played hard. They were motivated, and the list goes on and on. They were comfortable in the scheme, and they were coached well. We did tackle more than I have ever tackled. It’s not even close, and having that depth allows you to do that. We have tackled more in the preseason than I have ever had, but I don’t want to take away from the way that the guys tackled on Saturday.

 

No, I don’t think so because we practiced against each other so much. We took at least 900 snaps against our defense. What we do offensively is a lot more similar to Liberty than what Georgia Southern presents. They pose some pro-style challenges with good personnel. They are good up front. They have a great quarterback that can make the throws. They have one great receiver with some quality receivers and running backs as well. That’s kind of what we do, too. We can play a tight end, a back or two backs with a couple of receivers. They present a bunch of different sets, and we will be able to show that to our defense as well.

 

Yes. (Senior safety) KJ (Dillon) and (senior safety) Karl (Joseph) have played over 3,000 snaps a piece. Those guys have played a lot of ball. We’ve talked about (sophomore safety) Dravon (Askew-Henry) being a talented player who was lost a year ago. Now, he is not lost. (Junior cornerback) Daryl Worley was bored out of his mind a week ago, because he likes to be challenged. He is long, physical, fast and talented. (Redshirt senior cornerback Terrell) Chestnut is probably the old man of the group. He’s the oldest. He’s been around here the longest. He’s one of my favorite guys on the team, because he cares so much about his teammates. He’s a hard worker. He’s technically the most sound guy we have. (Senior cornerback Rick) Rick Rumph (III) has come a million miles. He has been playing really well. Those guys are well coached. They are talented. They have a lot of experience. They are motivated. They are a pretty good group. I am really proud of where they are at and the development that they have shown.

 

He looks like he is stronger, quicker and more physical. That happens to a lot of guys that have knee surgeries if you don’t rush them back. If you remember, we could have played (redshirt senior linebacker) Jared (Barber) in game five last year, but he made the decision that he wanted to redshirt. He wanted to be a fifth year senior with (redshirt senior linebacker) Nick Kwiatkoski, (redshirt senior defensive lineman) Kyle Rose, (redshirt senior linebacker) Shaq Petteway, (redshirt senior cornerback Terrell) Chestnut and (redshirt senior linebacker) Isaiah Bruce next to him. Those are all guys that he came here with. He was pretty motivated to do it. You talk about an iron man in the weight room. Him and (director of strength and conditioning) Mike Joseph were going at it for 14 months. They were neck and neck. He brings a lot to the table. He’s smart. That’s why we call him coach Barber. He’s bigger, faster and stronger than he was two years ago.

 

Consistency is one thing. Before we can talk about consistency, we have to talk about improvement. What was impressive about those young guys at receiver is that they made catches. Those catches weren’t easy. It’s not like they were running scott free, catching it in stride and prancing into the end zone. They were contested catches. It’s exciting for me to watch those two guys make contested catches. I told (junior quarterback) Skyler (Howard) if his timing is better with these guys, and if their technique on the route was a little sharper, then we will see uncontested catches where they can just run into the end zone like we saw last year, as opposed to the timing being off, and they catch it and get tackled. I’m not worried about consistency at this point. I am worried about consistency with our defense, because they are old. They are fifth-year seniors, and they are well coached. They believe in the system, and they are confident. Now, we have to talk about being consistent every week. It may be another year before we are doing that with the offense. It is still about improving with the offense. It’s about timing, and it’s about improving.

 

I’m just happy to be talking about him to be honest with you. He’s been here for three years and hasn’t done anything. He’s always been able to run. He just never knew what direction he was going to run. He was the first one down there on kickoff every time. I think he had his eyes closed half the time, because he ran down there and didn’t know where he was. That was my thing with the coverage team about having awareness of where the ball is and getting off the blocks. They have to be able to make a few more tackles. He did that once or twice, but he did look good running down there. I am looking for improvement with him. (Redshirt sophomore linebacker) Al Benton (Al-Rasheed Benton) was the same way. We put (sophomore linebacker) Xavier Preston and (junior safety Jeremy Tyler) JT in there a couple times. We put big (redshirt junior defensive lineman) C.J. Maduewesi in there one time, if you saw the 7-footer running down there. That was fun. We will see him running down there again on Saturday. That gives the backups on defense an opportunity to go out there and play.

 

I thought it was good. I was a little frustrated with it in the first half, but Georgia Southern had a pretty good run defense a year ago. They see it a lot, and they focus on it. Their deal was to press our outside guys and put one more person than we could block in the box. That’s what they decided on doing. I have us rushing for about 4.8 yards. We had about six explosive run plays, but none over 20 yards. It’s not like we broke one for 70 yards and averaged 4.8 yards a rush. I looked at the stat sheet after the game, and I was wondering where my pass plays were. I guess I didn’t call as many as I thought we needed too. We were accomplishing enough in the run game to keep doing it. I was happy with it.

 

Yes, with him it is. He is one of our most dynamic guys out there. I said that prior to the game. He had six explosive runs. He is an explosive guy. We can use him multiple ways, but we didn’t have to do a whole lot with him this past game. We can. We will keep trying to get him the ball as much as we can.

 

I like it. I am just trying to get a little bit more work the day before the game. A lot of the NFL guys are doing it, so we decided to give it a try. I have been gearing that way for about four years. Tuesday is rusty. We have to get them back into the swing of things. Wednesday is a huge grind, so we tried to rest and recover on Thursday and rev them back up on Friday. I thought it worked out pretty well.

 

I prefer not to talk about it. He graded out well, but I prefer not to talk about it.

 

We have one next year against Youngstown State. I think we should do what everyone else in the country is doing. We are taking the approach where we are not going to schedule a ton of them. I don’t know if that is appropriate or inappropriate. I know it’s one of the life lines for FCS opponents to get a pay day. I know it’s good for Liberty to come up here and collect a check that can keep their program a float. Some of them need it more than others. I don’t think Liberty is one that totally needs it, but there are a lot of them that need it. It’s kind of a shame in that sense. I have a lot of respect for FCS, Division II and Division III schools. I made a lot of comments toward that. I think there are a lot of quality coaches out there. I don’t know. It’s about what the fan base wants. The fan base wants to see a lot of power five scheduled games. We are one of the only teams in the country that are scheduling two power five schools in the future. If you look at our future schedules, we are scheduling them. I wish that everybody else would do the same thing. If we are scheduling two power five schools and a non-power five school then I wish everyone else would too, as opposed to what some of the other schools are doing by scheduling an FCS school or two FCS schools and two other non-power five schools. You can figure out who I’m talking about. Thank you.