MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Rare April snow showers sent Saturday’s spring football practice indoors.

 

Because of that, West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen said the plan this morning was to work on controlled situations with his team.

 

“We wanted to be able to do a lot of scrimmaging outside. We got some weather days to where if we got shoved inside we can still get a bunch out of this,” he said. “We’ve got uppers on. There are no situations - just basically working on some installation and limited special teams. We will do a lot of individual stuff, some pass-rush stuff, blitz pickup, one-on-one drills and then get into a bunch of scripted plays.”

 

Personnel wise, Holgorsen excused true freshman wide receiver Marcus Simms to attend a funeral and true freshman running back Kennedy McKoy was permitted to return home to attend his high school prom.

 

“I always let those guys go back for prom,” Holgorsen said. “A couple of them were gone for prom last week and a couple of them will be gone for prom next week. The one deal I make with our early enrollees is that they can go home and do that.”

 

Today’s workout was practice No. 9 for the Mountaineers.

 

 

* Holgorsen commented on the addition of wide receivers coach Tyron Carrier, who has extensive knowledge of Holgorsen’s offense when the two were together at the University of Houston.

 

“I’ve got a history with him being at Houston. He was a great player and his numbers speak for themselves,” noted Holgorsen. “He’s been in this offense for two years with myself and the two years with Kliff Kingsbury when he took over for me at Houston.

 

“The one thing that did not make a lot of sense to me was bringing a guy in that didn’t have familiarity with what we’re doing,” Holgorsen added. “We’ve got some experienced receivers and guys are continuing to develop. We don’t have to teach him the offense and he can them a lot of nuances as far as the technique aspect of things. He’s a fierce competitor, a fiery guy, and he’s going to bring some knowledge from playing experience that I think is going to be valuable.”

 

Holgorsen said Carrier’s recruiting responsibilities are still to be determined.

 

“We’re working through it now and (Director of Player Personnel Ryan Dorchester) is working through it now, now,” said the coach. “We are going to put Blue (Adams) in Georgia. We will be able to hit North Carolina with Bruce Tall a little bit just because of his familiarity with being there. It’s basically Virginia and Maryland is what we’ve got to (cover). We will probably end up hitting that by committee. It would be silly not to have Coach Carrier in Houston a little bit, seeing how he grew up there and he’s got a lot of resources there and a lot of familiarity with the high school coaches there based on his past.”

 

In addition to coaching the wide receivers, Holgorsen said Carrier will make a big impact on special teams, specifically the return game.

 

“This guy leads the country in kickoff returns (for touchdowns) so he’s got a wealth of knowledge with that,” said Holgorsen. “I’m going to turn them over to him and let him get back there and coach the punt returners and kick returns and we’ll see how it goes.”

 

* Holgorsen was asked before today’s practice about the addition of Florida transfer Will Grier, who must sit out 2016 and will have two years of eligibility remaining.

 

“Simply, he’s just a really good football player. Any time we have opportunities to bring in really good football players we’re going to do that,” said Holgorsen. “Our job is to coach up the guys we have first and foremost, but continue to recruit guys that can help us in the future.”

 

Holgorsen has had success with transfers from four-year schools in the past, players such as Houston running back Charles Sims, Florida State quarterback Clint Trickett, Gardner-Webb defensive end Shaq Riddick, as well as Pitt running back Rushel Shell and Michigan offensive lineman Kyle Bosch, currently on this year’s team.

 

“First and foremost, I think you’ve got to make decisions based on what your needs are. They’ve got to want to come here because their time is not going to be extensive here,” said Holgorsen. “They’ve got to fill a role and then they’ve got to want to be here. We’ve done that. We’ve said no to some guys, we’ve missed out on some guys, but we haven’t really missed on some guys either.”

 

In the case of Trickett, the former Florida State quarterback was able to thrive in Holgorsen’s offense two years ago, and his immediate productivity could have played a role in Grier’s decision to transfer to West Virginia.

 

Holgorsen said the two recently got to know each other by chance on a flight to New York.

 

“They were randomly sitting next to each other on a flight to New York and they just kind of looked at each other and recognized who they were and started talking,” said Holgorsen. “Clint’s time here was very valuable, very good - it was a great experience for him - and he will be the first to let you know that. Whether that had any impact on him coming here or not I don’t know?”

 

* Heading into the ninth practice of spring, Holgorsen was asked what he likes most about this year’s team.

 

“Overall, I like the attitude and effort of the team more than anything,” he explained. “You always have to deal with hitting some lulls during spring practice and not getting a lot done. We haven’t hit that. We’ve got guys that are motivated to come out and practice and like playing in the games. I like their attitude, they show up ready to work every day and I think we’re getting better because of it.”