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Experienced Howard, Orlosky Ready for '16
July 31, 2016 10:34 AM | Football
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - West Virginia’s Dana Holgorsen has something just a couple other Big 12 football coaches have when grid camps from Morgantown to Lubbock, Texas, open next week - an experienced center lining up in front of an experienced quarterback.
Baylor has it with Seth Russell and Kyle Fuller, Oklahoma State has it with Mason Rudolph and Brad Lundblade, and the Mountaineers have it with Skyler Howard and Tyler Orlosky, who some believe could be the best snapper in college football in 2016.
Don’t discount for a second just how valuable it is having a quarterback and center that have played together for as long as these two have now - 17 games and counting.
They have recognized, reacted to and replayed in their minds everything Oklahoma, Texas, Baylor, TCU, Oklahoma State, Kansas, State, Texas Tech, Iowa State and Kansas have thrown at them for the last year in a half.
“All of the time when we were doing seven-on-sevens on our own we would say, ‘Think back to the so-and-so game. This is that look and this is what we need to do,’” Howard said. “’That safety likes to play outside leverage and this is what we have to do to beat him.’ Any little thing like that we can relate it back to game-time situations because those game-time situations you can’t coach. When you have a bunch of freshmen out there, or a guy who hasn’t played a lot, you can’t say, ‘Hey, remember, this is what happened in the Texas game.’ They have no idea, so to have the guys we have coming back with experience, that’s just another element that we have.”
Indeed, when Skyler and Tyler are sitting around before games going over personnel and what Oklahoma is going to do against them, or Texas, or TCU, or Baylor, they can think back to what happened to them during last year’s game, or, in the case of Kansas, Kansas State and Iowa State, the last two years of games.
“We really have an advantage and we’ve really got to take advantage of it, too, of the opportunity that we have,” said Howard recently.
The advantage Howard and Orlosky has is something just as important as speed, arm strength, brute physical strength, quickness, toughness, skill or ability: good, old-fashioned football knowledge, of course.
They say the mind can speed up the feet and speed up the game, well, these two guys could have Holgorsen’s turbo offense working at warp speed this fall.
Holgorsen can remember just a few years ago when his offense was set on idle, and, sometimes going in reverse.
“Nobody wants to bring this up, but three years ago when we were 4-8 (in 2013) we had a new center and three new quarterbacks and we didn’t know where the snap was going to go; we didn’t even know the snap count,” Holgorsen recalled. “We had a quarterback and five skill kids that had never, ever played together and that’s a coach’s worst nightmare.”
A nightmare that played out over and over and over and over, eight times to be exact.
“It got better the next year and last year we had to restart it just a little bit, but we had some vets up front that allowed us to be able to have some success at times,” said Holgorsen.
Well, this year the parts are all in place, from the two guys handling the quarterback-center exchange, to the guys lined up next to them, to the guys Howard is throwing and handing the ball to.
Holgorsen had this once before at WVU in 2012 with Geno Smith at quarterback, Joey Madsen at center and Tavon Austin and Stedman Bailey at wide receiver breaking just about every school record there was, and he had it at Houston in 2009 with quarterback Case Keenum, center Carl Barnett, running back Charles Sims and wide receivers James Cleveland and Patrick Edwards.
Go do the research of those two Holgorsen offenses and what that research will reveal is juggernaut-type numbers. A creative coach can do a lot when his guys know a lot.
“It’s the only way you can be successful,” Holgorsen admitted. “There are some schools in the Big 12 that are starting over at center, and not necessarily starting over at quarterback, but starting over with that relationship, and when these guys are communicating now, I don’t even know what they’re talking about, but they know what they’re talking about and it speeds up the process, it gets us in the right play, it reduces negative plays, it reduces missed assignments - it’s the only way you can perform at a high level.”
Howard explains the sometimes non-verbal communication process that he now has with his center.
“I can tell if he holds (the football) a second longer he doesn’t like it (the play Howard has checked into),” Skyler noted. “He has questions about it so I can adjust the play, flip it, or do whatever I have to do to get us into the right play.
“Even when I make a check now he knows what I’m seeing,” Howard continued. “It’s almost to the point where I make a check and he’s like, ‘Yeah, I like it’ without even saying it. It’s like we're (emphasis on we) making a check - I’m not just making the check because we both know that play isn’t good going into that certain look.”
Compare that to Howard’s first game playing with Orlosky against Kansas State in 2014.
“When he first came in I had the first choice to change the play because I was more experienced and I knew what was going on, but now he’s gotten to the point where he sees what I see and he makes the same call I would make,” said Orlosky. “I don’t necessarily have to turn around and tell him what to do every play like I had to when he first started. It’s come a long way and it’s only getting better.”
Has it ever.
There were times last spring when Howard and Orlosky carved up the Mountaineer defense like Hibachi chefs. We saw it against Arizona State in the bowl game and we saw it during the spring game at The Greenbrier when the offense scored six touchdowns, three of those coming from Howard’s arm.
There were many other instances during the spring when West Virginia's offense looked like it was playing against air.
And it should continue when the team hits the field running on Tuesday evening at the start of fall camp heading right into Saturday, September 3, when the Mountaineers lift the lid on the 2016 season against Missouri at Milan Puskar Stadium.
“How many times has Skyler thrown hot routes or timing routes or dig routes to Daikiel (Shorts)?” asked Holgorsen. “There is a lot of experience, a lot of practice and a lot of snaps that puts me in a much better place heading into the season.”
A lot of experience that could put Holgorsen’s Mountaineers in a much, much better place at the end of the year … if everything goes according to plan.
Stay tuned.
What's more valuable for a football team heading into a season?
— John Antonik (@JohnAntonik) July 31, 2016
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