MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Coach Dana Holgorsen addressed members of the media on Saturday, Aug. 13, prior to the team’s scrimmage at Milan Puskar Stadium.

 

Welcome everybody. They’ll be out here in about 15 minutes or so. We’ll stretch a little bit, do a couple of drills special teams-wise; a little kicking and catching. Then probably about 12:40 or so, we’ll put the ball down and we’re looking for about 100 snaps today. It’s pretty cut and dry, so hopefully we can see a few guys in action and see how they handle things.

 

It’s a shame, man. Obviously it’s two years in a row that we’ve lost our best defensive player and team leader. What I told the team last night was we learned how to handle it. Karl (Joseph) was a great teammate and made everybody else around him better and things worked out for Karl. Dravon’s going to be the same way. He’s going to be a great teammate. I guess the difference is that his career is not over here where with Karl, he obviously knew his career was over. Dravon’s a fighter. He will attack it and he’ll be back next year. In the meantime, it’s an opportunity for other guys, much like it was an opportunity for (redshirt senior safety) Jarrod Harper last year. He stepped in and played well, (senior safety) Jeremy Tyler stepped in and played well. Those guys are seniors. We have six seniors in the secondary still, so it’s an opportunity for somebody. We’ll rep (redshirt sophomore safety) Toyous Avery there today, we’ll put Jeremy Tyler there. We know he can do it. We’re looking for some depth. (redshirt senior) Khairi Sharif has played as well. Then we’ve got some young guys. Today’s important for those guys.

 

You know, I don’t know. They’ve got to rehab it a little bit this week. I would guess a week to 10 days.

 

When we found out yesterday, me and Gibby (Associate Head Coach Tony Gibson) were in the locker room and we both about puked because it was the same thing as last year. He was back with the doctors and we want back there and talked to him. It’s a hard deal. That kid has NFL aspirations. If he had a very solid year this year, he could’ve come out. I think he’s that good.

 

Karl’s was 100 percent non-contact. This was the same thing. Nobody rolled up on him. It wasn’t a tackle. It was jumping for a ball. Him and one of the receivers went up and he just landed on it funny coming down. There’s no explanation for something like that. It’s just part of the game and you’ve got to keep moving forward with it.

 

I don’t know. All six of those guys are in position battles. I think a couple of them possibly could move if we needed them to, but I think we’ve got some options. We’ll line up and see how they’re doing. Jeremy (Tyler) has played there before, Harper’s played there before. Toyous (Avery) has been there for 10 straight practices. Sharif’s been there for 10 straight practices. We’ll see how they look.

 

This has been my look for awhile now. You know? I don’t even know where it’s at. It comes and goes a little bit. I worry about a lot of things. That’s definitely one that I really give too much thought to. I’m trying to get that goatee like (Director of Football Communications Mike) Montoro. That thing’s looking pretty sharp.

 

Heat. Handling heat. We’ve talked a lot about this the last couple of days. The last three days have been pretty steamy. The way we practice, we get heat early in practices but we don’t get heat towards the end of the practice. Three weeks from right now, it’s going to be kickoff time. Being out here at this time is something that we did yesterday. We were out for about an hour and 15 minutes. Obviously, games are a lot longer than that. Today will be a little bit more realistic to game time. It could be just like this three weeks and we’ve got to be able to be every bit as strong here in two hours as we are now.

 

Right tackle is one. From a starter’s perspective, obviously free safety is now. We’ve got a pretty good battle at corner going on with a bunch of guys. The Will linebacker. (redshirt senior) Sean Walters is doing well. (Redshirt freshman) David Long is a guy we’re having a hard time blocking. I think we know what about 90 percent of our starters are, but there’s a couple of spots that we’re focusing on when it comes to that starting spot. Then, as always, who are the next guys in? You’ve got to just keep developing depth and who the guys are that we can count on getting out there.

 

Yeah, it is. Chugs (redshirt freshman Chris Chugunov) has had a good three or four days. He’s had a really good three or four days. We’ll get him in there first, probably, with the twos and we’ll get (redshirt sophomore) William (Crest Jr.) some reps in addition to that. That’s one to keep an eye on.

 

Pretty good. He’s pretty good. You’ll see him out here.

 

(We have) five, six; We have six. (sophomore) Gary Jennings is our fifth. I think you guys know who the four are. Gary Jennings is a real, real close fifth. (redshirt senior) Devonte Mathis has had a pretty solid camp as well. Those are six. The rest of the guys are not where they need to be at this point.

 

It’s Colton developing. Marcell’s gotten starting reps. He’s gotten a lot of game reps. He’s better than he was last year. I’m happy with Marcell. It’s just simply Colton’s athletic body, he is smart and probably a little ahead of the curve right now for his youth. Which is what you’re after. You want that competition. We want to develop as many of those battles as we possibly can. Crawford is bringing that at running back. We all know (redshirt senior Rushel) Shell’s got starting experience. He knows what to do. You won’t see him today, he’s been concussed for awhile. (freshman) Kennedy (McCoy) is developing competition. But if you can develop that kind of competition at every position, you’ve got a chance to be pretty good.

 

I felt good after spring. I felt good after spring with Kennedy’s development. (redshirt junior) Elijah (Wellman) is coming off a high ankle sprain. We know what we’ve got with him. (redshirt sophomore Michael) Ferns has been outstanding. The blocking Ferns, not the tackling Ferns. The other (freshman Brendan) Ferns has been a pleasant surprise as well. With Kennedy’s development through spring, we knew we had something with him. We know what Russ can do. I thought we had signed a pretty good player with Crawford, and he’s been every bit as good as advertised. We’re probably, from a depth perspective, in a much better place than we were a year ago. Any time you lose an NFL guy and say you’re in a better spot because of more bodies, I think that’s pretty exciting.