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Coach Dana Holgorsen Media Conference
August 09, 2016 03:45 PM | Football
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia University football coach Dana Holgorsen addressed members of the media on Tuesday, August 9, 2016, at the Milan Puskar Center Team Room.
Opening Statement
Who has some questions? I really don’t have a whole lot to say unless you guys have questions.
On injuries
Yeah, I was going to start. I knew that was going to be the first question. (Freshman cornerback) Jake Long is going to have surgery on his shoulder. Maybe could have practiced him but we’re talking about redshirt. Let’s just go ahead and do it so we have you ready for next year. He’ll be ready for spring. If we do it now he’ll be able to go through spring ball. So he’s out. Obviously (redshirt sophomore defensive lineman) (Jaleel) Fields and (redshirt junior defensive lineman) (Xavier) Pegues are out. They’re doing what they need to be doing. (Freshman running back) Martell Pettaway got hit on the knee. It’s clean. He’ll be out for a couple of days. (Redshirt sophomore tight end) (Trevon) Wesco got hit on the knee. It’s non-surgical, so he will be out for us for a couple of weeks. Other than that (redshirt junior tight end/full back) Eli (Elijah Wellman), high ankle sprain, he will be fine. (Redshirt sophomore wide receiver) Ricky Rogers, hamstring, he will be fine. That’s it. Nothing serious. It’s all camp stuff.
On backup quarterbacks
They are all doing okay. (Redshirt sophomore quarterback/running back) Will (William Crest Jr.) brings something to the table that the other guys don’t do, which is between the tackles running from a quarterback. (Redshirt freshman quarterback) (Chris) Chugs (Chugunov) probably has the best arm of everybody. We know that about those guys and it has not changed. They have to keep playing, they have to keep playing. We have an experienced guy with (senior quarterback) Skyler (Howard) that’s running it okay. We put them in a couple of live stations that, what is today? It is Tuesday right? So Saturday and Sunday we had our first live situations and it was pretty competitive back and forth offensively and defensively. All the quarterbacks went in and had some success a little bit and then didn’t have success. What you are looking for in camp is to have a team that goes back and forth and battles. They are one, two, and three. Obviously Skyler has the nod right now, the other two guys haven’t established themselves as the solid number two yet. It’s between those two though.
On senior quarterback Skyler Howard
We are protecting him more than we did last year. We have a different color jersey on him. I think what he brings to the table is grit and toughness. If he is sputtering a little bit, the first thing I am going to do is get him hit, because that typically gets him in the right frame of mind. I know where we are at with that. It’s simply just consistency in the passing game more than anything. It’s no secret. We have big play potential, we can run the football and we have big play potential. You all saw that last year. It’s the intermediate stuff that has to improve; we are working hard on it, I think its improving and critical downs being able to make plays in tight space. Our defense does a really good job on third down, last year they were one of the top teams in the country, because of what they do so it puts pressure on us to be able to make plays in tight spaces. Make plays when it counts and consistency in the passing game.
On how he values versatility
In recruiting we do. You can’t get good at doing a whole bunch of different things. In order to be great you have get them settled in on something. In recruiting you want versatility, you want to be able to recruit guys that can play multiple positions. I have, in the twenty-something years I have been doing this, I haven’t had success having guys doing multiple things and being great at it. You have to kind of lock in on something to be great at it. You want those kind of athletes. You want those kind of bodies, you want to be able to have choices when it comes to where they end up playing. Once they settle in on something there is only one way to get great at it.
On one dimensional pass rushers
They are rare. Those guys are rare. We have had one Bruce Irvin here. He wasn’t an every down player, but was a first round draft pick. Those guys are rare. I would prefer to have the scheme we have then; have a scheme that highlights that guy all the time and have guys out there that can’t get the job done.
On sophomore wide receiver Jovon Durante playing in the slot
He’s our fastest receiver. He’s playing fast. The trick with moving guys inside is being able to continue to play fast like that. I’m happy with his progress. Like (senior wide receiver) Daikiel (Shorts Jr.), if you really pay attention with what we do with Daikiel, he is the purest inside receiver that we have. He is the guy that is always closest with the ball. When we go into heavier sets, he is still the closest receiver to the ball, so he will widen out because he is like our best goal line guy. He caught two fades on the goal line against Arizona State; he is our best goal line guy. (redshirt junior wide receiver) Ka’Raun (White) is giving him a run for his money right now and (sophomore wide receiver) Jovon (Durante) can be an inside receiver, he can be a middle, slot receiver but then when we get heavy he can be an outside guy. Happy with his progress. It’s new to him, it’s new to him. You know, last year we had him at “Z”, which is always over there. Now he’s moving around so it’s a little new to him. He still has a lot of work to do but he is making plays out there. He is doing that.
On redshirt junior wide receiver Shelton Gibson’s next steps for improvement
The intermediate stuff, the curls, and the comebacks and the slants. Stuff that he has to attack the ball this way. We know he can attack the ball that way but he has to attack the ball this way. (Assistant Coach/ Receivers) coach Carrier is drilling him, drilling him, and drilling him hard. I see improvement with that, he had too many drops. I kid him all the time, he should have easily been a 1,000-yard receiver last year. With his big play potential getting down field he can get chunks of yards, in order to be a 1,000 yard guy, a real dude, you have to be able to make those tough catches when you are covered when the ball is coming at you. He knows he has a lot of work to do, but his work ethic is great and I like his progression
On how much he has been able to work with redshirt sophomore quarterback Will Grier
Not a bunch. He’s an intelligent kid, he a coaches kid. He really helps us with the drills. You need four and five arms to be able to, (redshirt senior quarterback) Skyler’s sore, (redshirt freshman) (Chris) Chugs (Chugunov) is sore, because they are throwing so much. We rested Skyler yesterday with the amount of throws, but you still have to put the ball in the air so he is good with that, (freshman quarterback) Cody (Saunders) is good with that. Those guys are going to redshirt so they’re in every meeting they pay attention, they take notes, they soak it all in, they are out at practice with the scripts and a lot of times they are just standing there looking at me and seeing the call, checking signals, doing stuff in their heads and taking a lot of mental reps. I’m pleased with their attention to what we are doing, it’s just not their time right now.
On redshirt sophomore quarterback Will Grier playing on the scout team
It probably depends on what the opposing quarterback is. (Freshman quarterback) Cody (Saunders) is pretty athletic so if we are playing Texas Tech, it’s probably going to be Cody (Saunders) running around trying to make plays. If it’s more of a pocket guy, smart, taller pocket guy, then we may use (redshirt sophomore quarterback) Will (Grier) some. I will probably rotate them, so they can continue to be in the quarterback room and get a good feel for how we game plan. Present the game plan, let them soak it in, see how it unravels, see how we call it on game day. There is a lot more value in that than going to scout team so you can play football. We need a good combination of both. Whatever the defense needs though, we will make sure that they get it from that position.
On redshirt sophomore quarterback Will Grier taking notes in meetings
You see him writing stuff all the time. That’s good. I encourage that. That’s the way I am. I take notes on everything. It’s a good habit to get into. It what good students do, it’s what good players do. Obviously players and students of the game and all of that. The more notes you take, makes it easier to remember that. There’s all kinds of evidence out there with that. Guys that don’t do that are probably not quite as motivated to be here anymore as much as they want to.
On sophomore wide receiver Jovon Durante playing inside this year
Yeah, I have to settle him in. I think he’s going to end up in our top-four guys. Our philosophy on the whole thing is, kind of like we’ve already talked about, is to get him settled in on being very comfortable with doing one thing. There’s so much timing with what goes on with where those guys are and the quarterback and the quarterback expecting them to be in the specific plays. You say it’s easy to run a fade route, throw it out there and let the guy go get it. There’s such a timing with all that, running big routes, getting familiar with when they sit things down from when they go fast, shallow routes, crossing routes. There’s a lot of timing aspects to it to where you can’t just plug a guy in. I can assure you watching Jovon (Durante) run a dig and (senior wide receiver) Daikiel (Shorts Jr.) run a dig, is two different things. So the quarterback has to understand that to be able to have a lot of familiarity with what the timing aspect of it is. If he can play any of the four positions we have, then get him settled in, get good at it. That’s what we have to do. With that said with what I talk about with what Daikiel (Shorts Jr.) does, there’s going to be a time when we’re getting heavier sets. We’re going to want our best guys out there that can go deep.
On freshman wide receiver Marcus Simms and freshman wide receiver Steven Smothers
(Marcus) Simms is way closer based on strength. He was here all spring. He’s in a position where he’s going to probably be a contributor at some point. He does a good job in the return game. He stretched the field. Still learning. Not prepared to say either one of them are in the top eighth, but (Marcus) Simms is a lot closer to us being able to count on him to be a contributor.
On importance of staying healthy in camp
There’s an element to it. Guys who can’t hold up just have to go on the shelf. There’s nothing we can do. That’s not my decision. That’s more (football athletic trainer) Dave Kerns and our medical staff and all that. They have to make a decision on who’s out there. I don’t make those decisions. Guys who are established like (senior wide receiver) Daikiel (Shorts Jr.), (junior safety) Dravon (Askew-Henry), (redshirt senior offensive lineman) (Tyler) Orlosky and (redshirt senior defensive lineman) Noble (Nwachukwu), those type of guys, we pretty much know what they can do. We have to get them in shape. You have to get in game shape. The only way to get in game shape is to get out there in practice and fight through it and train your bodies to be able to handle that stuff for two to three weeks, but not overdo it to where a point to where we wear them out and get them hurt. We do a great job around here with athletic training with (director, strength and conditioning) (Mike) coach Joseph with strength and conditioning and recovery. Every morning they’re down there recovering. They’re eating well. We have lots of liquids. We have a lot of stretching and all of that good stuff, so there’s a recovering aspect to it. We’re not overdoing it. They need to get out there in the afternoon and they have to push through things to where their bodies get in shape to be able to handle the long term aspects of the season.
On widening the pocket
We’ve run a good bit of draws with wider pockets and a better pocket when they’re not heating us up. When they’re heating us up, that pocket does gets smaller. The ball has to come out quick. When they don’t heat us up, the pocket can widen and then they can drop. It’s hard to find windows sometimes when they drop them like that, so with wide lanes you can run that quarterback up in there a good bit.
On junior quarterback William Crest playing two position
Not needed as much right now. Love the kid to death. He wants to play so bad. He’s so eager. Says ‘whatever you want me to do.’ He’s a wonderful teammate. He’s a kid that you want to coach. It goes back to what we’ve said, if you have enough guys to where you can get them to specialize in things that’s the only way to get great. We’re tired of being good on offense. We’ve been good on offense for the last year. If you want to get great on offense then you have to get guys that settle in and specialize at something and just get great at that. He’s playing a lot at quarterback than he is with running back or receiver. As good as a kid that he is, that guy who can do that is extremely rare. He’s not that guy.
On junior quarterback William Crest improvements
We’re getting better. We’re getting better. I wish I could anoint him the next Heisman trophy guy. He’s young. He has three years to play. We’ll see where he continues to go. He’s taken a bunch of reps. We’ll see if he can get better.
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