MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Despite enjoying a rare mid-September open weekend, West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen said there is still plenty of work to be done before the Mountaineers tee it up once again on Saturday, September 24, in Landover, Maryland, against BYU.

 

Holgorsen admitted the extra week will give his staff some additional time to get a handle on what BYU does. The Cougars defeated Arizona, 18-16, the opening week of the season and lost a heartbreaker to in-state rival Utah, 20-19, last Saturday.

 

“BYU is a quality opponent who does a lot of challenging things that will need a little extra work to prepare for, which will work out good for us,” Holgorsen said. “Then we’ll give the kids a little time off. They don’t get many of them so we’ll give them some time off and then get ready for the next one.”

 

In the meantime, Holgorsen will send his assistant coaches out to watch high school football games in different parts of the country.

 

“When you have these bye weeks - there is no such thing as an off week - you’ve got to get out on the road and do a little recruiting, be visible, watch games and get your evaluations in and all that,” he said.

 

Meanwhile, it was announced earlier today that West Virginia’s game against BYU will kick off at 3:30 p.m. and will be televised nationally by either ESPN2 or ESPNU.

 

There are still tickets remaining for the game and those can be purchased by calling the Mountaineer Ticket Office toll-free at 1-800-WVU GAME or by logging on to WVUGAME.com.

 

 

* Holgorsen was one of several Big 12 coaches on today’s Big 12 teleconference asked to comment on the unfortunate officiating error that took place at Oklahoma State last Saturday which enabled Central Michigan to score the winning touchdown on a play it shouldn’t have had.

 

The West Virginia coach was asked if he believes a mechanism should be in place to overturn clear-cut errors made on the field.

 

“Probably, when it’s pretty cut and dry I would probably support that,” he said. “They admitted that they were wrong and the play shouldn’t have happened and it was pretty clear cut that the game should have been over and Oklahoma State should have won the game. It’s tough because you’re trying to keep the human element into it with the integrity of the officials, but some of this replay stuff is taking it out of the hands of those guys as well so I don’t know why this wouldn’t be any different.”

 

* Holgorsen was asked a question about the offensive line’s performance in not allowing a sack through the first two games of the season and only 21 negative yards on 162 total plays.

 

“I’m probably happier about the lack of negative plays than the pass protection aspect of it,” Holgorsen admitted. “I really give (quarterback) Skyler (Howard) a lot of credit for what we’ve done in the passing game as far as getting the ball out of his hands. We haven’t been hanging on to it. He’s been making some things happen, extending plays and that sort of thing.

 

“I still think we need to get a lot better at the tackle spot,” Holgorsen continued. “We need to pass protect a lot better at the tackle spot, but we’ve played really good ends. Everybody talks about (Charles) Harris from Missouri, and deservingly so, but these two guys we played against Youngstown State were as good of pass rushers as I’ve seen.”

 

* Holgorsen was asked where this year’s wide receiver corps stacks up to some of the better ones he’s coached during his years at Texas Tech, Houston, Oklahoma State and now West Virginia.

 

Predictably, Holgorsen said this group still has some work to do to enter that discussion.

 

“I’m pleased with their progress right now,” he said. “Daikiel Shorts is as good of a possession receiver as I’ve had. He’s been fantastic over the middle and extremely reliable. I’m waiting for guys to break games open, which Shelton Gibson had an opportunity to be able to do that last weekend (seven catches for 171 yards and two touchdowns last Saturday against Youngstown State) and took advantage of it by making three plays downfield that are as good as any of them.

 

“Ka’Raun White is becoming consistent, but these guys have got to be able to do this stuff every week,” Holgorsen added. “I’ve been pleasantly surprised with where they’re at but they’ve got a long way to go in order to be on the same level with some of the best ones I’ve had in the past.”

 

* And finally, now two weeks into the college football season, the Big 12 Conference has just three undefeated teams remaining - Texas, Baylor and Holgorsen’s West Virginia Mountaineers.

 

Holgorsen said that’s a product of the upgraded schedules most of the Big 12 programs are now playing.

 

“The schedules are changing,” he said. “Pretty much everybody is playing challenging games now and so when power 5 teams play power 5 teams there are going to be some guys that are going to lose. Which way do you want it? Do you want good out-of-conference schedules or do you want undefeated teams with easy, cupcake games? You can’t have it both ways. I think everybody is doing a better job of scheduling and a lot of fan bases and everybody is excited about that. With that said there are going to be some losses when it comes to that.”