MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia University Football Coach Dana Holgorsen addressed members of the media on Tuesday, September 27, 2016, at the Milan Puskar Center Team Room.

 

Okay, moving onto Kansas State. I want to lead off by just talking about the really exciting time this week with Homecoming. I know it’s a big deal for everyone. Happy for our fan base to be able to experience this week. I think our team is in a good place right now, 3-0. Finished the non-conference undefeated, which was our goal, obviously. Moving into game four, and the start of Big 12 play. It will be a fantastic atmosphere this weekend. I know our fan base is going to be enthusiastic. Stripe the stadium has always turned out good, so it’s going to be sold out. I commend our students who have picked up 12,000 tickets. We need that place to be rowdy.  We need it to be as good of an atmosphere that exists in college football. I know we’ll have an opportunity to do that. We have a quality team in Kansas State coming in. We understand they’ve been a thorn in in our side here in the last few years. Our team is excited about the preparation this week and get moving toward getting ourselves in position to be able to put our best foot forward this Saturday against a good, quality, well coached football team, Kansas State. Been talking about it going on five years now, Bill Snyder is a Hall of Fame football coach. Their team is always going to be prepared to play. It doesn’t matter what their record is, doesn’t matter what year we’re talking about, he’s put together quality football teams for years and years and years, and he has been at Kansas State for a long time. He built that place up to what you currently see. It’s the same outfit it’s always been. They’re going to be extremely well coached. They’re going to be very disciplined. They’re going to be tough on all three sides, and it’s going to be our biggest challenge yet. They went out to Stanford and almost beat those guys, which Stanford is a Top-10 team. They’ve taken care of business at home the last two weeks,

 

Defensively, they’re extremely stout. No. 1 in the country, in pretty much every category. Pretty much the same people that they had last year. They’re good. They’re sound. They’re hard to move the ball against. They’re sure tacklers, and they have guys with a lot of experience. Offensively, they lost some guys up front, but every one of their skill positions has guys with a lot of experience. They have the quarterback back that they lost earlier in the year last year. The (junior quarterback) (Jesse) Ertz kid has been there for a while. He’s tough, he can run. They can run q power with him. They can run zone read with him and move him around, but then they can also have him sitting in the pocket, play action wise or just spread it out and have some quality receivers. Some returning receivers and a couple of new guys that make him a little different than what they’ve been like in the past. That and they’re run game, we know is always going to be good. We have our work cut out to us on defense. What BYU did to us with the big line and the gritty quarterback, the big back, the tight ends and fullbacks that we didn’t handle it as well as we have in the past. We have a big week in order to get better and I know we will.

What’s been the difference in the games in the last couple of years against their guys have been special teams. We make 90 percent of our practice time here in the next couple of days and just focus on special teams. I don’t want to sit up here and just say I’ve been disappointed in what we’ve done. I thought our special teams have been very solid the first two games. Our punt team has been good. Our PAT, field goal teams have been good. Even our punt return team has been better than what it has in years past, so kickoff, kickoff return, we have to get better. You just look at our average starting field position, it’s the worst that it has maybe ever been in college football, a week ago. We put our defense in bad situations by not being able to cover kicks the appropriate way. Kansas State and (Associate Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator) Sean Snyder, is as good as anyone in the country at it. They got us last year, and they got us two years ago. If you think we may obsess over it a little bit, then you’re probably right. We have to get better in those units and we will practice hard on it this week.

 

With that, I’ll take some questions.

 

It’s always all of it. If you’re deficient in any of it, then you’re going to get exposed. We’re going to make some personnel changes. We’re going to change some schemes things. We’re going to focus on it and make it an emphasis, and it’s not just kickoff team, its kickoff return team as well. We’re going to change some people. There are some guys out there who weren’t ready to play yet. You always try to put guys, young guys in positions to be able to get some reps on special teams in order to see where they are at. We have a lot of inexperienced guys, and we put some guys out there who weren’t quite ready to go. We looked at that, and if it takes putting starters on there then we will. If they need rest, then they’ll rest on offense or defense. Our goal is to not get beat on special teams, and that’s a huge goal this week. All the above, schemes, coaching, emphasis, personnel, effort, technique, you can say it’s everything, and that’s kickoff and kickoff return.

 

No. I know what the (New England) Patriots do, we’re not there. We can’t place the ball like that. We can’t do that. Our hang time was bad, and our ball placement was bad. We need to work on trying to get it where we need to. If you can get that thing in the end zone, then that’s great. It takes an awful lot of talent to be able to do what you just said, and we’re not there. I think BYU did a good job of that. If you look at what they did, their kicker is really talented, and their hang time was really good. That ball ended anywhere from the one to the minus one every time. So, we’re not there.

 

He should help. He should help with that. We’re going to evaluate it. I’ve been very happy with (redshirt junior kicker) Mike Molina. He stepped in without any experience at all. He stepped in five or six on field goals, made every extra point, handled all the kickoff duties and didn’t have his best day. He needs to continue to get better by having Josh come back. He will be able to create competition and alleviate the fact that Mike’s (Molina) is our only guy to be able to handle those duties. What exactly Josh does, we’ll work hard this week to see how we divvy it up, and what we end up doing this week may change the next week. It’s good to be able to have two guys who can handle those loads, and we will evaluate where they are and see what they need to do, but they’ll both see action.

 

I don’t think it’s hard to simulate, since we just saw some pretty good stuff last week. Right? Against Missouri we saw a guy that led the nation in kickoff returns a couple years ago. I’m not taking anything away from (sophomore wide receiver) (Byron) Pringle. He’s been a pretty good addition for them. He was a junior college guy who came in, didn’t have big numbers in junior college but is different. He’s a good player.

 

The Burns kid they had last year at kick return was an All-American. The (Tyler) Lockett kid they had two years ago was an All-American. I’m assuming it probably has something to do with the scheme and their emphasis in how they coach it. (sophomore wide receiver) (Dominique) Heath, the punt returner is the second in the league, a Top-10 guy in the country. The Lockett guy they had two years ago when it comes to punt return, that they had one on us out here two years ago, might have something to do with their scheme. Sean Snyder is as good as there is. We have to be on guard, and we have to work hard this week, encountering what he’s going to be able to do.

 

You can go back five years ago and look at it. No it is, but not a whole lot different than last year. Defensively it’s not. They have a lot of returning guys. They’re pretty entrenched with their program to where they have a lot of depth that you’ll see from year in and year out. From an offensive guy looking at their defense, I’m good. I know who they are. A lot of returning guys. They have really good players. They got better and better and better throughout the course of last year. You can see their improvement, they showed it against us. Then they go out, and a lot of the same bodies are out there stopping Stanford, who’s pretty good offensively, and then they’ve shutout their opponent basically the last two weeks. Now we are. Offensively they’re creative. We know who their bodies are. You have a pretty decent sample size of that, so no worries at all.

 

(redshirt senior offensive lineman) (Adam) Pankey played really well at tackle. I was really happy with him, sliding in there. BYU’s rush was good. It was a little different than from what we saw the previous two games. Youngstown has draft picks, and Missouri has draft picks. BYU has depth, and good players up front. I thought (Adam) Pankey did a good job of sliding into that role. He looked more comfortable as a tackle now then he has in years past. (Redshirt freshman offensive lineman) Colton (McKivitz) is going to continue to get better. It takes away from depth on the inside, which is what’s concerning at this point. We have to get a couple of guys ready to go.

 

Yeah, they are 50/50 right now.

 

Toyous didn’t make the trip, I think he got hurt in the second quarter against Youngstown (State). It was a Friday decision. He was either getting on the bus and going or he wasn’t. He couldn’t, so he didn’t play but we are expecting him back. Crawford didn’t play in the second half he has a shoulder (injury). When you take away (junior safety) Dravon (Askew-Henry), and you take away Crawford and you take away Toyous, depth is an issue. Hopefully those guys can go.

 

They are getting better. It’s not close to some of the ones that we have had in the past. I want you to print that and tweet it and all that stuff, blast it everywhere. They are getting better. (Sophomore wide receiver) Jovon (Durante) got better last week. (redshirt junior wide receiver) Ka’Raun was a little inconsistent. They covered (senior wide receiver) Daikiel (Shorts), which we knew was going to happen at times. We did a lot of underneath stuff, which was good. We threw it to our backs a lot, which was good. (redshirt junior wide receiver) Shelton (Gibson) was great. I’ve said this, he can track the ball, he has a different gear. That dude, as goofy as he is, that guy can track the ball like I have never seen. Not only can he track it, he catches it well over his shoulder, but he tracks it and somehow he always finds another gear. He can be running at a very high level, fast and all of sudden you can see another gear to go get the ball. He is as good as I have had when it comes to that. It’s good to see him catch a couple of balls underneath, and make some things happen, that was different than what I have seen out of him. He continues to get better and I know that entire receiving crew will continue to do that.

 

On redshirt junior wide receiver Shelton Gibson improving his catching ability

He never had trouble with this (over the shoulder catches), he had trouble with this (catching the ball when it is in front). I think (Assistant Coach (Receivers) Coach Carrier has been good for him. He ball drills these guys more than I have seen. These guys are doing that, his relationship with (senior quarterback) Skyler (Howard) is good, the timing is good. I said this a lot last year, sometimes these guys aren’t where they need to be. Which is why the pass game didn’t work out, which is why the ball sailed or was incomplete and people boo the quarterback because it was an incomplete pass. Sometimes the pocket was bad, sometimes the receiver wasn’t in the right spot. I am seeing a lot less of that at this point right now.

 

On the vertical route that sophomore wide receiver Jovon Durante ran and was right next to redshirt junior wide receiver Shelton Gibson

He was not in the right spot. It’s part of the learning curve with the new spot. If you look in the second half, we ran the same thing and he was in the right spot. There is a learning curve, much like we were talking about last year with some of these other guys not being in the right spots, this year it’s Jovon, who is in a new position and we are trying to deal with him not being in the right spots. It’s getting better and from game one to game two to game three it’s been much better for him. He will continue to improve on that.

 

There are six teams averaging over 500 yards a game, we are still an offensive league. We’re a point less than where we were at the end of the year last year with points and we are eighth, so much for my emphasis. We are eighth in the league at 33 points per game. It looks to me like there is still a lot of offense, there are a lot of points being scored, and there are a lot of teams doing a lot of good things on that side of the ball. It looks pretty wide open to me, but it usually is. Whoever usually gets picked is usually not the team that wins it anyway. I know some people are downing the Big 12 right now, but there are a lot of teams playing a lot of good teams. I always say, just get judged at the end of the year. Let’s get a bunch of teams into bowl games and see how we fare after that. It looks pretty competitive.

 

They invented Q power. I wished we would have ran Q power a little better last week on fourth and one. We have had a lot of success with Q power. We didn’t execute it very well last week. They do it for a living, we aren’t going to run Q power for a living. We are going to do some creative things with (senior quarterback) Skyler (Howard) who runs some different things in spread sets really well, some draw stuff, some design runs that I think he does a good job of. By no means are we going to do it like Kansas State does it. They invented it so they are really good at it. It’s a challenge to stop.

 

He is doing well, he has been here a long time. It’s his 10th semester. He probably has three or four degrees by now. He has always been hurt, he overcame a lot of injuries. I think the game slowed down for him, he is doing a better job.

 

He made a play at the end of the game. He got in the backfield and got a quarterback hurry and then made a play to seal the game. (redshirt senior cornerback) Maurice (Fleming) gets credit for it, but it wouldn’t have happened without Nana. Fifth-year senior, he is another one of these guys just like (redshirt senior linebacker) Sean (Walters), who has been around for a long time. I remember five years ago against Baylor he was out there at corner and they scored a lot. He has been around for a long time and it was good to see him make plays. He is important for us on special teams, he is a nickel back guy, depth guy. He got in when he was needed and made a play. Pretty excited for that.

 

No, you guys will handle that for us.

 

It builds a team, it really does. The offense was feeling pretty good about themselves after three quarters. We only had seven possessions and we are in the fourth quarter. We scored touchdowns on four of them, so we were feeling pretty good. That’s good offense, they were feeling pretty good about themselves. Defense, gave up some stuff, they weren’t getting the ball back, they weren’t very good on third down. Kickoff and kickoff return were developing really bad field position. If it ended like that, with a 16 point lead then ho-hum, but now all of a sudden offense has adversity and doesn’t do their job very well and the defense has to get a couple of turnovers. That’s great for team building, that’s winning as a team. In order to win a lot that has to happen. Offense has to be able to go in there and do some good things when the defense is struggling and the defense has to go in there and do some things when the offense is struggling because it is going to happen in every game for the rest of the year. If your team can sense that and do that then it puts you in a good place.