MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia University football coach
Dana Holgorsen addressed members of the media on Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2017, at the Milan Puskar Center Team Room.
Opening Statement
Thoughts of Texas this week, probably the first thing that comes to mind is the last home game, Senior Day. We have 20 seniors; it's an interesting class, really. Of the 20 seniors, 10 of them are high-school guys, and 10 of them are transfers, which, over the course of the last four years – probably you guys are aware of – that's kind of been our thing. As we get a bunch of good high-school kids in here and develop them over the course of four or five years, and then add a bunch of transfers to it as well, whether they're four-year guys, graduate transfers, junior-college transfers, this class has a mix of all of them. So, everything we do this week will be about those guys, and getting them a victory on Saturday to close out their career. A lot of them won a lot of games, whether it's transfers over the last two years, or guys like (redshirt senior linebacker Al-Rasheed) Benton and (redshirt senior fullback/tight end) Eli Wellman, who are fifth-year guys that have been to four straight bowl games and helped us win a lot of games. Those guys mean a lot to me, and it makes me want to coach harder this week, prepare harder this week and get ourselves in positions to win the game on Saturday. It should be a good deal. It is what it is, noon, it is what it is. We should be used to that; everybody should have a routine by now – I know I do. Getting over to the Marriott at the specific time that we get there and waking up at the same time, we'll be ready to roll.
Texas is coming in; I'm putting everybody on high-alert on this 5-5 thing. We're sitting here at 7-3 with three losses to the Top-15 teams, or whatever it is. They aren't any different. Those guys have lost close games to the likes of Southern Cal, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, TCU. The last time I checked, those guys are all in the Top 15, too, right? They've done pretty much what we've done; they've beaten teams, then they've lost some close games to really good football teams. They have new stuff going on, we know they have a new coach and are changing some things up with schemes and coaches and culture and all that good stuff. But the thing that looks the same to me, and I've competed against Texas, coached against them for the better part of about 15 years now, is they always have the best players, period. Regardless of the position, they always have the best players, and this team is no different. Looking back at a lot of the guys that Coach (Charlie) Strong recruited there and played them as true freshmen, which is a lot the last two, three years, all those guys aren't freshmen anymore. All those guys are juniors and seniors and have gotten a lot of starts under their belts and have a lot of experience under their belt. They're good, they're a good football team that's getting better.
Talking about offensively, we don't know about their quarterback situation; we're all aware of it. (Shane) Buechele is a guy we faced last year that throws it all over the place. He has a history of being able to throw the ball and does a great job of that. (Sam) Ehlinger is the young kid, bigger guy, that they run a lot and has been very, very effective. It's a little different of a situation to last week where, regardless of what quarterback was going to be out there, it was going to be about the same thing. These guys are both capable of hurting you in their own kind of way. Buechele will run it, but he's more of a thrower. Ehlinger can throw it, but he's more of a runner. So, we have to be on guard when it comes to that. I'm expecting both to play, and we're going to prepare for both.
Running back wise, they have four guys that everybody would want. Two of them are true freshmen, two of them are experienced guys in (Kyle) Porter and (Chris) Warren (III) that we know a lot about. If you hand it to any of them, then we better be able to get them on the ground. They are able to roll them in there and keep them fresh, they have four guys that can carry the load that can do what they want. They have a lot of receivers, all 6-3, 6-4, fast, tall, talented, experienced. They can throw it to any of them and any of them can hurt you. And they're big and physical up front. They're getting better, and it's going to be a huge challenge for our defense.
Their defense is probably the best defense we've faced all year. They have a whole bunch of talent, all guys that we've faced in the past, with a couple of new guys. They aren't just rolling a bunch of freshmen out there because they have a new coaching staff, they have a lot of experience. I'm looking at probably somewhere in the neighborhood of about 15 juniors and about five seniors on this two-deep. They're just experienced; all these guys we've faced, and they're getting better. They're well-coached; Todd Orlando does a great job. He's an old northeast guy, grew up here in Pittsburgh, and I'm really familiar with him and what he's accomplished as a defensive coordinator. He does a great job. Their scheme is challenging; they're very, very, very multiple. They can do a lot of different things in the secondary, they can hit you with a ton of different blitzes and they play about 25 different people as well. So, we have our work cut out for us offensively. They are the best defense we've faced.
Special teams wise, it's the best punter I've ever seen. This kid from Australia, the (Michael) Dickson kid, it's unreal. That dude, he can get it off as fast as he wants to get it off, he can kick it any different way he wants to, sideline, field, rugby. He gets upwards to about five seconds hang time, which is unheard of. Dude needs to go pro right now. He's just a junior, but he needs to hurry up and get his degree and go pro. He's that good. Going into this, looking at all the crossover tape and watching all this special teams stuff over the last 10 weeks, every time I was watching our opponent, I was noticing Texas showing up. They do a great job with their special teams. Any time you have those kind of specialists, coupled with a two-deep situation with a lot of players, you're going to be pretty good at it. Their coverage units are spectacular. I mentioned the punt team – he's averaging 50 yards per punt, and their net is about 46. That leads the country. Then, they have fast guys that are running down the field, so it's tough. Their kickoffs are the same thing. They do a great job putting the ball in the end zone. When teams do happen to come out with it, they have a whole bunch of 4.2 guys running down there stopping the ball. And then the return units are good. They do a great job of holding up on their punt team and their kickoff return team. There's a lot of talent and guys back there that can do something with the ball once they get it.
I think you guys can tell, so to speak, that this is going to be a challenging game and a challenging week. I'm thrilled about it; it should be a great way to close the season out and, hopefully, get our seniors a win that they'll remember for a long time.
On the key to going up against such a tough defense
My biggest thing from last game to now is just consistency. I don't care who we play, we have capable guys on offense to be able to move the ball. That's regardless of if we want to focus on handing the ball off to the running backs or doing a good job of protecting and throwing the ball downfield, or getting into screen-game, (run-pass options), things that come out of our hands quick, (redshirt junior quarterback) Will (Grier) making good decisions and putting the ball in play. We can do that against anybody; we've played good teams, as you've mentioned, we've played good defenses, as you've mentioned, and we've been successful. It just needs to happen on a more consistent level.
On the impact Texas offensive lineman Connor Williams can have if he plays
He's a good player. You're talking about a top-five pick that's an All-American and all that stuff. We have good tackles, too. How is that going to change the game? I don't know how it's going to change the game. They're expecting all of their guys to block, are they not? I don't think they're going to hand it to them; I doubt he's going to throw it. Maybe they'll run a screen and throw it to him, I don't know. He's a good player, and I'm glad he's healthy and is going to be able to play.
On how he compares redshirt senior linebacker Al-Rasheed Benton and redshirt sophomore linebacker David Long Jr.'s roles to Texas linebacker Malik Jefferson's role
They're very comparable; they're five inches shorter.
On if it makes preparing on defense difficult with the unknown of opponent's quarterbacks
It does. We talked about this last week with Kansas State, I didn't view it as a huge problem. There's anxiety when you don't know for coaches, trust me. There's anxiety with coaches for a lot of different reasons, but when it really doesn't change them too much, it's hard. When it changes play calls, that makes it more difficult. We have a couple of days to practice, right? And you're pretty limited with your time; I don't know how many reps you guys think we can go out there and practice for them, but it's not nearly as much as we want as coaches, it's not nearly as much as what we used to have in the past. There's player time involved here; we only get them for about two hours per day. So, it makes it hard, because you just don't have as much time. Preparing for one team a week is about what we do. When they have multiple coaches with multiple schemes, it makes it more challenging.
On how the Big 12 developed into a passing league
I guess it probably started with (Mike) Leach, did it not? A long time ago, in 2000, I was a part of that. That was kind of the first. He was at Oklahoma in '99 and started throwing it around a good bit. That's kind of where it started and he had success, had a lot of success. He filled that stadium for about eight, nine years straight and won a lot of ball games. Coaches moved on, like myself, and got jobs at other Big 12 universities and just kept doing it, kept recycling it. If you look at it, (Texas) Tech is still doing it, TCU has one of those guys, Oklahoma State had one of those guys, Oklahoma has one of those guys, that's just where they are all at. The other part of that is the Texas high school situation when it comes to athletic periods developing players. A lot of good football players, a lot of great football programs, they get those kids year-round. I mean 7-on-7 is huge, so all these quarterbacks when they're in sixth grade, they're out there doing 7-on-7. It's year-round; there aren't many of them that are doing more than one sport. So, year-round, these guys are out there throwing and catching, and their skill level is just off the charts. So, that's the lifeblood. Texas high school football is kind of the lifeblood of the Big 12. That's where all those guys are going and they're capable, like (Shane) Buechele is one of those guys who had an unbelievable high-school football career. He's been slinging it around since he was two. The skill level is off the charts; look at all these receivers they have from all these 6-foot-3, 210-pound guys that can run, and they're skilled and can catch. So, there you have it.
On if he's been tempted to find an Australian punter
Yep. (Redshirt junior punter) Billy (Kinney) had a good week. Our net wasn't great; the coverages have to help him out a little bit more. I thought Billy placed it where we wanted him to, for the most part. It's good to see him get back on track a little bit, but, yeah, it's been a little tempting.
On what goes into being effective defending against third downs
Confidence. Confidence in the calls, being creative in the calls. Both of them will do similar things when it comes to pressure. Having secondary guys that can hold up is important. We've had some pretty good secondary play around here. Texas has a good secondary, so being able to dial up some blitzes and being multiple out of a three-down front with a variety of people being able to cover is really important. It's similar on both sides. I was really happy with our third-down defense last week, I think it was 13 percent. They're good, they're at 27 percent, I knew it was high. Just having the confidence to make those calls is big. I see two (defensive coordinators) that have confidence in making those calls right now.
On being effective on converting third-down chances on offense
Ours was terrible last week. They hit about the same as us, we're both at about 38, 39 percent, I believe, which is bottom-half. It's the same thing, you have to be able to execute in tight spaces. If people are going to beat you up, then you have to be able to body people and make catches. (Junior receiver) Gary (Jennings) has been fantastic with that; we need a few more guys be able to do that. They know we're going to Gary on third-and-four. He's made some big catches, but we need other guys that need to be options as well.
On his thoughts on the senior class
This is the end of the White era – that is sad. That's sad, although I do have a good relationship with their dad. He says there are cousins coming. That should get everybody fired up. I don't know how old they are. My two guys are (redshirt senior linebacker
Al-Rasheed Benton) and (redshirt senior fullback/tight end
Elijah Wellman), you guys know that. They are team captains and fifth-year seniors. Both are going to be graduating here in the next couple of months and moving on to pursue their dream of playing in the NFL, hopefully. I wish them a bunch of luck with that. Those guys have been the two main guys with this team. Then, probably the next two guys – and I don't want to single people out because there will be 16 other ones that are really important – but that White family is pretty special. Those guys have played a lot of us, (redshirt senior wide receiver) Ka'Raun (White) being a three-year player and (senior safety) Kyzir (White) being a two-year player, and they've started pretty much every game since they've been here. I know their family is coming back. This will be a big weekend for them, just as far as the last five years, as many games as they've been to for the last five years. That family has certainly meant a lot to me, without a doubt.
