MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia University football coach Dana Holgorsen addressed members of the media on Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2017, at the Milan Puskar Center Team Room.
 
Opening Statement
This is personally my favorite week of the season, not necessarily who we're playing, but as far as just what the weekly routine is. It's a football week. There are less distractions and has everything to do with just football and your football family and getting to spend a little more time with each other. Yesterday, we still gave them a day off, even though there is no school. You still have to have a day off. Today and tomorrow, there's a lot of football time, a lot of football stuff. We get to go out and practice; we have awesome weather to be able to go out and do that. We all know we need a lot of that at this point. And then Thursday, obviously, we'll get them up here and practice a little bit and get to spend the rest of the day hanging out, whether it's hanging out with the guys or coaches or family or whatever it is. Friday, we'll get to travel, and Saturday, we get to play a great football team. That's something to look forward to. I think our guys are excited about that; they like each other and like playing, so they're getting an opportunity to be able and go do that – what more could you ask for? If you go back and look at your college days, one of the weeks that stands out is this one. We're fortunate to be able to play, so that's all good and I'm looking forward to it. We get to play a really good football team; we all are well-aware of who we're playing. They're a great team, and we've competed hard against these guys for the last five years and it's been extremely competitive, and we've come up short. So, we have an opportunity to go win in Norman for the first time; it's the only place in the Big 12 we haven't won. We have an opportunity to beat Oklahoma, which we haven't beaten Oklahoma around here in a while. All that is what our sights are set on, and that's all we're thinking about. We're not thinking about what's after that, we're not thinking about who we're going to be playing in the bowl game or next year or any of that. It's about Oklahoma this week, and that's all that matters here for the next five days.
 
They're really good. Offensively, they're the most efficient team that I've seen in a long time. They play well together. It starts with that quarterback, who we all know is going to play. The guy behind him is every bit as good, if you can believe that. He's younger, but every bit as good. They won't change much, regardless of who is in there. It probably has a lot to do with who is around them; they have three really good running backs that they can hand it to any time they want, one of the best fullbacks in football, the (Dimitri) Flowers kid, the best tight end in football in (Mark) Andrews. The guy is 6-5, 250, and can run down the field and hurt you down field; it's impressive what they do with him. It's the same five (offensive) line guys that we played against last year, one of the better O-lines in the country, and emerging young kids at receiver. That was the big question mark going into the year, their receiver group. They have three guys that can go, and they're getting better and better and better. So, 8.3 yards per play, I think that's an NCAA record. Somebody might want to look at that. I've never seen anybody average 8.3 yards per play over the course of 11 games. They're coached well, they have a good scheme, they have a ton of experience with a lot of old guys that have been there for quite a while. They know what their plan is, and they're pretty good at it.
 
Defensively, I see a ton of improvement. I've been going against Coach (Mike) Stoops for a long time. They're comfortable with what they're trying to do with their scheme. They have a lot of young kids that they're playing. It's pretty similar to what we saw last week with a front that's big, and it's a run-stop defense that doesn't take a whole lot of chances. They're going to get into position to where they are going to dial-up blitzes on third down and critical downs at specific points in the drive. They would prefer to be base and beat you with their players. Their linebackers are getting better and better, their safeties have experience, their corners are pretty young, inexperienced guys that they try to protect with some zone coverage over the top. The one guy off the edge, No. 31 (Ogbonnia Okoronkwo), I think has eight or nine sacks this year; he's problematic. They can do some different things with backers to get pressure on the quarterback if they need to. They've shown improvement; all of their numbers are better than last year. All of their numbers have been improving over the course of this year. I understand what happened three weeks ago in Stillwater; that was a game that just kept going back and forth and back and forth and back and forth. But other than that, here recently they've been playing really well.
 
Special teams, you don't see this very often, but they have the (Austin) Seibert kid that does everything. You don't see that in college football very much where the kicker also kicks off and also punts. I haven't seen it yet this year, and it doesn't happen very often. He was a national guy, does a great job with kicking, he's incredibly accurate, kicks most of them in the end zone and then does a good job with their punts as well. Their coverage units are good; they have a lot of speed, and then their return units are dangerous as well. They have a bunch of different people that they can put back there. I was happy with our coverage units last week, it's going to have to be the same thing. We're going to have to get down the field, and get those guys on the ground. It needs to probably be a little more consistent but with the same amount of effort this week as well.
 
On how important practice is for redshirt sophomore quarterback Chris Chugunov this week
It's certainly going to help. Backup quarterbacks get about 20 percent of the reps, it's probably about the same everywhere. He got about 20 percent of the reps last week, so getting him 80 percent of the reps, and then we'll get (sophomore quarterback) David Isreal the other 20 percent. If we need a backup quarterback to go in, we'll burn his redshirt year, if he needs to go in. It will most definitely help from a timing perspective. From a rep perspective, he should be more comfortable with it. He knows what to do; there wasn't anything that we did last week that he didn't know what to do. He's been here for three years, he's smart, he's a 4.0 student, he's had a lot of reps throughout spring and camp, he's been through three springs and three camps. He's ready to go. I was happy with the way he competed last week. He went in there and competed his tail off. He got knocked around a little bit and kept getting up and knew where to go with the ball. It's just timing and reps, and the No. 2 guy is usually not on the same page like the No. 1 guy is. That takes time. With that said, (Chugunov) knows what to do. He's going to go in, and he's going to compete his tail off. I mentioned this in the press conference and it's true, when that happens, people need to rally. Everybody around him needs to rally and play above what they're capable of playing, playing above what they're used to playing. That's how you win those games. Although I was happy with what (Chugunov) did, I think we need other people to be able to step up and play better.
 
On the mood of the team since redshirt junior quarterback Will Grier's injury
I think there was an element in the game, that second quarter, I think everybody was like, "Oh, crap." I think that's probably the human element of what we do. Everybody saw it, and I don't know if you could script a play more devastating to a team. From taking points off the board, to the defense having to go right out there, everybody saw the finger. You can't script it any worse. You guys know it, and I know it. I think the human element was like, "Oh, crap" for about a quarter. We didn't do crap on offense and on defense, we gave up two big drives. I can't just pinpoint say the receiver group or whatever it is. Our whole sideline was like, "Oh crap." Then, I was really proud of everybody at halftime. We went into halftime and there wasn't panic, there wasn't give-up, there wasn't the let's-take-the-pads-off mentality. I was proud of the coaches and proud of the players. We got together, and we attacked it, and we played our tail off in the second half. We got ourselves into position to where we were only down seven points on a couple of different drives. We just didn't have enough to be able to close it out. We probably gave that other team a lot of momentum as well. You could see their sideline go from nothing to a whole bunch after that injury happened. They wanted to win that game a lot, pretty bad – they've been working hard, they've been getting better, really good on defense. We gave them a little juice as well; we just couldn't overcome it.
 
On what he'll emphasize to the team this week
I can't remember the last time we've been in this situation. What do we have to lose, you know? Let's go play ball, let's have fun, let's rally around (redshirt sophomore quarterback Chris Chugunov), let's play our tail off. This season changes drastically if we can go win this one. Nobody expects us to win, everybody gets that. They're a great team. I still think we have some pretty capable football players that are going to rally around that quarterback, who might be pretty dang good, and go out there and cut it loose and have some fun. Let's go play some ball, man. When you get an opportunity to go play football this week against that team, you should be pretty jacked up about it. I don't think I'm going to have to do a whole lot for us to get up. We're in the postseason, we'll be able to regroup in December, recruiting starts Sunday and we know we're going to be on the road. We're not playing in that (Big 12) Championship Game; that was our goal, but it didn't happen. But we still have things to look forward to. We have a good December ahead of us. We'll worry about December once December gets here.
 
On if the running game will become a more vocal point of the offense
I've been vocal about making sure we're able to do that every week this year. There have been times where I thought we focused on it and have been good at it, and there have been times where I thought he focused at it and weren't good enough at it. There have probably been some times where I thought we overlooked it as well. So, yeah, most certainly we need to do that; I don't care who we're playing.
 
On his expectations of the early signing period
I don't know how it's going to work out. This is new to everybody. This is new to coaches, this is new to recruits, this is new to high-school coaches, this is new to media, this is new to everybody. I think everybody is going to be on a wait-and-see thing. I will say this: this is the first time we've had this much time to recruit. We've played on this weekend the last two years, the first weekend of December. Plus, I don't remember there being three weeks before that signing period. There's been two most of the time, and we've only had one each of the last two years. So, we're going to have three weeks to be able to go out and see kids three times. We'll probably have a good idea after we go sit down and actually talk to them and meet with them, talk to parents and what their plan is going to be for Signing Day in December. I'm anxious to see how it plays out. I think once we figure it out this year, it's going to be totally different next year. It's going to change again with early visits after going through one time. I don't know what to expect; I'll let you know when it happens.
 
On the connection redshirt sophomore quarterback Chris Chugunov has with receivers
It's timing. We wanted him to get the ball out fairly quick. Those guys were pretty good in trying to get there and all that. It's just timing. It's what I said with (Chugunov) knowing what to do and where to go with the ball; he needs those reps. The reps in spring where he's not getting blistered by (defensive) linemen and linebackers is a little different. So, him being in that game gave him a lot of confidence, gave him a lot of experience, but the timing that needs to exist, which happens over a period of time, I think will be improved this week. Is it going to be good enough to win? We'll have to wait and see. But, you're right, he was a tick off at times. Some of that is his protection up front, some of that is working the pocket and understanding the pocket and just the relationship that needs to exist with him and the receivers.
 
On if he plans to bring redshirt sophomore quarterback Chris Chugunov up to speed or tailor the offense to his ability
There's still only five days in the week. You have a little bit more time, but we can't keep these guys up here for eight hours a day. That's greatly overstated with what you can do in a week. It certainly can't help; you're about to meet with them a little bit more, but in actual practice time, you can't go out there this time of the year and practice for three hours. You'll have no gas in the tank on Saturday. You have to be careful with it. Just having the 80 percent of the starting quarterback reps will help a ton. There are some things that (Chugunov) does a little bit better than (redshirt junior quarterback) Will (Grier), and there's a lot of things that Will does a lot better than (Chugunov). We have to identify that as coaches and do the best that we can in putting him in position to be successful.
 
On if he's talked to redshirt junior quarterback Will Grier since his surgery
Not yet. I will here this afternoon, he'll be up here in a little bit. He got back late last night, and he'll be around all week. He's anxious to find out what the game plan is and watch practice and be there as another set of eyes. We rarely take injured guys on road trips, he'll be going. He'll be on the trip. He wants to support his guys and help be a coach on the sidelines. That's the kind of kid that we're dealing with. We all know Will, and what kind of a teammate he is, and his football IQ. It'll probably be pretty comforting to (redshirt sophomore quarterback Chris Chugunov) to have him on the sidelines to be able to talk to him.
 
On if the team has an emergency third quarterback
I thought we were getting there on Saturday. That double targeting, I've never seen a double targeting. They didn't call double targeting, but they should have. Both kids went towards his head; I don't know what they were trying to do. But, yeah, I thought we were getting there. We have a plan, and it almost went into place real quick.
 
On if he focuses more on opposing defenses or what the offense is capable of executing
The second one first, and you want to get to the first one quick. That all depends on who the player is. With (redshirt sophomore quarterback Chris Chugunov), I think we can get to the first one a whole heck of a lot quicker than our backup quarterback right now. The backup quarterback, right now, is still learning what to do. He's been on campus since July. (Chugunov) has been on campus for three years. You have to figure out what your guy can do, and then you expand on it. With our backup, we're still in the teach-him-what-to-do period. With (Chugunov), we can do a lot. He's a smart kid. We can do a lot with him.
 
On what redshirt sophomore quarterback Chris Chugunov's best attributes are
Smart. He's intelligent, he understands the offense, he has a good arm. He can keep things alive relatively well. He's not Skyler (Howard), he's not (redshirt junior quarterback) Will (Grier) when it comes to that, but there's plenty of things we can do with him. We can expand the offense pretty good.
 
On what Thanksgiving is like for the team
I looked at the slate (of games) this year and was kind of disappointed in it. I lived in Mississippi for a little while and the Egg Bowl was big. Living in Texas, Texas and Texas A&M was big. The NFL games, I remember growing up, it's always the Bears and Lions or something like that, right? Packers, Cowboys. That's what I referred to earlier, this week you have a little bit more time. There's less distractions, and towards the end of the week, you get to eat a bunch. We will practice our guys in the morning; we'll be done by about 1 and then they need to go enjoy Thanksgiving. I can't really let guys go home-home, but guys like (redshirt freshman linebacker Dylan) Tonkery, I'm sure is going to go down the road. Guys that are relatively close, they can go, and they'll probably fill their car up with a bunch of their teammates. Some guys like to go to their girlfriends' house or whatever that's relatively close. They need to be in their beds here on Thursday night. Other than that, if they want to drive to Pittsburgh, that's fine with me. They just have to be back in their beds on Thursday night. Guys that don't have anywhere to go, we know we have a whole lot of people that aren't from here that are from a variety of places, coaches open up their houses to players, and a lot of players go over. They are going to have plenty of opportunities to eat.