Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Coach Dana Holgorsen Press Conference
December 20, 2017 03:26 PM | Football
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia University football coach Dana Holgorsen addressed members of the media on Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2017, at the Milan Puskar Center Team Room.
Opening Statement
This is the first time we have had a chance to get together to talk about Utah. I'm excited about Utah, and I'm excited about finishing up work here today and tomorrow morning and then going down to Dallas. We tried to pull together our guys to see who has been in Texas for an extended period of time, and there are not a whole bunch of them. There are probably only one or two of these guys that have spent an extended period of time in Texas other than flying to Fort Worth, Austin or Lubbock to spend the night and play one game. Dallas is kind of the Big 12 headquarters. It's the hub of the Big 12. It's where we want to be able to stay and play in a championship game there at some point, hopefully next year. Being able to go and spend a few days there to experience it, I think it will be good for our team. We get to play a quality opponent as well.
My thoughts on Utah, coach (Kyle) Whittingham has done a great job there. It kind of started with Urban Meyer two years prior to that. They won a whole bunch of games in the Mountain West. They transitioned from a group of five to the Power 5 about the same time we did. I think a year earlier. They have been winning nine or 10 games pretty much every year. I remember those wars they had with TCU when TCU was in the Mountain West. Those guys were going back-and-forth. They won a lot of championships and won a lot of games. They were pretty much in the top 25 with nine to 10 wins a year for about 15 years now. They transitioned into the Pac-12 and much like everybody with some transition, they had to reevaluate where they were. They went 5-7 their first couple years, but they figured some things out and went back to winning nine to 10 games a year and being in the top 25. Obviously, the thing that stands out more than anything is coach (Kyle) Whittingham is 10-1 in bowl games in the last 13 years. Whatever they are doing during bowl games, I'm probably going to try to corner him and figure it out once this thing is over with. They have done a great job with their program.
Salt Lake City is obviously a thriving market. Their recruiting base is much like ours just on opposite ends of the county. They recruit up and down the West Coast, and they get a lot of kids from all over the place. They recruit junior college kids as well. We don't have a lot of crossover with them at all obviously. They are more California junior colleges, and we are more East Coast junior colleges. They do a nice job with their talent. They are top 10 in active NFL players. They have a ton of NFL players out there, and that just tells you what kind of talent they have. It's going to be a tough game for us. There is no question.
Coach (Kyle) Whittingham is a defensive guy. You can tell they pay attention to what they are doing defensively. They have recruited well. They have big, thick kids on the d-line. They are old. Look at them, they have seniors across the board. They are big and thick. They are hard to move. They are great against the run. They are multiple with what they do. They have rangy linebackers that cover. They have safeties that are downhill players. They have corners that can cover. They play a lot of man. They try to put as many people in the box as they can to take away the run. They are very solid with where they are at defensively.
I know coach (Kyle) Whittingham is heavily involved in special teams. I don't know how many times we have to face an Australian punter that is just out of sight, but here is another one. This one might be the best one. I know I said that with the Texas guy, and deservingly so, he won the Ray Guy Award this year. But guess who won it last year? They guy who we are about to face. It's unreal. They have a great scheme. He's coached a bunch of Ray Guy and Lou Groza guys. Obviously, it's a kickers market there. The (junior punter Mitch) Wishnowsky guy is really good. He averages 45 yards a punt. He doesn't outkick his coverage as much as the Texas guy does. Texas would boom a 100 yarder, it seemed like, and he obviously had great placement. He (Utah's junior punter Mitch Wishnowsky) doesn't do that, and I think it's probably on purpose because a lot of time when you out kick your coverage, you have an opportunity to get some return yards. They don't have a lot of return yards. They only had six all year where guys actually returned the ball on them. He does a great job at placing the ball all over the field. He does a really nice job.
They supposedly had a four-year All-Pac-12 kicker leave through graduation, so they had no idea who their kicker was going to be until this (junior kicker) Matt Gay kid showed up on campus in August. He walked on and won the Lou Groza Award. How does that happen? It's unbelievable. His approach on the ball is fast. I think he hit two or three 56 yarders that were pretty much up on the top where the goal post is. I don't know what his range is. It's longer than 56, I can tell you that. His accuracy is unreal. It's a neat story. It's pretty impressive. Their specialists are really good. I thought we faced some really good, collective specialists throughout the course of the year starting with Virginia Tech and Kansas State, and here we go again. These guys are outstanding. These coverage units are really good. They have great speed. It helps when you have a punter that puts it where you want to put it, and a kicker that puts it through the end zone a lot. Then the return aspect of it, you can tell that they pay a lot of attention to the punt return. This (senior defensive back Boobie) Hobbs kid, I believe he's from Louisiana. He's a little itty, bitty guy. He has four or five returns that are game changing returns. They do a really nice job with their punt return. Then their kickoff return will scare you as well. We have our work cut out for us on special teams. I have said that three or four times throughout the course of the year. None is more important than this one right here.
Offensively, they are multiple with what they do. They are really big up front. They have a new coordinator this year. They haven't changed things tremendously. Watching them last year before we played BYU, they played Utah the week before us. I studied their offensive tape a lot, and I remember them being very multiple with what they do. Their o-line is huge. I know they lost some guys to the NFL last year, and then they replaced them with a bunch of huge guys. Evidently, they are focused on recruiting the bigger guys up front. They have great skills. All their receivers look really good. They have guys that can go. They all look really good. They have two running backs that do a nice job. The quarterback situation, I don't know if we are going to be seeing (sophomore quarterback Tyler) Huntley or not. Obviously, we have to count on seeing him. He does a nice job at being a dual-threat guy. Then their senior, (quarterback Troy) the Williams guy is a big, good looking dude as well. We will prepare for both of them. They are a few differences with what they do when those guys are in there, but we are going to have to defend a variety of things.
It's a quality opponent. I'm excited to have this opportunity. We will go down there tomorrow and spend a couple of days. We will go through another game prep. We prepped them for a game week now, and we will hit the reset button and prep for them another week. Then we will play the game on the 26th. After that, our players haven't had a whole lot of time off. They been here since the Oklahoma game, going through finals. We ended the season, and then we went right into game prep, so I'm not going to let them go home like I have had in the past. They just can't based on the timing of the game, but after the game is over, they will have about two weeks off prior to starting the spring semester. I will take some questions.
On if he has different ideas offensively with more time to prepare without redshirt junior quarterback Will Grier
Yeah. I think the timing with (redshirt sophomore quarterback) Chris (Chugunov) and the receivers is naturally going to be better after five weeks. We will let him spin it around a good bit. The run game won't change a whole lot. I have some other ideas. I'm obviously not going to tell you, but I have some other ideas and some different things that we can do. You have to be smart with (redshirt sophomore quarterback Chris Chugunov) Chugs. We don't have a lot of quarterbacks laying around. You know our depth chart. (Sophomore quarterback) David Isreal has had a bunch of reps. He's going to be much more ready to play. We will do some different things to be able to move the ball. I thought we did a good job against Oklahoma with the short time that we had preparing for that. I thought we did a good job at being multiple and doing some different things. I thought we moved the ball pretty well, and we ended up scoring some points as well, so I'd probably plan on something similar to that.
On how redshirt junior quarterback Will Grier is doing
He is good. Obviously, today is a good recruiting today, but that was the most important recruit of the day. We recruited our tail, and I'm really proud of our staff. (Associate athletic director/football) Alex (Hammond), who is our NFL liaison, did a really great job. I'm happy with our administration on supporting us as well to recruit him and get him to come back for his senior year. That was step one. Then some other chips fell into play after that. Getting those juniors back is important. I think that'll help us with a lot of momentum going into 2018. We are having a good day today. I can comment on some of it, not all of it. We are adding some other pieces to the puzzle, and then we will add more guys in February. Then we will probably add some more guys in the summer. My one comment on signing day is that it's not about a signing day. It is about a signing class, and it is going to take multiple things to happen in order to find out what that final product is, what that final roster is come Aug. 1.
On how he approached the early signing period and the percentage of student-athletes that he wanted to lock in
We can sign 26 in this recruiting cycle. You have to remember that Jack Allison, Jovani Haskins and T.J. Simmons, for some reason, it is not important for them to have what you all deem as an important signing day. Those guys are a part of this class too. We have 26 that we can sign. To me, it's not about a day or a class. It is about what your roster looks like come Aug. 1. That's what counts. We can go to 26. We can't send out 27 with new NCAA rules and regulations. We probably would've sent out 26 today if we had the 26 that we wanted in order to make that Aug. 1 roster look great. That's not the case. I have seen guys panic and offer guys that they don't know. I have seen it over the course of the last 72 hours of specific programs approaching our guys that have been committed for a year and throw offers out to guys that they don't know. To me, that doesn't make any sense, which is why they didn't get them. Building it the way that we have built it, it is good, and I like where we are at with it.
On if there were any surprises with today's signing day
No.
On redshirt senior tight end/fullback Elijah Wellman
He is what this program is all about. I have known (redshirt senior tight end/fullback) Eli (Wellman) for gosh dang, probably seven years now. I think that's probably as long as I have been here. He's one of the first guys that I recruited. He committed to us when he was a junior if I am not mistaken. The five years that he has been here and the couple years that I have known him prior to that, he's what Mountaineer mentality is all about. He walks it. He lives it. He acts it. He has his degree, and he has played a lot of football for us. He's going to be a fixture in this program for ever and ever. I couldn't be prouder of a young man just by doing everything right. He is a team captain, and with as many snaps as he has played, his body shouldn't be able to withstand as many snaps and as many hits as he's given out. He just does that because he loves every minute of it. He walked off that practice field yesterday with tears in his eyes. It was the last time he was every going to walk off that practice field. That's how much it means to him, and that's how much he means to me.
On how he views this bowl game – if it is a combination of sending out the seniors with a win or if it is a spring board for next year
I'll tell you at 4 p.m. on Dec. 26. If we can do the second part of that. It's going to be a hard game to win. I'll tell you right now, Utah is good. If you look at their bowl record, that tells you that they are good. Everything is good about their program. They are good. They have really good players. They are really well coached. They have great tradition. They are good. It's going to be hard. I think it means a lot to our seniors. It reminds me a little bit of two years ago, going to Phoenix and playing a Pac-12 school against a good opponent that we are probably not technically supposed to win. Our seniors, it meant a lot to them to get a win, so we went and won. It helped our juniors propel into a season where we went and won 10 games. I sure as heck would like for it to be both. It's going to be hard to win and send our seniors out with a victory. It's our goal. It's what we want to do. It's what we expect to do. If and win that happens, it's going to help us in 2018. We have some momentum. I think everyone will agree with that. We have some momentum going into 2018 and this will most certainly help.
On who the big signees were for this class
I can't comment on that because we are not done. If you look at the one's that are in, we have a little bit of everything. We have a quarterback. We have a kicker. We have d-linemen. We have backers. We have corners. We have o-linemen. We have receivers. We have tight ends, and we are still filling slots. With this class of 26 people, you need a little bit of everything.
On if he knows of anyone else who is not going to be at the bowl game
I haven't even thought about it that way. We put our guys in position to be successful, and we expect them to be successful. We have two capable running backs that have played games for us and have practiced really well for the last couple of weeks. (Sophomore running back) Kennedy (McKoy) and (sophomore running back) Martell (Pettaway) look really good. In my opinion, they look as good as I have ever seen them. (Redshirt sophomore quarterback Chris Chugunov) Chugs has been around here for a long time. We expect him to act like a starting quarterback, practice like a starting quarterback and go play like a starting quarterback. He has done a good job up until this point. We have a lot of other guys around him that have made a lot of plays. They have blocked people, and we have a defense that has lined up and played tough. They have got off blocks, made tackles and made plays in the secondary. We expect that to happen.
On if there was a chance for redshirt junior quarterback Will Grier to play in the bowl game
I told him if he declared for the NFL, I was going to make him play. He said 'ok, fine. I'll come back.' He's not ready. It's sore. Actually, the dislocation is more sore than the bone that broke. He still has a hard time gripping. He wouldn't have been able to go back into the game even if it wasn't broken. The break is what takes time, but that dislocation was bad. You all saw it. It's just going to take some time. Obviously, the smart thing is to rehab it the right way, which he is doing right now. Jan. 9 when the spring semester starts, he will be ready to lead this team. He will be ready to roll.
On how he re-recruited redshirt junior quarterback Will Grier
I think unfinished business more than anything. He came here to win the Big 12 and be the best that he can be. I don't think we are there yet. That was my message to him. He agrees. I understand where he was at with it. He has his degree. He has a wife and has a child. The natural progression in life is to go be a professional. There is just unfinished business here. It's funny, too. I had to re-recruit (junior wide receiver David) Sills for the third time. Who recruits a kid three times? This is the third time I have had to recruit him. That to me is kind of funny. It's a different set of circumstances with the same reason. It's unfinished business with them. This coaching staff and this program means a lot to them as well as this university. This state means a lot to both of those kids
On how important it will be for junior wide receiver David Sills V to get another year of playing time underneath his belt
A lot. He has been playing receiver for a year. He has made some unbelievable catches, and it's a great story. He can catch touchdowns better than a lot of people. There are just a whole lot of things that he can improve on. They both know they can improve, which is why they are back. The unfinished business part is something that hit home to him.
On if he likes the early signing period
I do because we are a program of stability right now. Our coaching staff has done a great job. We have good stability. We know who we are and what we are looking for. We went out and identified that. They are a lot of other programs out of there that are not very stable. A lot of good places that came knocking and calling and a lot of our guys remained loyal to us. That becomes hard if you give them another month and a half, so I like it with where we are currently at with our program. How we have built our recruiting classes over the last four years, I think this plays into our hand. We have hung on to more than we have lost for the first time in seven years.
On if the early signing period benefits the program as opposed to trying to win the day
We never try to win signing day. I would be the first to admit that I left signing day, especially seven, six or five years ago, kind of angry at times. Losing a guy or not being ranked as high as you thought you should be, and I was like 'what are you doing?' I just think that this plays into how we have done recruiting here for the last three or four years. There are a lot of programs out there that just try and win that day, and they are not even coaching anymore.
On if it is a fluid process and if he is ok with the window of time to sign a recruit
We won't sign anyone tomorrow or the next day. I didn't even know there was a three-day window. I didn't even know that February had a three-day window. All you hear is signing day. I wasn't even aware that it was a three-day window. I thought it was a three-week window. I don't know. Usually you are just going to get what you get. Then you have to look for grad transfers or four-year transfers, which you can sign them whenever you want. I don't get the 48-hour thing. It doesn't make sense to me.
On if signing his long-term contract helped
It did. Absolutely. That's why we got more high school guys this year. Last year, we signed 50 percent transfers. This year, I don't know what the percentage is. We are not done with our class yet, but a lot of the guys signing today, which are good, quality student-athletes, are mainly high school guys. That's a 100 percent what that is.
Opening Statement
This is the first time we have had a chance to get together to talk about Utah. I'm excited about Utah, and I'm excited about finishing up work here today and tomorrow morning and then going down to Dallas. We tried to pull together our guys to see who has been in Texas for an extended period of time, and there are not a whole bunch of them. There are probably only one or two of these guys that have spent an extended period of time in Texas other than flying to Fort Worth, Austin or Lubbock to spend the night and play one game. Dallas is kind of the Big 12 headquarters. It's the hub of the Big 12. It's where we want to be able to stay and play in a championship game there at some point, hopefully next year. Being able to go and spend a few days there to experience it, I think it will be good for our team. We get to play a quality opponent as well.
My thoughts on Utah, coach (Kyle) Whittingham has done a great job there. It kind of started with Urban Meyer two years prior to that. They won a whole bunch of games in the Mountain West. They transitioned from a group of five to the Power 5 about the same time we did. I think a year earlier. They have been winning nine or 10 games pretty much every year. I remember those wars they had with TCU when TCU was in the Mountain West. Those guys were going back-and-forth. They won a lot of championships and won a lot of games. They were pretty much in the top 25 with nine to 10 wins a year for about 15 years now. They transitioned into the Pac-12 and much like everybody with some transition, they had to reevaluate where they were. They went 5-7 their first couple years, but they figured some things out and went back to winning nine to 10 games a year and being in the top 25. Obviously, the thing that stands out more than anything is coach (Kyle) Whittingham is 10-1 in bowl games in the last 13 years. Whatever they are doing during bowl games, I'm probably going to try to corner him and figure it out once this thing is over with. They have done a great job with their program.
Salt Lake City is obviously a thriving market. Their recruiting base is much like ours just on opposite ends of the county. They recruit up and down the West Coast, and they get a lot of kids from all over the place. They recruit junior college kids as well. We don't have a lot of crossover with them at all obviously. They are more California junior colleges, and we are more East Coast junior colleges. They do a nice job with their talent. They are top 10 in active NFL players. They have a ton of NFL players out there, and that just tells you what kind of talent they have. It's going to be a tough game for us. There is no question.
Coach (Kyle) Whittingham is a defensive guy. You can tell they pay attention to what they are doing defensively. They have recruited well. They have big, thick kids on the d-line. They are old. Look at them, they have seniors across the board. They are big and thick. They are hard to move. They are great against the run. They are multiple with what they do. They have rangy linebackers that cover. They have safeties that are downhill players. They have corners that can cover. They play a lot of man. They try to put as many people in the box as they can to take away the run. They are very solid with where they are at defensively.
I know coach (Kyle) Whittingham is heavily involved in special teams. I don't know how many times we have to face an Australian punter that is just out of sight, but here is another one. This one might be the best one. I know I said that with the Texas guy, and deservingly so, he won the Ray Guy Award this year. But guess who won it last year? They guy who we are about to face. It's unreal. They have a great scheme. He's coached a bunch of Ray Guy and Lou Groza guys. Obviously, it's a kickers market there. The (junior punter Mitch) Wishnowsky guy is really good. He averages 45 yards a punt. He doesn't outkick his coverage as much as the Texas guy does. Texas would boom a 100 yarder, it seemed like, and he obviously had great placement. He (Utah's junior punter Mitch Wishnowsky) doesn't do that, and I think it's probably on purpose because a lot of time when you out kick your coverage, you have an opportunity to get some return yards. They don't have a lot of return yards. They only had six all year where guys actually returned the ball on them. He does a great job at placing the ball all over the field. He does a really nice job.
They supposedly had a four-year All-Pac-12 kicker leave through graduation, so they had no idea who their kicker was going to be until this (junior kicker) Matt Gay kid showed up on campus in August. He walked on and won the Lou Groza Award. How does that happen? It's unbelievable. His approach on the ball is fast. I think he hit two or three 56 yarders that were pretty much up on the top where the goal post is. I don't know what his range is. It's longer than 56, I can tell you that. His accuracy is unreal. It's a neat story. It's pretty impressive. Their specialists are really good. I thought we faced some really good, collective specialists throughout the course of the year starting with Virginia Tech and Kansas State, and here we go again. These guys are outstanding. These coverage units are really good. They have great speed. It helps when you have a punter that puts it where you want to put it, and a kicker that puts it through the end zone a lot. Then the return aspect of it, you can tell that they pay a lot of attention to the punt return. This (senior defensive back Boobie) Hobbs kid, I believe he's from Louisiana. He's a little itty, bitty guy. He has four or five returns that are game changing returns. They do a really nice job with their punt return. Then their kickoff return will scare you as well. We have our work cut out for us on special teams. I have said that three or four times throughout the course of the year. None is more important than this one right here.
Offensively, they are multiple with what they do. They are really big up front. They have a new coordinator this year. They haven't changed things tremendously. Watching them last year before we played BYU, they played Utah the week before us. I studied their offensive tape a lot, and I remember them being very multiple with what they do. Their o-line is huge. I know they lost some guys to the NFL last year, and then they replaced them with a bunch of huge guys. Evidently, they are focused on recruiting the bigger guys up front. They have great skills. All their receivers look really good. They have guys that can go. They all look really good. They have two running backs that do a nice job. The quarterback situation, I don't know if we are going to be seeing (sophomore quarterback Tyler) Huntley or not. Obviously, we have to count on seeing him. He does a nice job at being a dual-threat guy. Then their senior, (quarterback Troy) the Williams guy is a big, good looking dude as well. We will prepare for both of them. They are a few differences with what they do when those guys are in there, but we are going to have to defend a variety of things.
It's a quality opponent. I'm excited to have this opportunity. We will go down there tomorrow and spend a couple of days. We will go through another game prep. We prepped them for a game week now, and we will hit the reset button and prep for them another week. Then we will play the game on the 26th. After that, our players haven't had a whole lot of time off. They been here since the Oklahoma game, going through finals. We ended the season, and then we went right into game prep, so I'm not going to let them go home like I have had in the past. They just can't based on the timing of the game, but after the game is over, they will have about two weeks off prior to starting the spring semester. I will take some questions.
On if he has different ideas offensively with more time to prepare without redshirt junior quarterback Will Grier
Yeah. I think the timing with (redshirt sophomore quarterback) Chris (Chugunov) and the receivers is naturally going to be better after five weeks. We will let him spin it around a good bit. The run game won't change a whole lot. I have some other ideas. I'm obviously not going to tell you, but I have some other ideas and some different things that we can do. You have to be smart with (redshirt sophomore quarterback Chris Chugunov) Chugs. We don't have a lot of quarterbacks laying around. You know our depth chart. (Sophomore quarterback) David Isreal has had a bunch of reps. He's going to be much more ready to play. We will do some different things to be able to move the ball. I thought we did a good job against Oklahoma with the short time that we had preparing for that. I thought we did a good job at being multiple and doing some different things. I thought we moved the ball pretty well, and we ended up scoring some points as well, so I'd probably plan on something similar to that.
On how redshirt junior quarterback Will Grier is doing
He is good. Obviously, today is a good recruiting today, but that was the most important recruit of the day. We recruited our tail, and I'm really proud of our staff. (Associate athletic director/football) Alex (Hammond), who is our NFL liaison, did a really great job. I'm happy with our administration on supporting us as well to recruit him and get him to come back for his senior year. That was step one. Then some other chips fell into play after that. Getting those juniors back is important. I think that'll help us with a lot of momentum going into 2018. We are having a good day today. I can comment on some of it, not all of it. We are adding some other pieces to the puzzle, and then we will add more guys in February. Then we will probably add some more guys in the summer. My one comment on signing day is that it's not about a signing day. It is about a signing class, and it is going to take multiple things to happen in order to find out what that final product is, what that final roster is come Aug. 1.
On how he approached the early signing period and the percentage of student-athletes that he wanted to lock in
We can sign 26 in this recruiting cycle. You have to remember that Jack Allison, Jovani Haskins and T.J. Simmons, for some reason, it is not important for them to have what you all deem as an important signing day. Those guys are a part of this class too. We have 26 that we can sign. To me, it's not about a day or a class. It is about what your roster looks like come Aug. 1. That's what counts. We can go to 26. We can't send out 27 with new NCAA rules and regulations. We probably would've sent out 26 today if we had the 26 that we wanted in order to make that Aug. 1 roster look great. That's not the case. I have seen guys panic and offer guys that they don't know. I have seen it over the course of the last 72 hours of specific programs approaching our guys that have been committed for a year and throw offers out to guys that they don't know. To me, that doesn't make any sense, which is why they didn't get them. Building it the way that we have built it, it is good, and I like where we are at with it.
On if there were any surprises with today's signing day
No.
On redshirt senior tight end/fullback Elijah Wellman
He is what this program is all about. I have known (redshirt senior tight end/fullback) Eli (Wellman) for gosh dang, probably seven years now. I think that's probably as long as I have been here. He's one of the first guys that I recruited. He committed to us when he was a junior if I am not mistaken. The five years that he has been here and the couple years that I have known him prior to that, he's what Mountaineer mentality is all about. He walks it. He lives it. He acts it. He has his degree, and he has played a lot of football for us. He's going to be a fixture in this program for ever and ever. I couldn't be prouder of a young man just by doing everything right. He is a team captain, and with as many snaps as he has played, his body shouldn't be able to withstand as many snaps and as many hits as he's given out. He just does that because he loves every minute of it. He walked off that practice field yesterday with tears in his eyes. It was the last time he was every going to walk off that practice field. That's how much it means to him, and that's how much he means to me.
On how he views this bowl game – if it is a combination of sending out the seniors with a win or if it is a spring board for next year
I'll tell you at 4 p.m. on Dec. 26. If we can do the second part of that. It's going to be a hard game to win. I'll tell you right now, Utah is good. If you look at their bowl record, that tells you that they are good. Everything is good about their program. They are good. They have really good players. They are really well coached. They have great tradition. They are good. It's going to be hard. I think it means a lot to our seniors. It reminds me a little bit of two years ago, going to Phoenix and playing a Pac-12 school against a good opponent that we are probably not technically supposed to win. Our seniors, it meant a lot to them to get a win, so we went and won. It helped our juniors propel into a season where we went and won 10 games. I sure as heck would like for it to be both. It's going to be hard to win and send our seniors out with a victory. It's our goal. It's what we want to do. It's what we expect to do. If and win that happens, it's going to help us in 2018. We have some momentum. I think everyone will agree with that. We have some momentum going into 2018 and this will most certainly help.
On who the big signees were for this class
I can't comment on that because we are not done. If you look at the one's that are in, we have a little bit of everything. We have a quarterback. We have a kicker. We have d-linemen. We have backers. We have corners. We have o-linemen. We have receivers. We have tight ends, and we are still filling slots. With this class of 26 people, you need a little bit of everything.
On if he knows of anyone else who is not going to be at the bowl game
I haven't even thought about it that way. We put our guys in position to be successful, and we expect them to be successful. We have two capable running backs that have played games for us and have practiced really well for the last couple of weeks. (Sophomore running back) Kennedy (McKoy) and (sophomore running back) Martell (Pettaway) look really good. In my opinion, they look as good as I have ever seen them. (Redshirt sophomore quarterback Chris Chugunov) Chugs has been around here for a long time. We expect him to act like a starting quarterback, practice like a starting quarterback and go play like a starting quarterback. He has done a good job up until this point. We have a lot of other guys around him that have made a lot of plays. They have blocked people, and we have a defense that has lined up and played tough. They have got off blocks, made tackles and made plays in the secondary. We expect that to happen.
On if there was a chance for redshirt junior quarterback Will Grier to play in the bowl game
I told him if he declared for the NFL, I was going to make him play. He said 'ok, fine. I'll come back.' He's not ready. It's sore. Actually, the dislocation is more sore than the bone that broke. He still has a hard time gripping. He wouldn't have been able to go back into the game even if it wasn't broken. The break is what takes time, but that dislocation was bad. You all saw it. It's just going to take some time. Obviously, the smart thing is to rehab it the right way, which he is doing right now. Jan. 9 when the spring semester starts, he will be ready to lead this team. He will be ready to roll.
On how he re-recruited redshirt junior quarterback Will Grier
I think unfinished business more than anything. He came here to win the Big 12 and be the best that he can be. I don't think we are there yet. That was my message to him. He agrees. I understand where he was at with it. He has his degree. He has a wife and has a child. The natural progression in life is to go be a professional. There is just unfinished business here. It's funny, too. I had to re-recruit (junior wide receiver David) Sills for the third time. Who recruits a kid three times? This is the third time I have had to recruit him. That to me is kind of funny. It's a different set of circumstances with the same reason. It's unfinished business with them. This coaching staff and this program means a lot to them as well as this university. This state means a lot to both of those kids
On how important it will be for junior wide receiver David Sills V to get another year of playing time underneath his belt
A lot. He has been playing receiver for a year. He has made some unbelievable catches, and it's a great story. He can catch touchdowns better than a lot of people. There are just a whole lot of things that he can improve on. They both know they can improve, which is why they are back. The unfinished business part is something that hit home to him.
On if he likes the early signing period
I do because we are a program of stability right now. Our coaching staff has done a great job. We have good stability. We know who we are and what we are looking for. We went out and identified that. They are a lot of other programs out of there that are not very stable. A lot of good places that came knocking and calling and a lot of our guys remained loyal to us. That becomes hard if you give them another month and a half, so I like it with where we are currently at with our program. How we have built our recruiting classes over the last four years, I think this plays into our hand. We have hung on to more than we have lost for the first time in seven years.
On if the early signing period benefits the program as opposed to trying to win the day
We never try to win signing day. I would be the first to admit that I left signing day, especially seven, six or five years ago, kind of angry at times. Losing a guy or not being ranked as high as you thought you should be, and I was like 'what are you doing?' I just think that this plays into how we have done recruiting here for the last three or four years. There are a lot of programs out there that just try and win that day, and they are not even coaching anymore.
On if it is a fluid process and if he is ok with the window of time to sign a recruit
We won't sign anyone tomorrow or the next day. I didn't even know there was a three-day window. I didn't even know that February had a three-day window. All you hear is signing day. I wasn't even aware that it was a three-day window. I thought it was a three-week window. I don't know. Usually you are just going to get what you get. Then you have to look for grad transfers or four-year transfers, which you can sign them whenever you want. I don't get the 48-hour thing. It doesn't make sense to me.
On if signing his long-term contract helped
It did. Absolutely. That's why we got more high school guys this year. Last year, we signed 50 percent transfers. This year, I don't know what the percentage is. We are not done with our class yet, but a lot of the guys signing today, which are good, quality student-athletes, are mainly high school guys. That's a 100 percent what that is.
Players Mentioned
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/ FootballGold-Blue Spring Festival Fan Recap
Sunday, April 19
John Neider | April 18
Saturday, April 18
Coach Zac Alley | April 18
Saturday, April 18
Coach Rich Rodriguez | April 18
Saturday, April 18
