MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia University football coach Dana Holgorsen addressed members of the media on Tuesday, March 21, 2017, at the Steve Antoline Family Football Practice Field.

 

It’s going good, it’s going good. Fourth practice so two in non-pads, helmets only which, you know you don’t get anything out of those other than some offseason stuff basically. We’ve been with these guys for probably about six weeks since signing day so we’ve been kind of working with them on non-padded stuff. Sunday night was really the first padded practice so that was really the first thing that we could tell. That was just uppers, today is more live stuff, full (practice) should be fun, we’ll know a little bit more after today and then obviously we’ll keep progressing from here.

 

Yeah, just the long-term guys are still day-to-day stuff. (Redshirt freshman linebacker) Brendan Ferns has been practicing but you can tell he’s just kind of feeling his way a little bit. Other long-term guys (redshirt junior safety) Dravon (Askew-Henry) and (redshirt junior offensive lineman) Yodny (Cajuste) and (redshirt senior) Ka’Raun (White), I think that’s about it, those guys are all just still working their way into it so you wont see any of those guys today. Other than that were good to go.

 

(Redshirt freshman wide receiver) (Steven) Smothers is working on his academics. There is a reason why they put student before athlete. Got an update on him this morning and he’s doing what he needs to be doing but until he figures out the student part of it, he’s not going to be the athlete part of it. (Redshirt junior offensive lineman) (Dontae) Angus is in the same boat, plus some. (Redshirt freshman defensive lineman) (Jeffery) Pooler (Jr.) is out there doing something. He’s probably doing some rolls or some bear crawls or something that’s going to make him hurt on the inside. So we’ll leave it at that.

 

I could probably give you three on each position; I could probably give you three on each player. I could give you three on offense, three on defense, three on special teams. We’re so early in the process right now I don’t even know where to begin honestly. I think we had a really good strength and conditioning eight weeks. You know, the two months that those guys focused on that I was very pleased where they were at. We’re kind of finding our way football wise right now so I have no idea what the identity of this team is. I have no idea what we’re going to be able to do well. It’s just so early in spring and in the process of finding out what this team is going to be, which is fun. We are open at every position, we are open at every battle, we are figuring out what our schemes are going to be. We’re doing some different things special teams wise, we’re doing some different things offensively. Probably the more consistent phase of what this team is right now is what we do on defense. I mean that’s probably the most, continuity wise, (Associate Head Coach (Defensive Coordinator/Linebackers) (Tony) Gibby (Gibson) is going into what year 4 now (defensive coordinator), year 5 (overall on WVU staff)? Kind of got our niche defensively. I like where we’re at with what we do but are we going to have corners that can cover and are going to be able to blitz as much as we’ve wanted to in the past? We’re getting a pretty good free safety. One of the best free safety’s in the country is coming back. You’re going to want to see what he’ll be able to do as far as covering different things. It’s just so new I don’t know where we’re at. Which is what’s fun about it. You go out and you practice hard and you see what you’re made of and what you do well and kind of build your team around that.

 

He’s probably a little bit more behind than obviously (redshirt freshman linebacker) (Brendan) Ferns is because Ferns is practicing. (Redshirt junior offensive lineman) Yodny (Cajuste), we just tested his knee and he’s progressing. He’s not quite ready but I feel like we’ll get him for a couple of weeks. Dravon (Askew-Henry) is a little slower, maybe on purpose because we need him to go against Virginia Tech. Of anybody he’s proven that he can be a difference maker, as many snaps as he’s played in his first two years.

 

(Junior wide receiver) Gary Jennings looks great. He looks great. (Junior wide receiver) David Sills looks really good. He came in, and it was a hobby for him and now it’s not a hobby, it’s a full-time job. He looks really comfortable. Battles on the outside, (sophomore wide receiver) Marcus Simms, (junior wide receiver) Jovon (Durante), (redshirt junior wide receiver) Ricky Rogers, (junior wide receiver) Dominique Maiden, you know those guys are competing right now. We’re missing (redshirt senior wide receiver) Ka’Raun (White) right there. I saw Shelton (Gibson) in the office today, he got back. I was trying to convince him to rewind to a couple months ago, but just battles on the outside but David and Gary on the inside look spectacular.

 

Toughness. Toughness, they have really good body control, they are tough. Those inside guys have to be able to cover up linebackers, they have to be able to cover up strong safeties like (senior safety) Kyzir White and block those guys. One thing (junior wide receiver) Jovon (Durante), struggled with a little bit on the inside is the fact that he is 170 (pounds). I like the thicker guys that can really hold their own and be tough and get hit over the middle and bounce up or bounce off of that type of stuff like Daikiel (Shorts Jr.) did so well for a couple of years.  

 

I’m not worried about it. He is taking a lot of reps. (redshirt sophomore quarterback) (Chris) Chugs (Chugunov) looks really good. Everyone wants to hand it over to Will, Chugs looks really good. Chris has taken a lot of snaps here over the last couple of years. There is a comfort level that exists with him that doesn’t exist with Will based on the number of snaps that he has taken. Those guys are splitting reps. (redshirt freshman quarterback) Cody’s (Saunders) shoulder has been gimped up. He went home over the spring, and he overthrew a day and he has been limited since he has been here so I haven’t repped him as much. I am anxious to see him get his shoulder back to normal to where we can rep him as much too. Those are the only three arms on this campus right now, that’s scary, you better get all three of them ready. We are repping them all trying to get them all ready. I’m not worried about anything else other than that.

 

Well. I would have to think about who they are. I have talked about (junior wide receiver) David (Sills V), (junior wide receiver) Dominique Maiden looks decent. I can’t even think of who they are right now. I have all of the guys that we are trying to rep equally at this point in the spring. There are no depth charts, there is no first team or second team stuff so we have a long way to go.

 

(Redshirt junior defensive linebacker) (Jaleel) Fields, it is good to have him back, because he has been out for a year. (Junior defensive linebacker) (Jalen) Harvey is thick and explosive. He has no idea whether he should go right or left but he is big, thick and explosive. (Redshirt senior defensive lineman) Xavier Pegues is another one that’s been M.I.A. that is back that can play nose. That allowed us to move some of the other bodies to offense for some depth at guard, (redshirt sophomore offensive lineman) (Alec) Shriner and (redshirt freshman offensive lineman) (Chase) Behrndt. Having all of those guys has allowed us to do it. We are a little thin at d-end, but hopefully we will get (redshirt freshman defensive lineman) (Jeffrey) Pooler (Jr.) back and get some depth there. (Junior defensive lineman) Ezekiel Rose looks good. He is another end body. (Junior linebacker) (Quondarius) Qualls is long and is explosive. Those guys are just so new. Obviously, it is really good to have those in the spring. We will know a lot more about them, they will know a lot more about what to do here in the next month.  

 

He is doing well, he looks big, and he looks thick. He is a big, strong, and long kid. He is a tough, try-hard guy. He will keep getting better.

 

He just couldn’t block anybody so we are like shoot if you can’t block let’s see if you can tackle. He’s big, he’s thick, we need ends. He has one of those d-line bodies that can hold gaps. I’ll tell you, he is hard to block because his arms are enormous. He can touch the dang wall from here. He has long arms that may help from a d-end point of view.

 

I see some frustration because he is a perfectionist and he wants everything to be easy and he wants everything to look great and that is not reality. There are going to be growing pains for any quarterback at any level. He is a really, really bright kid, he lives in the film room. He is there all the time. He asks a lot of questions. Having (Assistant Coach (Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks) Jake (Spavital) here has been really good, because Jake spends three hours on Saturday’s with him if he needs too. He is a bright kid, he is a coach’s kid. He works hard, he wants things to look good. The ball looks really good coming out of his hands and he is an athletic guy as well. Yeah, and I am not going to take the yellow jersey off of him like I did three years ago to try to get Skyler (Howard) to do some things the way I wanted him too. I’m not going to take that yellow jersey off of Will. It will stay on. If he takes off running they will be very far away from him.