Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Campus Connection: Bye Week News
September 29, 2017 01:20 PM | Football, Blog
When you've got an open week ahead of you, the topics usually can run the gamut for college football coaches at their weekly news conferences.
Such was the case for West Virginia's Dana Holgorsen earlier this week, who began his Tuesday afternoon news session by asking reporters what they wanted to talk about.
The first question, coming from the Blue & Gold News' Greg Hunter, who has now taken over the late Mickey Furfari's status as the first questioner, was about injuries (a favorite topic of Holgorsen's, by the way).
The coach did mention that redshirt freshman linebacker Brendan Ferns, who injured his shoulder during last Saturday's Kansas win, will be out for the rest of the season.
"He was probably our most solid special teams player at this point," Holgorsen noted. "He seems to be in good spirits; it's going to be a six-month deal and he should be ready for spring ball."
Then the conversation moved on to how the defensive line played against Kansas (not good), to what he liked about the offensive line's performance against a pretty stout Jayhawk front (quite a bit), to how he's going to keep running back Justin Crawford fresh late in the year when his carries start to mount, to if he's spent any time in the team's new cryotherapy machine yet.
Say what?
"Yeah, I've been in it a couple of times," he said. "For an old, fat guy it speeds up your metabolism. Good stuff. The players like it. It's quicker than sitting in a cold tub for 15, 20 minutes, that starts to hurt a little bit, or at least hurts until it's numb."
A follow up asked him to compare that to what he had access to as a student-athlete back in the day.
"The biggest difference is how you practice now compared to how you used to practice," Holgorsen said. "The days of being out there for three hours are long gone, that's for sure. How did we used to practice with not being able to drink water and sit there and do an inside drill for 45 minutes? We probably get more reps in a 10-minute inside period now than we did 20 years ago, in a 30-minute inside period."
He continued.
"That has always been a fun discussion. For me growing up, we would run a play and get in the huddle and the coach would yell at us for about 45 seconds up to three minutes. Then he would call another play and you would run it and get in the huddle and sit there and talk about it some more for two or three minutes. How you practice is a lot different, that's for sure," he said.
Holgorsen was even asked about visiting team locker room conditions, a subject Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh brought up following the Wolverines' 28-10 victory at Purdue last Saturday.
Based on Holgorsen's response, it's safe to assume that he rates TCU's visiting locker room the best, followed by Baylor's among Big 12 teams.
Of course, those two have the newest stadiums in the league as well.
And then, with things running a little stale, the obligatory "how's recruiting going?" question came up.
It went something like this, "So, Coach, how's recruiting going?"
"It's going pretty well," he answered. "We are evaluating a lot of guys right now. We are going to send all 10 coaches out (this weekend). Probably the biggest area that we are doing this weekend is going and seeing guys that we have committed or trying to get committed. That is what we are focusing on right now."
So, there you have it, a typical open-week news conference with your head ball coach.
Next week, it's the No. 9-ranked TCU Horned Frogs.
Stay tuned.
Briefly:
* On a more serious note, Holgorsen mentioned Tuesday that the new early signing period for football will have more of an impact for next year's recruiting and beyond than this one.
"This year's class seems very normal to me with the opportunity to be able to end it in December," Holgorsen said. "The next one, the 2019 class, is going to get interesting as to how you evaluate them, when you evaluate them and when you have to make your decisions on them because they can start taking visits in April, May and June, which to me is absurd."
What this does is effectively speed up the recruiting calendar for coaches to make decisions on prospects much earlier than before.
"You have to make decisions, really, before spring practice and before the spring academic semester is over," Holgorsen noted. "To me, that's ridiculous. They increase the academic requirements and they decrease the amount of time that you can evaluate them academically. I think there are going to be issues with that and I'm curious to see who all of that is going to play out."
For borderline academic prospects, those players could get pushed back or pushed down based on how quickly the Power 5 schools fill up their recruiting slots.
"You will have some mid-majors or some guys that normally wouldn't be in the game with that kid," Holgorsen explained. "You are going to see some of those guys take chances on guys. I don't view us as that, because I am not going to jeopardize an initial on a guy that is not academically qualified, so we are going to just recruit somebody else."
Added Holgorsen, "If you sign that kid and he doesn't make it, you lose that number. We have used, if I'm not mistaken, every single initial we have had since I've been here. We have used everyone and I think you have to keep your numbers up. I am not going to take a chance on a couple of guys that are not quite there yet academically. I am not going to bring those guys in in May and try to sign them."
* I'm not sure how much attention people are going to pay to Texas' rather blasé 17-7 win over Iowa State last night, but I was sure impressed with the Longhorns.
That's because Texas is finally playing some defense.
Iowa State came into last night's game averaging more than 40 points per game, including scoring 41 against an Iowa team that limited No. 4 Penn State to only 21 points, and the Longhorns completely shut down the Cyclones.
I know one thing, it's only a matter of time before Tom Herman gets Texas' offense going.
* Wednesday, the basketball wing of the Mountaineer Legends Society was unveiled by West Virginia University's Department of Intercollegiate Athletics.
Sixteen initial members make up the men's basketball legends society, with five inaugural entrants coming from the women's side.
Last year, football announced 36 football legends, which are now on display at Milan Puskar Stadium. The basketball legends are now on display at the WVU Coliseum Gold Gate.
Keep in mind, more legends will be added as they meet all of the criteria, which is triggered by their induction into the WVU Sports Hall of Fame.
You can read more about the selection criteria and the current occupants here: http://wvusports.com/news/2017/9/27/mens-basketball-basketball-members-of-mountaineer-legends-society-announced.aspx
* You heard him yesterday as Ponyboy on Dan Zangrilli's popular Mountaineer Insider Podcast which is available through our website, on SoundCloud, Stitcher or iTunes.
Ponyboy, for those of you who not familiar with S.E. Hinton's work, is Ron Wolfley, former Mountaineer and professional football extraordinaire and the older brother of very our Dale Wolfley - the Wolfman, version 3.0.
Oldest brother Craig, former Syracuse and Pittsburgh standout now a sideline reporter for the Steelers, is the Wolfman 1.0.
They say Ron goes by the handle Wolfman out in the dessert, too.
Ron also happens to be the best sportscaster in Phoenix for 2017, according to the Phoenix New Times. Wolfley co-hosts the top morning show in the city on 98.7 FM when he's not analyzing NFL football games for the Arizona Cardinals Radio Network.
You can read more about it here: http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/best-of/2017/fun-and-games/best-sportscaster-9728736
Incidentally, our Dale does have a sandwich named after him at Kegler's that he claims will keep you full for an entire week - if your cardiologist will permit you to eat it!
* I received the sad news last weekend of the passing of Robert "Bo" Kaminski, a starting guard on West Virginia's 1975 Peach Bowl team. Bo, from Elyria, Ohio, was a two-year letterman for coach Bobby Bowden who was living in Beckley at the time of his passing.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and teammates.
* Former Mountaineer Jedd Gyorko slugged his 20th home run of the season Wednesday in St. Louis' 8-7 victory over Chicago. Jedd has hit 50 home runs during his last two seasons with the Redbirds and is sitting on 99 for his Major League career.
* I saw women's basketball star Tynice Martin hopping around on crutches in good spirits the other day heading upstairs to the Coliseum academic center. Tynice said she hopes to be out of her boot soon and back to working out.
She injured her foot in early August participating in the U23 National Team tryouts and is expected to be sidelined until at least November. Martin is considered one of the top returning players in women's college basketball this season.
The WVU women will begin preseason practice next week.
* Congratulations to WVU baseball coach Randy Mazey for recently being named the Chuck Tanner College Coach of the Year. The award is presented to a district baseball coach by the Rotary Club of Pittsburgh.
Mazey and the other Chuck Tanner Award recipients will be recognized at the Rivers Club in downtown Pittsburgh on Saturday, Nov. 11.
* The WVU Varsity Club is having a 10-year reunion for the 2008 Fiesta Bowl team during the Oklahoma State weekend, October 27-28. All team and staff members planning to return to campus are encouraged to contact the WVU Varsity Club toll-free at 1-800-433-2072 to RSVP.
Have a great weekend!
Such was the case for West Virginia's Dana Holgorsen earlier this week, who began his Tuesday afternoon news session by asking reporters what they wanted to talk about.
The first question, coming from the Blue & Gold News' Greg Hunter, who has now taken over the late Mickey Furfari's status as the first questioner, was about injuries (a favorite topic of Holgorsen's, by the way).
The coach did mention that redshirt freshman linebacker Brendan Ferns, who injured his shoulder during last Saturday's Kansas win, will be out for the rest of the season.
"He was probably our most solid special teams player at this point," Holgorsen noted. "He seems to be in good spirits; it's going to be a six-month deal and he should be ready for spring ball."
Then the conversation moved on to how the defensive line played against Kansas (not good), to what he liked about the offensive line's performance against a pretty stout Jayhawk front (quite a bit), to how he's going to keep running back Justin Crawford fresh late in the year when his carries start to mount, to if he's spent any time in the team's new cryotherapy machine yet.
Say what?
"Yeah, I've been in it a couple of times," he said. "For an old, fat guy it speeds up your metabolism. Good stuff. The players like it. It's quicker than sitting in a cold tub for 15, 20 minutes, that starts to hurt a little bit, or at least hurts until it's numb."
A follow up asked him to compare that to what he had access to as a student-athlete back in the day.
"The biggest difference is how you practice now compared to how you used to practice," Holgorsen said. "The days of being out there for three hours are long gone, that's for sure. How did we used to practice with not being able to drink water and sit there and do an inside drill for 45 minutes? We probably get more reps in a 10-minute inside period now than we did 20 years ago, in a 30-minute inside period."
He continued.
"That has always been a fun discussion. For me growing up, we would run a play and get in the huddle and the coach would yell at us for about 45 seconds up to three minutes. Then he would call another play and you would run it and get in the huddle and sit there and talk about it some more for two or three minutes. How you practice is a lot different, that's for sure," he said.
Holgorsen was even asked about visiting team locker room conditions, a subject Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh brought up following the Wolverines' 28-10 victory at Purdue last Saturday.
Based on Holgorsen's response, it's safe to assume that he rates TCU's visiting locker room the best, followed by Baylor's among Big 12 teams.
Of course, those two have the newest stadiums in the league as well.
And then, with things running a little stale, the obligatory "how's recruiting going?" question came up.
It went something like this, "So, Coach, how's recruiting going?"
"It's going pretty well," he answered. "We are evaluating a lot of guys right now. We are going to send all 10 coaches out (this weekend). Probably the biggest area that we are doing this weekend is going and seeing guys that we have committed or trying to get committed. That is what we are focusing on right now."
So, there you have it, a typical open-week news conference with your head ball coach.
Next week, it's the No. 9-ranked TCU Horned Frogs.
Stay tuned.
Briefly:
* On a more serious note, Holgorsen mentioned Tuesday that the new early signing period for football will have more of an impact for next year's recruiting and beyond than this one.
"This year's class seems very normal to me with the opportunity to be able to end it in December," Holgorsen said. "The next one, the 2019 class, is going to get interesting as to how you evaluate them, when you evaluate them and when you have to make your decisions on them because they can start taking visits in April, May and June, which to me is absurd."
What this does is effectively speed up the recruiting calendar for coaches to make decisions on prospects much earlier than before.
"You have to make decisions, really, before spring practice and before the spring academic semester is over," Holgorsen noted. "To me, that's ridiculous. They increase the academic requirements and they decrease the amount of time that you can evaluate them academically. I think there are going to be issues with that and I'm curious to see who all of that is going to play out."
For borderline academic prospects, those players could get pushed back or pushed down based on how quickly the Power 5 schools fill up their recruiting slots.
"You will have some mid-majors or some guys that normally wouldn't be in the game with that kid," Holgorsen explained. "You are going to see some of those guys take chances on guys. I don't view us as that, because I am not going to jeopardize an initial on a guy that is not academically qualified, so we are going to just recruit somebody else."
Added Holgorsen, "If you sign that kid and he doesn't make it, you lose that number. We have used, if I'm not mistaken, every single initial we have had since I've been here. We have used everyone and I think you have to keep your numbers up. I am not going to take a chance on a couple of guys that are not quite there yet academically. I am not going to bring those guys in in May and try to sign them."
* I'm not sure how much attention people are going to pay to Texas' rather blasé 17-7 win over Iowa State last night, but I was sure impressed with the Longhorns.
That's because Texas is finally playing some defense.
Iowa State came into last night's game averaging more than 40 points per game, including scoring 41 against an Iowa team that limited No. 4 Penn State to only 21 points, and the Longhorns completely shut down the Cyclones.
I know one thing, it's only a matter of time before Tom Herman gets Texas' offense going.
* Wednesday, the basketball wing of the Mountaineer Legends Society was unveiled by West Virginia University's Department of Intercollegiate Athletics.
Sixteen initial members make up the men's basketball legends society, with five inaugural entrants coming from the women's side.
Last year, football announced 36 football legends, which are now on display at Milan Puskar Stadium. The basketball legends are now on display at the WVU Coliseum Gold Gate.
Keep in mind, more legends will be added as they meet all of the criteria, which is triggered by their induction into the WVU Sports Hall of Fame.
You can read more about the selection criteria and the current occupants here: http://wvusports.com/news/2017/9/27/mens-basketball-basketball-members-of-mountaineer-legends-society-announced.aspx
* You heard him yesterday as Ponyboy on Dan Zangrilli's popular Mountaineer Insider Podcast which is available through our website, on SoundCloud, Stitcher or iTunes.
Ponyboy, for those of you who not familiar with S.E. Hinton's work, is Ron Wolfley, former Mountaineer and professional football extraordinaire and the older brother of very our Dale Wolfley - the Wolfman, version 3.0.
Oldest brother Craig, former Syracuse and Pittsburgh standout now a sideline reporter for the Steelers, is the Wolfman 1.0.
They say Ron goes by the handle Wolfman out in the dessert, too.
Ron also happens to be the best sportscaster in Phoenix for 2017, according to the Phoenix New Times. Wolfley co-hosts the top morning show in the city on 98.7 FM when he's not analyzing NFL football games for the Arizona Cardinals Radio Network.
You can read more about it here: http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/best-of/2017/fun-and-games/best-sportscaster-9728736
Incidentally, our Dale does have a sandwich named after him at Kegler's that he claims will keep you full for an entire week - if your cardiologist will permit you to eat it!
* I received the sad news last weekend of the passing of Robert "Bo" Kaminski, a starting guard on West Virginia's 1975 Peach Bowl team. Bo, from Elyria, Ohio, was a two-year letterman for coach Bobby Bowden who was living in Beckley at the time of his passing.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and teammates.
* Former Mountaineer Jedd Gyorko slugged his 20th home run of the season Wednesday in St. Louis' 8-7 victory over Chicago. Jedd has hit 50 home runs during his last two seasons with the Redbirds and is sitting on 99 for his Major League career.
* I saw women's basketball star Tynice Martin hopping around on crutches in good spirits the other day heading upstairs to the Coliseum academic center. Tynice said she hopes to be out of her boot soon and back to working out.
She injured her foot in early August participating in the U23 National Team tryouts and is expected to be sidelined until at least November. Martin is considered one of the top returning players in women's college basketball this season.
The WVU women will begin preseason practice next week.
* Congratulations to WVU baseball coach Randy Mazey for recently being named the Chuck Tanner College Coach of the Year. The award is presented to a district baseball coach by the Rotary Club of Pittsburgh.
Mazey and the other Chuck Tanner Award recipients will be recognized at the Rivers Club in downtown Pittsburgh on Saturday, Nov. 11.
* The WVU Varsity Club is having a 10-year reunion for the 2008 Fiesta Bowl team during the Oklahoma State weekend, October 27-28. All team and staff members planning to return to campus are encouraged to contact the WVU Varsity Club toll-free at 1-800-433-2072 to RSVP.
Have a great weekend!
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