MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia University football coach Dana Holgorsen addressed members of the media on Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2018, at the Milan Puskar Center Team Room.
 
Opening Statement
OK, Oklahoma State. It'll be another fun one, another Big 12 fun one. I always like traveling to Stillwater, it's as good of a college environment and facility that exists in college football. Obviously, I've been there – this will be the fourth time I've been there at West Virginia – but I've been going there since 2000, as well, and saw the transformation take place over the course of 18 years. It's a spectacular place and a lot of fun to go play there. We'll be fired up to go. Hopefully, we play like we did four years ago when (redshirt senior safety) Dravon (Askew-Henry) was our MVP in the game against Oklahoma State. He's obviously the only one that is still here from that team. But we've won there before, and it's a good environment, good place to play. I'm really looking forward to the trip to Oklahoma.
 
Coach (Mike) Gundy is doing another good job. Obviously, the ball isn't bouncing their way like it has in recent years. But this is another team, like I said last week, that is used to winning 10 games per year. They've put $500 million into their facilities, they recruit at a high level, they have really, really, really good football players, so it'll be as hard of a task as we've had all year. We're prepared for this, and we'll go in there with the right mindset – and if you're not, then you're going to get beat each and every week – but we'll be ready to go. These guys have gotten after us the last three years, and we'll be motivated as coaches and players to go play this game.
 
Offensively, at this point in the season, it looks just like it has looked for the last few years for them. Their quarterback, (Taylor) Cornelius, is getting better every week. He's been there forever, so he's been in that quarterback room for the last five years and knows what they want, knows what Coach Gundy wants, knows what Coach (Mike) Yurich wants. He just needed playing experience, which now going into the 11th game of the year, he has plenty of playing experience. His production is extremely good, and their offense is extremely good. They're getting better up front, playing a lot better up front. Their run game is coming along. Anytime you have Justice Hill back there, it's going to scare you to death, and then the (Chuba) Hubbard kid is coming on and running the ball as well as anybody, as well. We have to do a great job against the run; they will try to run it a good bit. In the pass game, they always have receivers that can make plays. You lose a Biletnikoff winner, and then you have another Biletnikoff finalist in the (Tylan) Wallace kid, who has been playing really well. (Tyron) Johnson, the other receiver, is a five-star kid out of Louisiana. And they do a good job with their fullbacks and tight ends and get multiple with what they do. It'll be our biggest test yet. Obviously, ending the year with these guys and the opponent we have next week, we knew this was coming, and we'll be ready to roll when it comes to that. But they're as good offensively, averaging over 40 points per game and just a ton of yards and play with a lot of tempo. We have our biggest test defensively yet this year.
 
Defensively, they have a new coordinator. Coach (Jim) Knowles comes over from Duke. They're doing some different things. They lead the nation in tackles for loss and sacks and all that stuff, and they cause a lot of chaos with their front. They have great defensive linemen, I think their linebackers are outstanding, the (Justin) Phillips kid was their MVP last year, and then (Calvin) Bundage has been a little banged up with an ankle, but he's as good of an athlete as you're going to see. He's 6-2, 220, and runs well. They put him at (defensive) end, and they rush him, along with the (Jordan) Brailford guy, who is another long, lean guy that can run and come off the edge. They evidently feel good enough about him to move him and play him in a bunch of different positions. They line him up at MIKE a lot, change their fronts. We don't know where he'll line up, so it's going to be a big game for (redshirt senior quarterback) Will (Grier) to identify fronts and (redshirt junior offensive lineman) Matt Jones to identify fronts to figure out where these guys are and where they are coming from. We need to do a good job of running the ball, but when it comes to the pass game, you have to ID where these guys are at, and that's not the easiest thing to do. We have to ID them, and we have to give Will some time to be able to throw it. Their corners, same two that they had last year, I think this is the best corner duo that we've seen all year. It's the same two guys that they had last year, they're long and have great experience, and they can run. It's a weird defense because they look really good, and they have great bodies. If you look at the numbers, they're giving up some plays, and they're giving up some points. It's what everybody thinks about when it's Big 12 football. So, we have to score points, and we have to be able to go out there and ID what they're doing and then finish drives the appropriate way. We've been doing a pretty good job of that here in the last month. That's going to have to continue.
 
Special teams, they pay a lot of attention to it. They have an experienced kicker in the (Matt) Ammendola guy; he has a great leg, has won them games and has been around there. He's a Pennsylvania kid, oddly enough, but he does a good job of getting out there and kicking the thing through the uprights. Their other kicker, young kid, the kickoff guy is different than the kicker, he puts about 80 percent of them into the end zone, and he has a strong leg for a freshman. They've used a couple of different punters, doing a bunch of different things on special teams that causes problems schematically. And then their return game has always been good; Hubbard is back there as the kick returner, dangerous guy, and they've been solid in the punt return game, as well. They pay attention to that aspect of it, and we need to be solid when it comes to that.
 
So, it's a big game, big Big 12 game. It doesn't get any better than this, so we need to have a good week of practice and get out there, travel the right way and be ready for a hostile environment and handle it the way we know how we can if we want to continue to win to remain in the conversation. This is a huge hurdle.
 
On if schemes or personnel has led to Oklahoma State leading the Big 12 in tackles for loss
It's both. I don't know how else to explain it – they create chaos with how they line up, and then they have the athletic, freakish bodies that can come off the ball and defeat blocks and get to the quarterback. (Calvin) Bundage and No. 94 (Jordan) Brailford, they're long, and they're athletic, and they're explosive, and they're fast, and they do a good job of coming off the ball and coming up field. They mix fronts and you just don't know what they're going to be in, which has caused people a lot of problems. When I talk about ID'ing it, who needs to block who, we need to be on-point to make sure we get it ID'ed the right way, and then we have to hold up with what they're doing. I think their coverage plays a role in it, too. Their corners are good, and they have a couple of young safeties that are continuously getting better. Their coverage has been good; they play a lot of man coverage, and they're solid with their zone coverage. You have to have somebody to throw to or people are going to get there eventually. They do a nice job.
 
On how his time at Oklahoma State has helped him as a coach
I can't remember, it was too long ago. I've been here eight years now, right? My one year in Stillwater was nine years ago in a hotel room. I don't remember a lot about it. I worked hard there. I met a lot of good people, a lot of good football people in Oklahoma. I just worked hard. I've been asked that question a bunch, probably every year since we've been playing them. Coach (Mike) Gundy does a great job of CEO'ing the program and just running the program and getting his hands on everything and just monitoring everything. There's a lot of things from a program perspective of how he did thing and how he ran things that we took and implemented here. We'll leave it at that.
 
On Oklahoma State's inconsistencies
I can't figure it out. They beat Texas, Boise is a good football team, and they beat them by over three touchdowns. They were a completion away from beating Oklahoma. Those are all really good teams. Then, they struggle against some other teams. The only thing I can pinpoint is its continuity; they've had a couple of staff changes or lost some key seniors. I don't know, I'm not in the walls. It's college football. There's parity in college football. All of these teams are good. We beat Baylor like that, and then they go to Waco and face a pretty motivated Baylor team. Kansas State loses at home to Baylor, and then go back home and they go play a really motivated Kansas State team. We're talking about programs that have won a lot of games. Texas Tech was playing pretty well when they went to Stillwater and got after them pretty well. It's parity in college football, and you better have your stuff together every week or you're going to get beat. Iowa State came in and was coming off a couple of tough losses, made a quarterback change and got hot. It's college football, you better be ready to go. We won't look past this group, I can assure you that. I don't care what their record is.
 
On the team's improvement in blocking and tackling
It's all about the proper mindset, and I think we've had the proper mindset each of the last three times that we've lined up. I talk a lot about that going to Stillwater; we better be in the right frame of mind. It's going to be a tough game, you better expect it. We better focus hard on what our assignment is, what our technique is. When it gets right down to it, we have to continue to block better, which I thought we blocked really well last week, and I thought we tackled well last week. There's a lot that goes into that and having the proper mindset is probably the number one thing.
 
On depth at linebacker
I think (redshirt junior) David (Long Jr.) leads the charge, clearly. I don't know how we're not looking at him being national player of the week on a lot of different things, and I don't think he's been Big 12 Player of the Week yet this year. How can that guy not be Big 12 Player of the Week? If that sounds like I'm calling out the Big 12, then, yeah, I'm calling out the Big 12. How can he not be player of the week? We're 10 games into this thing, and he does the same thing every week. You look up and he has 10-12 tackles and five tackles for loss and a sack, or two, or three, like it was last week. He makes every play, and he affects every play. I guarantee you the offense knows where he is every single play. He's a big part of it. I think (associate head coach – defensive coordinator/linebackers) (Tony) Gibby (Gibson) is doing a great job of scheming things up. If we can stop the run effectively – and we have a huge task this week; they will try to run the ball and have good backs. TCU tried to run the ball, and they have good backs. So, scheme things up and make plays. David is disruptive, (junior) JoVanni Stewart is doing a good job at being disruptive. You lose (redshirt sophomore) Dylan Tonkery and (redshirt junior) Shea Campbell goes in and plays well. You lose Shea due to a stinger – he'll be fine – and (redshirt sophomore) Zach Sandwisch goes in there and plays fine. I think that's good coaching and developing players and having the proper depth to be able to win football games.
 
On how redshirt junior linebacker David Long Jr. can be so disruptive
He's a good player, he works hard at it. He's smart, he has experience, he's physical, he's tough, he's really hard to block. I made that comment to everybody when he was on scout team four years ago. He's hard to block; his pad level in unreal, he runs underneath blocks or around blocks or through blocks or gets off blocks. He's, in my opinion, the best linebacker in the country, and people need to take notice of it. Just put the video on. I guarantee you that everybody we've played would say the same thing. He's playing at a very high level, and he's very motivated. He's our defensive leader and one of our team leaders and captains. People need to take notice of it because he's playing pretty well. Against Oklahoma State last year, I guarantee they are going to know who he is. He had like 18 tackles and six tackles or loss against these guys last year. He does it every week. I don't know what he has to do to get some recognition from our conference.
 
On how a player can elevate himself from the scout team
Usually, everybody does. You don't have just a ton of guys come in and not play scout team, unless you're a transfer and we're plugging holes based on recruiting transfers. Everybody does to do that; your look squads are so important. We have a lot of guys that are making some plays on special teams that are on scout teams. You have to be able to put scout teams out there, and a lot of times, they are going to be scholarship guys. It's not just a small number of misfits that are walk-ons that can go out there and give you a good look. You have to have good football players give you good looks to be able to prepare the right way to go play on Saturday. If you're not in the two-deep, then you're probably going to be on the look squads.
 
On how the touch pass began
Bob Stitt, who I hate to say this now because he's at Oklahoma State as an offensive analyst, but that's another story, he was at Colorado School of the Mines and is a good friend, One Back Clinics. He came to Houston, and I was catching it and handing it. He's like, 'You're doing it wrong. You have to toss it.' So, we did, and he worked with Case (Keenum) on it. Kliff (Kingsbury) was with me at the time at Houston, and we did it at Houston all the time. We went to Oklahoma State, they were No. 3 in the country, and we were at Houston and had Case and had (assistant coach – wide receivers) Tyron Carrier, who is my receiver coach, and we tossed it to him several times around the edge and made some good plays and handed the ball off and upset No. 3 Oklahoma State that day. Obviously, I went to Oklahoma State, did it there, came here, did it with Tavon (Austin). That made big news in the Orange Bowl, but we'd been doing it four or five years prior to that. Everybody is doing it. It's just a part offensive football now. It's a copycat sport, as we all know, people see, and people do things. I do it all the time, I take ideas from a lot of different people and see if it fits with what we do.
 
On how comfortable he is with the team's overall depth
We've been gearing towards it for quite some time. We haven't had to talk about it a whole lot because we've been really good at guys going in, next man up going in and playing, like (redshirt junior offensive lineman) Kelby Wickline did, like (redshirt sophomore linebacker) Zach Sandwisch did, (redshirt junior linebacker) Shea Campbell. So, it's been good, and I think that's where we're at as a program. Four or five or six years ago, going into the Big 12 and not being very good because we weren't very deep because our depth wasn't very good. Seven years later, we're in a much better place. There are a lot of reasons why we're in the situation that we're in right now, but you're only as good as your next game, and we have to line up and practice hard and play hard and go try to win. But I do like where we're at from a depth perspective at this point.
 
On if this is the deepest the Big 12 has been at wide receiver
Yeah, it's pretty good. I saw that Biletnikoff list come out, and there was a couple of offensive guys in the Big 12 that didn't get on that thing, and I'm like, 'Geez.' If there are better receivers than No. 84 (Lil'Jordan Humphrey) or No. 18 (Hakeem Butler) at Iowa State, I'd like to see them. I don't know if those guys are on that list. Not to take anything away from (senior) David Sills (V), who is a great player, (senior) Gary Jennings (Jr.) is a pretty good player and (junior) Marcus Simms has made plays. Texas Tech has a couple of pretty good ones, Oklahoma has two really good ones that we'll be dealing with next week. This (Tylan) Wallace kid came out of nowhere and had 250 against Texas or whatever it was. It's deep, it usually is. People were talking about the quarterback play not being very good prior to this year in the Big 12. I'm like, 'You just don't know who they are yet,' which has come out to being pretty true, as well. Nobody knew who (Brock) Purdy was at Iowa State or how good this (Taylor) Cornelius kid is. Nobody would have guess that before the year, as well. It's Big 12 football, it's fun. The offenses are pretty good, quarterback play is pretty good, somebody has to catch all of those balls, and it's as good as I've seen it. I probably wouldn't have thought that prior to the year, but nobody knew who they were yet.
 
On how other linebackers like sophomore VanDarius Cowan have looked
Good. Really good. (Redshirt freshman) Jake Abbott is doing a good job, he got playing snaps for the first time last Saturday. Cowan is redshirting, but really doing a good job for us. (Redshirt sophomore) (Rashon) Lusane is a scout-team guy that does a good job and is getting some special teams reps, as well. (Redshirt sophomore) (Brendan) Ferns was back last week, and it was good to see him back in a uniform and ran down on punt team and punt return team. He'll get more reps this week, he played a few snaps on defense. We should get (senior) (Quondarius) Qualls, who is in that four-game window now, plus he's a week better, so we'll see how he looks today and tomorrow as far as getting reps out of him.