Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Camping World Bowl: Gibson Expecting an Eager WVU Defense on Friday
December 25, 2018 03:35 PM | Football
ORLANDO – West Virginia University senior safety Dravon Askew-Henry says he's been dealing with one grouchy football coach the last three weeks.
Defensive coordinator Tony Gibson wasn't happy with how his guys performed the last two weeks of the regular season against Oklahoma State and Oklahoma, knowing a stop or two in either one of those games would have dramatically altered the outcome of the season.
But it didn't happen, his guys have to wear that and now Gibson wants to do everything in his power to make sure it doesn't happen again on Friday night when the Mountaineers face 20th-ranked Syracuse in the Camping World Bowl in the Florida Citrus Bowl.
That's the message he's been delivering to his players ever since the end of the regular season.
"I hate the way the last two games went," Gibson said before Tuesday's practice at Boone High in Orlando. "I don't want these guys to go out like that - especially this senior class that has meant so much with Dravon. He's been around for a long time and we owe it to him and these other seniors.
"We need to be able to play better and do some things better on defense," he added.
The veteran defensive coach said he will rely on some of his older players to get the younger guys ready to play. But only to a point.
That's because he also knows that these guys are not coaches and they don't think about football 24/7 like the coaches do.
"What you all forget and what I forget as a coach is they're still 21-, 22-years-old and their minds are not always on football like ours is as a staff," he explained. "You put a lot on them and you realize they have a girlfriend, families or buddies to hang around with. When they get done they leave the building and we go up and watch film and we're miserable for about four or five hours doing it and they go home and eat McDonald's and play video games."
There is quite a bit Gibson has been unhappy about with his defense that at one time ranked near the top of the Big 12 in almost every category with two weeks remaining in the regular season.
Then came the 604 yards and 45 points the Mountaineers gave up to Oklahoma State and the 668-yard, 59-point performance Oklahoma put up in the regular-season finale.
Some of the sting of those two performances can be removed with a better effort against Syracuse. That's on them. The defense could get some additional help, however, with Dana Holgorsen calling the plays on Friday.
Holgorsen has always been one of the best game planners and play callers in the country, and as the head coach, his No. 1 objective is to win the football game and not just score a lot of points and pile up lots of yardage. After all, the Ws and Ls go right next to his name.
So that might mean calling plays or managing the game a little bit differently at times to help his defense if it's struggling or needs a rest.
"He has a feel for it. He knows, 'Hey, I've got to help my defense right here.' That plays a big part in it whether it's slowing things down and running the ball, whether it's huddling or other things that go into it," Gibson admitted. "He knows when it's go time and when he gets them on their heels he's going to do a great job with that."
What we could see on Friday night from West Virginia could more closely resemble what we once saw back in 2016 when the Mountaineers won 10 games with Holgorsen calling the plays, Gibson running the defense and there was a lot of synergy in all three phases of play.
Scoring points, moving the football up and down the field and playing fast is usually a great recipe for success, but sometimes situations require other methods and approaches.
Holgorsen has been around a long time and he understands this as well as anybody.
"I think Dana is the best offensive coordinator in the country," Gibson noted. "No. 1, it gives us a little more confidence as a defense and also too when the head coach is calling plays we've all got the same goal – and not saying offensive coordinators don't - but the main goal is to win the game and he's going to do everything in his power to help the defense when we're struggling.
"You're trying to do what you do best on offense to score points and when the head coach gets control of it there is a bigger team aspect to it. I think it's a mix of all things," Gibson added.
This will be Gibson's 15th bowl game as a college coach and he said there is one common denominator in all of the games he's been involved with that have had successful outcomes.
"The kids got to want to be here," he explained. "If they just want to come down here and have fun and go out do all of that it's not a good mix. Did we reach the goals that we wanted to reach as a football team? No. But this just gives us another opportunity to go out the right way with these seniors.
"Syracuse is going to be excited because this is their first bowl game. Nobody on that team has ever been to a bowl game. They have a lot of stuff riding on this as well. We have to be able to match that intensity."
Gibson admitted there is no worse feeling than having to motivate players to play in bowl games. If coaches have to generate enthusiasm and excitement it's usually a losing proposition. In light of this, Gibson said his guys have been eager to get back out onto the field and redeem themselves against Syracuse.
"This bowl, when it was announced, they were excited to get back out there. Now that was coming off a couple of losses and some heartbreakers and I think they needed football to get back out there and start doing some things," he said. "They've approached it well with a lot of juice and a lot of energy and it's continued to carry on.
"We've been in game mode ever since we started practicing for the bowl game. This is our second Wednesday practice now, so I think our kids know what they are about to face and now it's a matter of going out there and performing," he concluded.
Camping World Bowl Bits
* There was some significant news coming out of Syracuse camp yesterday when it was announced that the Orange's top pass rusher, Alton Robinson, did not make the trip to Orlando and will not play in Friday's Camping World Bowl.
Personal reasons was the explanation given for Robinson's absence.
Robinson is a significant loss for Syracuse's defense. The All-ACC second team choice led the Orange with 10 sacks, 17 tackles for losses, 11 quarterback hits and three fumbles in 12 regular season games.
That's comparable to Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year David Long's 2018 stats in 11 regular season games for the Mountaineers.
Two other defensive contributors for the Orange are also out for Friday's game – backup defensive tackle McKinley Williams and senior defensive back Antwan Cordy, who missed the last two games of the regular season because of a personal situation.
* West Virginia is coming off the best academic semester in Dana Holgorsen's eight seasons at West Virginia. The team grade point average for the fall semester was an impressive 2.98 (a program record) with 66 players earning a 3.0 or higher GPA.
"That's better than what I did in college," Holgorsen joked. "We had zero Fs for every one of our 120 players and nobody had below a 2.0. That's just unbelievable."
Ten players earned their undergraduate degrees before the season began and seven more graduated earlier this month, meaning 17 players from this year's senior class are leaving Morgantown with their degrees.
Assistant athletic director for student-athlete development Brittney O'Dell oversees Mountaineer football academics.
"She's been with us for four years and she's doing as good of a job as I've ever seen," Holgorsen noted. "She's in every one of our staff meetings and she knows everything that's going on around here. She's an absolute superstar."
For the third straight year, every single player is eligible for the bowl game.
* WVU Varsity Club Director Dale Wolfley said a number of former Mountaineer players will be in attendance Friday night. Among those coming are former consensus All-Americans Darryl Talley and Brian Jozwiak, running back Noel Devine, Charlie Baumann, Mike Collins and Bobby Bowden-era defensive tackle Charlie Fisher.
* Christmas Day activities for the Mountaineers included a morning breakfast followed by this afternoon's practice at Boone High in Orlando. Afterward, the players, coaches and staff are attending an athletic department function hosted by Director of Athletics Shane Lyons and his wife Emily at Pointe Orlando.
Tuesday Sound
Defensive coordinator Tony Gibson wasn't happy with how his guys performed the last two weeks of the regular season against Oklahoma State and Oklahoma, knowing a stop or two in either one of those games would have dramatically altered the outcome of the season.
But it didn't happen, his guys have to wear that and now Gibson wants to do everything in his power to make sure it doesn't happen again on Friday night when the Mountaineers face 20th-ranked Syracuse in the Camping World Bowl in the Florida Citrus Bowl.
That's the message he's been delivering to his players ever since the end of the regular season.
"I hate the way the last two games went," Gibson said before Tuesday's practice at Boone High in Orlando. "I don't want these guys to go out like that - especially this senior class that has meant so much with Dravon. He's been around for a long time and we owe it to him and these other seniors.
"We need to be able to play better and do some things better on defense," he added.
The veteran defensive coach said he will rely on some of his older players to get the younger guys ready to play. But only to a point.
That's because he also knows that these guys are not coaches and they don't think about football 24/7 like the coaches do.
"What you all forget and what I forget as a coach is they're still 21-, 22-years-old and their minds are not always on football like ours is as a staff," he explained. "You put a lot on them and you realize they have a girlfriend, families or buddies to hang around with. When they get done they leave the building and we go up and watch film and we're miserable for about four or five hours doing it and they go home and eat McDonald's and play video games."
There is quite a bit Gibson has been unhappy about with his defense that at one time ranked near the top of the Big 12 in almost every category with two weeks remaining in the regular season.
Then came the 604 yards and 45 points the Mountaineers gave up to Oklahoma State and the 668-yard, 59-point performance Oklahoma put up in the regular-season finale.
Some of the sting of those two performances can be removed with a better effort against Syracuse. That's on them. The defense could get some additional help, however, with Dana Holgorsen calling the plays on Friday.
Holgorsen has always been one of the best game planners and play callers in the country, and as the head coach, his No. 1 objective is to win the football game and not just score a lot of points and pile up lots of yardage. After all, the Ws and Ls go right next to his name.
So that might mean calling plays or managing the game a little bit differently at times to help his defense if it's struggling or needs a rest.
"He has a feel for it. He knows, 'Hey, I've got to help my defense right here.' That plays a big part in it whether it's slowing things down and running the ball, whether it's huddling or other things that go into it," Gibson admitted. "He knows when it's go time and when he gets them on their heels he's going to do a great job with that."
What we could see on Friday night from West Virginia could more closely resemble what we once saw back in 2016 when the Mountaineers won 10 games with Holgorsen calling the plays, Gibson running the defense and there was a lot of synergy in all three phases of play.Scoring points, moving the football up and down the field and playing fast is usually a great recipe for success, but sometimes situations require other methods and approaches.
Holgorsen has been around a long time and he understands this as well as anybody.
"I think Dana is the best offensive coordinator in the country," Gibson noted. "No. 1, it gives us a little more confidence as a defense and also too when the head coach is calling plays we've all got the same goal – and not saying offensive coordinators don't - but the main goal is to win the game and he's going to do everything in his power to help the defense when we're struggling.
"You're trying to do what you do best on offense to score points and when the head coach gets control of it there is a bigger team aspect to it. I think it's a mix of all things," Gibson added.
This will be Gibson's 15th bowl game as a college coach and he said there is one common denominator in all of the games he's been involved with that have had successful outcomes.
"The kids got to want to be here," he explained. "If they just want to come down here and have fun and go out do all of that it's not a good mix. Did we reach the goals that we wanted to reach as a football team? No. But this just gives us another opportunity to go out the right way with these seniors.
"Syracuse is going to be excited because this is their first bowl game. Nobody on that team has ever been to a bowl game. They have a lot of stuff riding on this as well. We have to be able to match that intensity."
Gibson admitted there is no worse feeling than having to motivate players to play in bowl games. If coaches have to generate enthusiasm and excitement it's usually a losing proposition. In light of this, Gibson said his guys have been eager to get back out onto the field and redeem themselves against Syracuse.
"This bowl, when it was announced, they were excited to get back out there. Now that was coming off a couple of losses and some heartbreakers and I think they needed football to get back out there and start doing some things," he said. "They've approached it well with a lot of juice and a lot of energy and it's continued to carry on.
"We've been in game mode ever since we started practicing for the bowl game. This is our second Wednesday practice now, so I think our kids know what they are about to face and now it's a matter of going out there and performing," he concluded.
Camping World Bowl Bits
* There was some significant news coming out of Syracuse camp yesterday when it was announced that the Orange's top pass rusher, Alton Robinson, did not make the trip to Orlando and will not play in Friday's Camping World Bowl.
Personal reasons was the explanation given for Robinson's absence.
Robinson is a significant loss for Syracuse's defense. The All-ACC second team choice led the Orange with 10 sacks, 17 tackles for losses, 11 quarterback hits and three fumbles in 12 regular season games.
That's comparable to Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year David Long's 2018 stats in 11 regular season games for the Mountaineers.
Two other defensive contributors for the Orange are also out for Friday's game – backup defensive tackle McKinley Williams and senior defensive back Antwan Cordy, who missed the last two games of the regular season because of a personal situation.
* West Virginia is coming off the best academic semester in Dana Holgorsen's eight seasons at West Virginia. The team grade point average for the fall semester was an impressive 2.98 (a program record) with 66 players earning a 3.0 or higher GPA.
"That's better than what I did in college," Holgorsen joked. "We had zero Fs for every one of our 120 players and nobody had below a 2.0. That's just unbelievable."
Ten players earned their undergraduate degrees before the season began and seven more graduated earlier this month, meaning 17 players from this year's senior class are leaving Morgantown with their degrees.
Assistant athletic director for student-athlete development Brittney O'Dell oversees Mountaineer football academics.
"She's been with us for four years and she's doing as good of a job as I've ever seen," Holgorsen noted. "She's in every one of our staff meetings and she knows everything that's going on around here. She's an absolute superstar."
For the third straight year, every single player is eligible for the bowl game.
* WVU Varsity Club Director Dale Wolfley said a number of former Mountaineer players will be in attendance Friday night. Among those coming are former consensus All-Americans Darryl Talley and Brian Jozwiak, running back Noel Devine, Charlie Baumann, Mike Collins and Bobby Bowden-era defensive tackle Charlie Fisher.
* Christmas Day activities for the Mountaineers included a morning breakfast followed by this afternoon's practice at Boone High in Orlando. Afterward, the players, coaches and staff are attending an athletic department function hosted by Director of Athletics Shane Lyons and his wife Emily at Pointe Orlando.
Tuesday Sound
Players Mentioned
S
/ FootballRich Rodriguez | Dec. 3
Wednesday, December 03
Reid Carrico | Nov. 29
Saturday, November 29
Jeff Weimer | Nov. 29
Saturday, November 29
Rich Rodriguez | Nov. 29
Saturday, November 29
