Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Tennessee Mock Week Underway
August 21, 2018 04:05 PM | Football
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia University football team inches closer toward its season opening game against Tennessee at Bank America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Saturday, Sept. 1.
Coach Dana Holgorsen spent about 25 minutes with the media in the Milan Puskar Center before getting his team prepared for Tuesday evening's practice. He said his guys will go through a mock week of preparations before the real thing begins Sunday.
"We've still got battles going on, and we've still got assignment and technique issues we've got to address," Holgorsen said. "We've got to figure out who is going to be in the starting lineup and who is going to be in the special teams lineup so we will practice hard today and tomorrow and hopefully get a step closer to that."
Holgorsen indicated that some decisions on starting positions have been made, but he is not prepared to reveal those publicly.
"We want these guys to keep competing," he said. "I'm not prepared to put out a depth chart yet. I've made some decisions and the position coaches have made decisions, but I'm not going to tell y'all (media) and we're not going to tell them to create the best competition we can. My job is to get the best players out there and get them as good as we can possibly get them."
Holgorsen said the only serious casualty from last Saturday's officiated scrimmage was sophomore cornerback Jake Long, who suffered a broken hand.
Holgorsen said Long will be out a couple of months.
"Hopefully, we get him back at some point, similar with what we've got with (Brendan) Ferns and (Quondarius) Qualls," he said. "You never know how these guys are going to heal. Other than that, we're healthy and in a pretty good place."
Holgorsen mentioned that the Mountaineers added another player to the roster today in 6-foot-1-inch, 203-pound sophomore wide receiver Isaiah Esdale from Eastern Arizona College.
Esdale prepped at Eastern Christian Academy, the same school that produced WVU standouts Wendell Smallwood, Daikiel Shorts and David Sills V.
"If you look back at our success rate with Eastern Christian kids, it's been high," Holgorsen pointed out. "He knows David and played with David. He was a little younger than Daikiel, Wendell and Kenny (Bigelow), but older than Leddie (Brown) and Randy (Fields). He was at Eastern Arizona with the Brown brothers (Michael and Joe) last year."
Holgorsen indicated that Esdale has three years of eligibility remaining and can play immediately.
"He's pretty thick and he's on board and in school today," he said.
In other news, the case of hand, foot and mouth disease going around the Puskar Center last week that forced the postponement of Fan Day is finally clearing up. Holgorsen said it was more of a nuisance than anything.
"It's contagious so we had to contain it and our medical staff did a great job of identifying it," he said. "I think it spooked our guys more than anything."
Briefly:
* Holgorsen said he was very pleased with the effort and enthusiasm during Saturday's officiated scrimmage. Beforehand, officials spent an hour with the coaching staff going over all of the new rule changes for this season.
"There are a lot of them," Holgorsen said.
Holgorsen gave the officials the freedom to throw as many flags as necessary during Saturday's scrimmage, but there were not a lot thrown.
"It was pretty clean," Holgorsen mentioned.
Last year, West Virginia was near the bottom of the Big 12 in penalties, being flagged 79 times for an average of 59.7 yards per game, and Holgrosen said that has been a point of emphasis this fall.
"Last year, I felt we were a little reckless and our technique wasn't quite what it needed to be," he said. "We have been pretty good with penalties over the course of my tenure here."
* A quirk in the semester schedules for West Virginia and Tennessee is going to give the Volunteers a couple of extra day's-worth of practices leading into the opener. According to Holgorsen, Tennessee didn't begin classes until five days after West Virginia did last Wednesday.
"This is a flaw in how the NCAA does its preseason practices," Holgorsen said. "We did get some morning walkthroughs with balls, and that was good. With that said, they get about five more days of unlimited time, which if you add that up, it's probably an extra week of work once we get into our 20-hour rule."
Holgorsen's next visit with the media is scheduled for Monday, Aug. 27 on the Big 12 coaches' teleconference at 11:40 a.m.
The Dana Holgorsen Show has been moved to Monday evening and will begin at 7 p.m. It is once again taking place at Kegler's Sports Bar.
Holgorsen's regular weekly news conference inside the Milan Puskar Center will again take place at noon each Tuesday.
Tuesday Sound
Coach Dana Holgorsen spent about 25 minutes with the media in the Milan Puskar Center before getting his team prepared for Tuesday evening's practice. He said his guys will go through a mock week of preparations before the real thing begins Sunday.
"We've still got battles going on, and we've still got assignment and technique issues we've got to address," Holgorsen said. "We've got to figure out who is going to be in the starting lineup and who is going to be in the special teams lineup so we will practice hard today and tomorrow and hopefully get a step closer to that."
Holgorsen indicated that some decisions on starting positions have been made, but he is not prepared to reveal those publicly.
"We want these guys to keep competing," he said. "I'm not prepared to put out a depth chart yet. I've made some decisions and the position coaches have made decisions, but I'm not going to tell y'all (media) and we're not going to tell them to create the best competition we can. My job is to get the best players out there and get them as good as we can possibly get them."
Holgorsen said the only serious casualty from last Saturday's officiated scrimmage was sophomore cornerback Jake Long, who suffered a broken hand.
Holgorsen said Long will be out a couple of months.
"Hopefully, we get him back at some point, similar with what we've got with (Brendan) Ferns and (Quondarius) Qualls," he said. "You never know how these guys are going to heal. Other than that, we're healthy and in a pretty good place."
Holgorsen mentioned that the Mountaineers added another player to the roster today in 6-foot-1-inch, 203-pound sophomore wide receiver Isaiah Esdale from Eastern Arizona College.
Esdale prepped at Eastern Christian Academy, the same school that produced WVU standouts Wendell Smallwood, Daikiel Shorts and David Sills V.
"If you look back at our success rate with Eastern Christian kids, it's been high," Holgorsen pointed out. "He knows David and played with David. He was a little younger than Daikiel, Wendell and Kenny (Bigelow), but older than Leddie (Brown) and Randy (Fields). He was at Eastern Arizona with the Brown brothers (Michael and Joe) last year."
Holgorsen indicated that Esdale has three years of eligibility remaining and can play immediately.
"He's pretty thick and he's on board and in school today," he said.
In other news, the case of hand, foot and mouth disease going around the Puskar Center last week that forced the postponement of Fan Day is finally clearing up. Holgorsen said it was more of a nuisance than anything.
"It's contagious so we had to contain it and our medical staff did a great job of identifying it," he said. "I think it spooked our guys more than anything."
Briefly:
* Holgorsen said he was very pleased with the effort and enthusiasm during Saturday's officiated scrimmage. Beforehand, officials spent an hour with the coaching staff going over all of the new rule changes for this season.
"There are a lot of them," Holgorsen said.
Holgorsen gave the officials the freedom to throw as many flags as necessary during Saturday's scrimmage, but there were not a lot thrown.
"It was pretty clean," Holgorsen mentioned.
Last year, West Virginia was near the bottom of the Big 12 in penalties, being flagged 79 times for an average of 59.7 yards per game, and Holgrosen said that has been a point of emphasis this fall.
"Last year, I felt we were a little reckless and our technique wasn't quite what it needed to be," he said. "We have been pretty good with penalties over the course of my tenure here."
* A quirk in the semester schedules for West Virginia and Tennessee is going to give the Volunteers a couple of extra day's-worth of practices leading into the opener. According to Holgorsen, Tennessee didn't begin classes until five days after West Virginia did last Wednesday.
"This is a flaw in how the NCAA does its preseason practices," Holgorsen said. "We did get some morning walkthroughs with balls, and that was good. With that said, they get about five more days of unlimited time, which if you add that up, it's probably an extra week of work once we get into our 20-hour rule."
Holgorsen's next visit with the media is scheduled for Monday, Aug. 27 on the Big 12 coaches' teleconference at 11:40 a.m.
The Dana Holgorsen Show has been moved to Monday evening and will begin at 7 p.m. It is once again taking place at Kegler's Sports Bar.
Holgorsen's regular weekly news conference inside the Milan Puskar Center will again take place at noon each Tuesday.
Tuesday Sound
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