Monday Football Notebook - Weather Watching
September 10, 2018 01:28 PM | Football
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - It looks like West Virginia is going to be doing a little weather watching this week.
There are certainly a lot of amateur weather forecasters out there, based on what you are reading on the Internet and social media. Florence, a Category 2 hurricane this morning that is expected to increase in strength later this week, is targeting the southeast coast and could hit land sometime Thursday or Friday.
Some portions of the Carolinas could see as much as 20 inches of rain from Florence, according to the National Weather Service, and that could make West Virginia's game Saturday at NC State in Raleigh a dicey situation.
Wolfpack associate athletic director Fred Demarest issued a statement on Sunday that NC State will be "closely monitoring" the storm as it continues its trek toward the East Coast and will be in communication with West Virginia University director of athletics Shane Lyons, WVU deputy athletic director and senior football administrator Keli Zinn, the Atlantic Coast Conference and local meteorologists throughout the week.
"It's not for me to worry about," West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen said Monday during his portion of the Big 12 coaches' teleconference. "Our job is to get ready to go play a football game. We had a good practice yesterday, introduced North Carolina State, and they're a good football team. We're game planning all day long today, and we'll practice tomorrow.
"We've got what appears to be hurricane-type weather here in West Virginia and hopefully it stays this way for a couple of days, and we can get out and practice in it and get ready to go," Holgorsen added.
The coach was asked if there is a different game plan for his team if it encounters the poor weather conditions many are predicting for this weekend.
"We have had more weather games here than anywhere I've ever been," he said. "We practice in it, and we play in it every year so I don't know how this is any different."
The last time NC State dealt with a similar situation was in 2016 when Hurricane Matthew dumped eight inches of precipitation on Carter-Finley Stadium during the Wolfpack's game against Notre Dame, a 10-3 NC State victory.
Undefeated and No. 14-ranked West Virginia is NC State's most appealing non-conference home opponent since then.
If poor weather prevents the game from being played, it will be difficult for the teams to come up with a suitable makeup date because their open dates are a week apart – West Virginia's is Oct. 20 and NC State's is Oct. 13.
The last time a hurricane impacted a West Virginia football game was in 2005 when Hurricane Wilma forced the postponement of WVU's Oct. 22 meeting against USF at Raymond James Stadium.
The game was eventually made up on Saturday, Dec. 3, a 28-13 Mountaineer victory that capped a perfect record in Big East play and the league's championship.
It was also the last football game West Virginia played that was not televised in some form.
Briefly:
* Holgorsen was asked about the impact senior USC transfer Kenny Bigelow Jr. has had on his defense so far this year.
"We went from being the smallest and youngest at that position last year to being the biggest and oldest," he said. "You are just rarely any good when you play young kids, especially in the trenches on the offensive and defensive lines. Adding Kenny and Jabril Robinson as well just brings so much more maturity to the defensive line.
"That impacts the actual play, but that impacts the other guys, too," he said.
Overall, Holgorsen said he's been happy with the defense's progress up to this point.
"We understand that it's going to get hard – it's going to get harder this weekend," he said. "NC State is a really good offense. They do a lot of good things and have a lot of good players. You can't sit there and reflect on what you've done. You've got to learn from what you've done and then go out there and practice every day and prepare the right way and then go out there Saturday and try and put your best foot forward.
"This is without question our biggest challenge yet (defensively) and after this one there are going to be a bunch more challenges moving forward," Holgorsen said.
* Saturday's game features two of the outstanding quarterbacks in the college game today in West Virginia's Heisman Trophy contender Will Grier and NC State's Ryan Finley, a former Boise State transfer.
The 6-foot-4-inch, 210-pound Finley has completed 74.1 percent of his pass attempts for 679 yards and four touchdowns so far in victories against James Madison and Georgia State, and Holgorsen said he has been very impressed with Finley.
"He's really good," Holgorsen said. "A pocket guy, big and tall who throws a great ball and has a great release. He has some really good receivers around him as well so it looks like a Big 12 offense to me. There are the, quote unquote, Big 12 guys that throw it around a good bit and this group is no different than that."
Holgorsen was reluctant to compare his guy Grier with Finley, however.
"I don't get into comparing quarterbacks," Holgorsen said. "There are too many variables that go into it with the people around them, play calling and that stuff. They're both pro-style quarterbacks and they both throw the ball incredibly well.
"I know how much Will does for us and what he means to entire team, and I'm assuming Finley does that, but I'm not in their office every day to know what goes on there. This isn't a Finley vs Will. This is NC State vs. West Virginia, and we are going to continue to prepare the way we need to to put us into a position to be successful."
* Earlier today, the kickoff time for West Virginia's Big 12 opener against Kansas State at Milan Puskar Stadium will be 3:30 p.m. Television coverage has yet to be determined. Tickets for the game are still available and can be purchased by calling the Mountaineer Ticket Office toll-free at 1-800-WVU GAME or by logging on to WVUGAME.com.
Players Mentioned
Rich 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
