Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Coach Dana Holgorsen Press Conference
September 11, 2018 04:27 PM | Football
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia University football coach Dana Holgorsen addressed members of the media on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2018, at the Milan Puskar Center Team Room.
Opening Statement
We've been instructed to prepare for NC State, and we're preparing for NC State. So, here we go. Honestly, I've been looking forward to this game for quite a while. They have a good program down there. I know a lot of Mountaineer people and fans all involved that have been looking forward to playing this game since 2010, I guess was the last time these two programs played. They're good; Dave Doeren has been there a long time. He's a really high-respected defensive football coach.
They've got good players. My last encounter with them was 2003, I believe, with Philip Rivers, that was the last time I was in Raleigh. It was a really good atmosphere; their in-game stuff was what I remember more than anything. They were good then – it reminds me of what they are now. They have a good quarterback with a quality offensive line and good skill, and then defensive guys that look like NFL players. If you watch them from last year, four (defensive) linemen all got drafted, but they played upwards of 10 guys last year. And then they had a couple of running backs drafted, offensive linemen drafted, two linebackers were really good players last year, they lost another corner, but they played around 24 guys last year. So, even if it wasn't the guys that were going to the NFL or graduating, it was guys that were taking their turn.
When you look at their defense now, their (defensive) line is all 6-4, 6-5, 300-pound guys that are really good. Their linebackers, this (Germaine) Pratt kid, No. 3, didn't start but was like their third-leading tackler – that dude can play now. And their safeties are 6-2, 225, just real big, long, physical guys. Corners, they have three corners that they play with all the time that are quality cover guys. They have a lot of good depth. Coach Doeren is their defensive coordinator, and then they have Dave Huxtable, who has been there the entire time with them, who has been everywhere. And then they added Ted Roof, who has been a defensive coordinator pretty much everywhere in the country as well. So, they have three really good defensive-minded coaches, and they play really, really, really good defense.
Offensively, their offensive coordinator came from Boise, which makes sense why their quarterback came from Boise as well as a grad transfer. Boise is really good on offense right now, so I'm not quite sure what happened there. But you talk about a 6-5, pocket guy that sits there and can make every throw. They have four or five receivers that are all big and can play, three offensive linemen back. They remind me of a Big 12 offense, so preparing for these guys this week is something that comes natural for us and will pay off in the future based on we play a lot of teams that do this type of stuff. They're 60 percent 10 personnel, around 20 percent 11 personnel, and that's the type of stuff that we need to prepare for and be able to defend.
Special teams, they're solid. They have good players across the board; they have a good punter averaging around 42. They have a new kicker, who has been doing incredibly well, a different kickoff guy than the kicker, but he's the same kickoff guy as last year. They do a great job with punt coverage, do a great job with kickoff coverage, and their return guys, although different from last year, who, I thought were pretty dynamic last year, are guys that are doing some good things as well.
We'll be ready to play, and today is no different than every Tuesday. We're going to introduce these guys, we actually introduced them and practiced on these guys on Sunday night. It's a normal Tuesday today with a lot of installation, and we have a good opportunity to go out there and practice today and tomorrow, which we will. If we're on the plane to go play, then we're on the plane to go play. If not, then we'll switch gears and figure out what's next.
On practicing in bad weather
Really the only thing that forces us inside is lightning. If it's 28 and snowing, we're going to be outside. There's a footing aspect to snow that we'll deal with. But rain, we'll practice in rain. The only way we go in is if they say there's lightning, you have to go in, and then we go in. Other than that, we'll be outside. We haven't had a whole lot of rain days, we've had a couple. I was not concerned with last Saturday at all. I thought we handled those conditions just fine. How many of those games did we play in last year? Iowa State was like that, Kansas State was like that, Utah was like that – it didn't work, Oklahoma State, I believe, was like that, Oklahoma a couple years ago, we've played in all kinds of weather. We don't care what the weather is, we go out, and we play in it. Now, there's lightning that doesn't allow you to do that, and there's 150 mile-per-hour winds in a hurricane that probably won't allow you to do that. Other than that, we'll go out and practice. I thought we handled it really well last Saturday, and I was like the weather held off as long as it did, so the crowd would be there. The crowd was spectacular and gave us a lot of juice in warmups. I couldn't be happier with our support right now from a fan prospective. That's why (redshirt junior long snapper) Rex Sunahara was the player of the game on special teams because it was wet, and he had never snapped in those conditions, and his snaps were perfect. He's had plenty of wet-ball snap drills. (Senior wide receiver David) Sills (V) lost the ball once, (redshirt senior quarterback) Will (Grier) lost the ball once. Other than that, we were pretty good on ball security, so I was happy with it overall.
On how to stay focused on NC State
I addressed it Sunday. What are we going to do? We can't get caught unprepared, so prepare. If this was a bye week, then we'd go practice anyway. There's a routine schedule and expectations that continue to practice football if you want to continue to be good at football. I've addressed it, and we're not going to address it again. We've moved forward, and we're preparing for NC State until they tell us otherwise. At this point right now, they haven't said anything.
On if the NC State could change in time or location
That's not going to happen. We'll play at 3:30 on Saturday, or we won't play. Our job is to get ready for every game the right way. I've been through this before, and if you start trying to outsmart systems like this, then it's going to affect your team. Back in 2008, when I was at Houston, we moved a game because of a hurricane. We moved it from Houston to Dallas, and there were 250 people that ended up going to that game because the hurricane that ripped apart the city of Houston on Friday night at midnight as our players sat in a hotel room in Dallas and watched it and didn't get any sleep, we had to move the game from 2 o'clock in the afternoon to 10 a.m. to try to beat the hurricane, and then the hurricane sped up and went straight to Dallas, and we played in a hurricane that just ripped our city apart. And then we were just completely discombobulated as a football team for about two weeks, and it affected us the next game, and it affected us the next game. I want to play this game so bad you have no idea. With that said, the most important game after this game is Kanas State, and we cannot do anything to put ourselves in any kind of a disadvantage whatsoever to play any Big 12 football game. That's how I view it. Now, I don't make the decisions.
On when he expects a decision about the game to be made
This is not a home game for the Mountaineers, so we're pretty much out of it. It's pretty much NC State and the ACC. There are more games than this one. And football games are pretty important, we all know that, but people's safety is pretty important as well, not only our student-athletes but the people that live in North Carolina and South Carolina. We don't think we need to get into the understanding of the mass destruction that could potentially happen for a system like this. It's out of our hands, and I know we have to talk about it, and I have to sit up here, and we have to answer these questions, I get all of that, but we're preparing for NC State, and until they tell me otherwise – and I have no idea when that's going to happen – then that's what we're going to do.
On his plans for Saturday if the game isn't played
Well, we'll track what happens. That thing could head straight to West Virginia. I have some concerns with the amount of rainfall that's going to happen in the state of West Virginia. There's a contingency plan in place, there always is. We have a pretty important game a week from this Saturday that we need to get ready for, and weather will probably play as issue in that. I have zero interest in treating this like a bye week whatsoever. We will be here, and we will practice when we can practice.
On if he'll focus on recruiting more if the can gets cancelled
No, I'm not doing any of that. I'm planning on playing this game on Saturday. If we can't, then we will switch gears and continue to practice football to try to make our team better. It's too early in the year to worry about any of that. That's why they set bye weeks. The most important thing for bye weeks are recruiting and health; we have those scheduled down the road and this is not one of them. Our job is to continue to get better playing football whether we're at NC State or whether we're going to switch gears and prepare for our next game.
On if the team will immediately turn its attention to Kansas State
Absolutely. I mean, why not? We've already gotten the binders ready. We know Kansas State pretty well; they know us pretty well. That's not going to get talked about in my meeting this afternoon, that hasn't been talked about in our prep on any of the phases. We can switch gears pretty quickly. I'd be lying if I said otherwise.
On the team's pass defense
It needs to keep improving. Our pass rush has been OK. It needs to keep getting better, which I think it will. Those (defensive) linemen, I think, are going to continue to get better. We didn't pressure a whole lot last week, which we knew we had that up our sleeve, and we can pressure as much as we want. Coverage-wise, we still have work to do, and today is a big day for that. We need to get out there and do a whole bunch of work to try to get ourselves better. We have a lot of good competition going on at corner. I was happy with how (redshirt junior cornerback) Keith Washington went in and played, (sophomore cornerback) Derrek Pitts (Jr.) is going to get better and better, (redshirt junior cornerback) Josh Norwood is going to get better and better, (redshirt junior cornerback) Hakeem Bailey needs to regroup a little bit and practice. I've seen that kid make a ton of plays, so there's good competition going on with those four. And then our safeties are pretty experienced guys. You can't just pinpoint one person or any of that, it's a collective effort. It's a big task for us – (Ryan) Finley is a heck of a player. But it's no different than playing against any of these Big 12 schools, because the Big 12 has some pretty good passing offenses. What our defense sees in practice is, I think, a pretty good passing offense. It's a work in progress.
On if NC State quarterback Ryan Finley reminds him of anyone
To answer your question, no. I don't compare quarterbacks, I don't compare (redshirt senior quarterback) Will (Grier) with any of the people we've had or any of that, I'm not getting into that. He's a big, tall guy that the ball comes out nice. It comes out quick, and he's accurate. He throws as good a ball as I've seen.
On redshirt sophomore offensive lineman Chase Behrndt's first start
OK; that's an ongoing battle. We flipped Chase and (senior offensive lineman) Isaiah (Hardy) from tackle to guard, to guard to tackle, and we thought Chase played better at guard than tackle. He's played both, and Isaiah has played both. We played (redshirt junior offensive lineman) Joe Brown too much in game one. Joe is going to be a good player for us and is continuously working himself into better shape. It's hard for an (offensive) lineman to step foot on campus in May or June and start game one. I think Joe is a little ahead of the curve because he's an older guy with some Division I experience, but he's 365 pounds or whatever he was when he first got in here, so he's continuously working himself into shape. So, we needed a better option at guard, and Chase gave us a better option at guard. I'm trying to redshirt Isaiah, trying to get him another year. If we need to play him, we'll play him. But if we can save him right now, (redshirt junior offensive lineman) Kelby Wickline is our third tackle. If we can save Isaiah and only play him in four games, then that'll be good for our football team next year. So, that'll still be a battle between Chase and Joe. They need to keep competing.
On why he chose redshirt sophomore offensive lineman Chase Behrndt to start last week
I just thought he played better in practice last week, honestly. I'm not disappointed in (redshirt junior offensive lineman) Joe (Brown), it's just a competition. The more competition that we can have at a whole bunch of these spots, the better they are going to be. You see it out of our running back position right now. Those guys are all competing hard with each other, and it's making them better. I want to get that going at corner, I think we have some of that going on (defensive) line. Up front, we had it at center with (redshirt sophomore offensive lineman Jacob) Buccigrossi coming in and having a really good camp, it pushed (redshirt junior offensive lineman) Matt Jones and made Matt Jones better. That's what we look for in all of these spots. Bringing in a couple of pretty high-quality defensive line grad transfer guys have made guys like (junior defensive lineman) Reese (Donahue) better and has made (senior defensive lineman Ezekiel) Zeke (Rose) better. Those guys, from a playing prospective, have made them better, but their presence has made (freshman defensive lineman) Dante and (sophomore defensive lineman) Darius Stills better. The more competition we can get, the better off we're going to be.
On redshirt junior offensive lineman Joe Brown's appeal to gain another year of eligibility
Not yet. It's in the works, but we'll see what happens there.
On if there's a benefit to play a true road game out of conference
It depends on who you ask. When you get Power 5 home-and-homes, it's going to be a home-and-home. We can finish the rest of this with scheduling talk if we want. I had asked the question, 'Oh my gosh, if you don't play NC State, you're not going to have a quality win.' Well, Tennessee is in the SEC, that's a quality win. There are a lot of teams that are only playing nine Power 5s. We're guaranteed nine, and we've already played one, which is 10. Heck, there's an SEC school that plays eight. It would be good, but it's not mandatory because nobody else does it.
Opening Statement
We've been instructed to prepare for NC State, and we're preparing for NC State. So, here we go. Honestly, I've been looking forward to this game for quite a while. They have a good program down there. I know a lot of Mountaineer people and fans all involved that have been looking forward to playing this game since 2010, I guess was the last time these two programs played. They're good; Dave Doeren has been there a long time. He's a really high-respected defensive football coach.
They've got good players. My last encounter with them was 2003, I believe, with Philip Rivers, that was the last time I was in Raleigh. It was a really good atmosphere; their in-game stuff was what I remember more than anything. They were good then – it reminds me of what they are now. They have a good quarterback with a quality offensive line and good skill, and then defensive guys that look like NFL players. If you watch them from last year, four (defensive) linemen all got drafted, but they played upwards of 10 guys last year. And then they had a couple of running backs drafted, offensive linemen drafted, two linebackers were really good players last year, they lost another corner, but they played around 24 guys last year. So, even if it wasn't the guys that were going to the NFL or graduating, it was guys that were taking their turn.
When you look at their defense now, their (defensive) line is all 6-4, 6-5, 300-pound guys that are really good. Their linebackers, this (Germaine) Pratt kid, No. 3, didn't start but was like their third-leading tackler – that dude can play now. And their safeties are 6-2, 225, just real big, long, physical guys. Corners, they have three corners that they play with all the time that are quality cover guys. They have a lot of good depth. Coach Doeren is their defensive coordinator, and then they have Dave Huxtable, who has been there the entire time with them, who has been everywhere. And then they added Ted Roof, who has been a defensive coordinator pretty much everywhere in the country as well. So, they have three really good defensive-minded coaches, and they play really, really, really good defense.
Offensively, their offensive coordinator came from Boise, which makes sense why their quarterback came from Boise as well as a grad transfer. Boise is really good on offense right now, so I'm not quite sure what happened there. But you talk about a 6-5, pocket guy that sits there and can make every throw. They have four or five receivers that are all big and can play, three offensive linemen back. They remind me of a Big 12 offense, so preparing for these guys this week is something that comes natural for us and will pay off in the future based on we play a lot of teams that do this type of stuff. They're 60 percent 10 personnel, around 20 percent 11 personnel, and that's the type of stuff that we need to prepare for and be able to defend.
Special teams, they're solid. They have good players across the board; they have a good punter averaging around 42. They have a new kicker, who has been doing incredibly well, a different kickoff guy than the kicker, but he's the same kickoff guy as last year. They do a great job with punt coverage, do a great job with kickoff coverage, and their return guys, although different from last year, who, I thought were pretty dynamic last year, are guys that are doing some good things as well.
We'll be ready to play, and today is no different than every Tuesday. We're going to introduce these guys, we actually introduced them and practiced on these guys on Sunday night. It's a normal Tuesday today with a lot of installation, and we have a good opportunity to go out there and practice today and tomorrow, which we will. If we're on the plane to go play, then we're on the plane to go play. If not, then we'll switch gears and figure out what's next.
On practicing in bad weather
Really the only thing that forces us inside is lightning. If it's 28 and snowing, we're going to be outside. There's a footing aspect to snow that we'll deal with. But rain, we'll practice in rain. The only way we go in is if they say there's lightning, you have to go in, and then we go in. Other than that, we'll be outside. We haven't had a whole lot of rain days, we've had a couple. I was not concerned with last Saturday at all. I thought we handled those conditions just fine. How many of those games did we play in last year? Iowa State was like that, Kansas State was like that, Utah was like that – it didn't work, Oklahoma State, I believe, was like that, Oklahoma a couple years ago, we've played in all kinds of weather. We don't care what the weather is, we go out, and we play in it. Now, there's lightning that doesn't allow you to do that, and there's 150 mile-per-hour winds in a hurricane that probably won't allow you to do that. Other than that, we'll go out and practice. I thought we handled it really well last Saturday, and I was like the weather held off as long as it did, so the crowd would be there. The crowd was spectacular and gave us a lot of juice in warmups. I couldn't be happier with our support right now from a fan prospective. That's why (redshirt junior long snapper) Rex Sunahara was the player of the game on special teams because it was wet, and he had never snapped in those conditions, and his snaps were perfect. He's had plenty of wet-ball snap drills. (Senior wide receiver David) Sills (V) lost the ball once, (redshirt senior quarterback) Will (Grier) lost the ball once. Other than that, we were pretty good on ball security, so I was happy with it overall.
On how to stay focused on NC State
I addressed it Sunday. What are we going to do? We can't get caught unprepared, so prepare. If this was a bye week, then we'd go practice anyway. There's a routine schedule and expectations that continue to practice football if you want to continue to be good at football. I've addressed it, and we're not going to address it again. We've moved forward, and we're preparing for NC State until they tell us otherwise. At this point right now, they haven't said anything.
On if the NC State could change in time or location
That's not going to happen. We'll play at 3:30 on Saturday, or we won't play. Our job is to get ready for every game the right way. I've been through this before, and if you start trying to outsmart systems like this, then it's going to affect your team. Back in 2008, when I was at Houston, we moved a game because of a hurricane. We moved it from Houston to Dallas, and there were 250 people that ended up going to that game because the hurricane that ripped apart the city of Houston on Friday night at midnight as our players sat in a hotel room in Dallas and watched it and didn't get any sleep, we had to move the game from 2 o'clock in the afternoon to 10 a.m. to try to beat the hurricane, and then the hurricane sped up and went straight to Dallas, and we played in a hurricane that just ripped our city apart. And then we were just completely discombobulated as a football team for about two weeks, and it affected us the next game, and it affected us the next game. I want to play this game so bad you have no idea. With that said, the most important game after this game is Kanas State, and we cannot do anything to put ourselves in any kind of a disadvantage whatsoever to play any Big 12 football game. That's how I view it. Now, I don't make the decisions.
On when he expects a decision about the game to be made
This is not a home game for the Mountaineers, so we're pretty much out of it. It's pretty much NC State and the ACC. There are more games than this one. And football games are pretty important, we all know that, but people's safety is pretty important as well, not only our student-athletes but the people that live in North Carolina and South Carolina. We don't think we need to get into the understanding of the mass destruction that could potentially happen for a system like this. It's out of our hands, and I know we have to talk about it, and I have to sit up here, and we have to answer these questions, I get all of that, but we're preparing for NC State, and until they tell me otherwise – and I have no idea when that's going to happen – then that's what we're going to do.
On his plans for Saturday if the game isn't played
Well, we'll track what happens. That thing could head straight to West Virginia. I have some concerns with the amount of rainfall that's going to happen in the state of West Virginia. There's a contingency plan in place, there always is. We have a pretty important game a week from this Saturday that we need to get ready for, and weather will probably play as issue in that. I have zero interest in treating this like a bye week whatsoever. We will be here, and we will practice when we can practice.
On if he'll focus on recruiting more if the can gets cancelled
No, I'm not doing any of that. I'm planning on playing this game on Saturday. If we can't, then we will switch gears and continue to practice football to try to make our team better. It's too early in the year to worry about any of that. That's why they set bye weeks. The most important thing for bye weeks are recruiting and health; we have those scheduled down the road and this is not one of them. Our job is to continue to get better playing football whether we're at NC State or whether we're going to switch gears and prepare for our next game.
On if the team will immediately turn its attention to Kansas State
Absolutely. I mean, why not? We've already gotten the binders ready. We know Kansas State pretty well; they know us pretty well. That's not going to get talked about in my meeting this afternoon, that hasn't been talked about in our prep on any of the phases. We can switch gears pretty quickly. I'd be lying if I said otherwise.
On the team's pass defense
It needs to keep improving. Our pass rush has been OK. It needs to keep getting better, which I think it will. Those (defensive) linemen, I think, are going to continue to get better. We didn't pressure a whole lot last week, which we knew we had that up our sleeve, and we can pressure as much as we want. Coverage-wise, we still have work to do, and today is a big day for that. We need to get out there and do a whole bunch of work to try to get ourselves better. We have a lot of good competition going on at corner. I was happy with how (redshirt junior cornerback) Keith Washington went in and played, (sophomore cornerback) Derrek Pitts (Jr.) is going to get better and better, (redshirt junior cornerback) Josh Norwood is going to get better and better, (redshirt junior cornerback) Hakeem Bailey needs to regroup a little bit and practice. I've seen that kid make a ton of plays, so there's good competition going on with those four. And then our safeties are pretty experienced guys. You can't just pinpoint one person or any of that, it's a collective effort. It's a big task for us – (Ryan) Finley is a heck of a player. But it's no different than playing against any of these Big 12 schools, because the Big 12 has some pretty good passing offenses. What our defense sees in practice is, I think, a pretty good passing offense. It's a work in progress.
On if NC State quarterback Ryan Finley reminds him of anyone
To answer your question, no. I don't compare quarterbacks, I don't compare (redshirt senior quarterback) Will (Grier) with any of the people we've had or any of that, I'm not getting into that. He's a big, tall guy that the ball comes out nice. It comes out quick, and he's accurate. He throws as good a ball as I've seen.
On redshirt sophomore offensive lineman Chase Behrndt's first start
OK; that's an ongoing battle. We flipped Chase and (senior offensive lineman) Isaiah (Hardy) from tackle to guard, to guard to tackle, and we thought Chase played better at guard than tackle. He's played both, and Isaiah has played both. We played (redshirt junior offensive lineman) Joe Brown too much in game one. Joe is going to be a good player for us and is continuously working himself into better shape. It's hard for an (offensive) lineman to step foot on campus in May or June and start game one. I think Joe is a little ahead of the curve because he's an older guy with some Division I experience, but he's 365 pounds or whatever he was when he first got in here, so he's continuously working himself into shape. So, we needed a better option at guard, and Chase gave us a better option at guard. I'm trying to redshirt Isaiah, trying to get him another year. If we need to play him, we'll play him. But if we can save him right now, (redshirt junior offensive lineman) Kelby Wickline is our third tackle. If we can save Isaiah and only play him in four games, then that'll be good for our football team next year. So, that'll still be a battle between Chase and Joe. They need to keep competing.
On why he chose redshirt sophomore offensive lineman Chase Behrndt to start last week
I just thought he played better in practice last week, honestly. I'm not disappointed in (redshirt junior offensive lineman) Joe (Brown), it's just a competition. The more competition that we can have at a whole bunch of these spots, the better they are going to be. You see it out of our running back position right now. Those guys are all competing hard with each other, and it's making them better. I want to get that going at corner, I think we have some of that going on (defensive) line. Up front, we had it at center with (redshirt sophomore offensive lineman Jacob) Buccigrossi coming in and having a really good camp, it pushed (redshirt junior offensive lineman) Matt Jones and made Matt Jones better. That's what we look for in all of these spots. Bringing in a couple of pretty high-quality defensive line grad transfer guys have made guys like (junior defensive lineman) Reese (Donahue) better and has made (senior defensive lineman Ezekiel) Zeke (Rose) better. Those guys, from a playing prospective, have made them better, but their presence has made (freshman defensive lineman) Dante and (sophomore defensive lineman) Darius Stills better. The more competition we can get, the better off we're going to be.
On redshirt junior offensive lineman Joe Brown's appeal to gain another year of eligibility
Not yet. It's in the works, but we'll see what happens there.
On if there's a benefit to play a true road game out of conference
It depends on who you ask. When you get Power 5 home-and-homes, it's going to be a home-and-home. We can finish the rest of this with scheduling talk if we want. I had asked the question, 'Oh my gosh, if you don't play NC State, you're not going to have a quality win.' Well, Tennessee is in the SEC, that's a quality win. There are a lot of teams that are only playing nine Power 5s. We're guaranteed nine, and we've already played one, which is 10. Heck, there's an SEC school that plays eight. It would be good, but it's not mandatory because nobody else does it.
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