West Virginia University football coach Dana Holgorsen addressed members of the media on Tuesday, August 30, 2016, at the Milan Puskar Center Team Room.

 

Opening Statement

I know everyone is ready to get started with game week here. You guys are ready, we’re ready, Missouri’s ready, the whole country is ready, ready to get going. It’s exciting to be able to open up with a Power Five conference school, SEC opponent. Especially one that’s won the SEC East two out of the last four years. It’s a great program. I’ve been competing again Missouri dating back to 2000. They’ve had really, really good football teams over the years. Had as much continuity in the country for going on about 15 years with Gary Pinkel and all of that. Obviously last year a lot of transition. I think it’s pretty well documented. They went through a lot of transitions. They had a lot of distractions. Don’t let the 5-7 record fool you at all. This is a really, really, really good football team. They were extremely competitive last year.

 

Defensively with (head) coach Barry Odom coming over from Memphis. He’s a longtime Missouri guy. He played there. He’s been around that program for a long time and understands what that program is all about. Spent three years at Memphis. He was a part of that turnaround at Memphis, as the defensive coordinator, so it was a good hire for Missouri to bring him back. He did a great job last year as the defensive coordinator and very deserving to be the head coach based on what he’s done. Don’t anticipate them to change a whole lot defensively. They have seven or eight guys coming back from a year ago where they were again, one of the best defense’s in the country, just a really, really good defense. They have a lot of those guys coming back.

 

Everything for them starts upfront. Their d-lines were arguably one of the best d-lines in the country last year, and they have the majority of the guys coming back, so It’s going to be a challenge for us offensively. Everything for us starts up front; we think we’re decent upfront, but we’re going to get tested real quick here in about four days. Anxious to see how we do against that d-line. Have a couple of starters returning but it goes with (redshirt junior defensive end) Charles Harris. He’s one of the best d-lineman in the country. He’s a pass rush guy. He’s a physical guy. He’s good against the run. Surprised he didn’t come out a year ago. He would have been a first rounder last year. He’s obviously going to be every bit as good this year. Their middle linebacker, 30, (Michael Scherer), everything goes with him. He has a ton of starts under his belt. He runs the show. You can see on video, him directing traffic and all that. They have two really good players coming back and then another five or six to eight guys that have considerable playing time. It’s going to be a challenge for us offensively. They only gave up 300 yards a game last year, and it’s going to be the same group pretty much last year as this year. We’ll see if we’ve improved on offense. It’s not going to take very long to figure that out. Offensively looking for them to be more improved than they were last year.

 

They switched up some coaching staff stuff. They brought in coach (offensive coordination/quarterbacks) Josh Heupel. I’ve known Josh Heupel for a long time. Competed against him when he was at Oklahoma. He did a great job there. He was at Utah State where they were pretty dang good last year, so he’s going to bring a type of offense that’s going to be a little bit more spread out and throw it around. They have some quality transfers that came in. The quarterback got thrown in the fire last year, the Lock kid (Drew Lock), as a freshman. No one wants to be able to stick a freshman in there if they don’t have to, so you know he’s going to be improved. Being able to have coach (Josh) Heupel come in and work with him, you’re going to see some improvement out of him. Then they have some skilled kids, and the thing that sticks out about them is, is that they have some transfer guys you never know how those guys are going to pan out. You have to expect for the best out of those guys, so looking for them to be improved on offense. Special teams, a little bit of an unknown as far as what they’re going to do. You can’t really pinpoint a specific guy who’s coming in that you can take some work and figure out what they’re going to do.

 

Like every opening game, we need to be pretty aware of what’s going on whether it’s special teams, whether it’s what they do offensively or any changes that they’re going to make defensively. We have to figure that out real quick. In game adjustments are going to be huge. Being able to communicate on the sidelines as far as what they’re doing and being able to get those adjustments to our players are going to be extremely important. Other than that it should be a great atmosphere in Morgantown. Noon kick against a SEC Team. I think everyone is going to be excited about that. I know our coaching staff and our players and our team is excited about the challenge.

 

On Missouri’s tempo offensively

I think a lot. If you look back on what he’s done (Josh Heupel), that’s kid and his background. He’s been an up tempo, kind of spread out kind of guy. He’s incorporated a lot of run game with it. Like I said we have to be ready for everything. They have some coaches from some different schools that are coming together, and they’re going to merge their ideas. I don’t know what that’s going to be. Like I said we have to look at it and figure it out. Wasn’t privy to being able to watch some of their practices or being able to be in any of their meetings, so don’t know what to expect. We have to be able to figure it out.

 

On the true freshmen playing

I have nine or 10 guys that potentially will. Obviously we know (freshman running back) Kennedy McKoy will. He’ll play a good bit. There’s a question mark on (freshman running back) Martell Pettaway. He was hurt for the majority of camp. He’s going to dress. If we need him we’ll use him. (Freshman wide receiver) (Steven) Smothers will dress. If we need him we’ll use him. (Freshman wide receiver) Marcus Simms will play. Defensively, (freshman linebacker) Zach Sandwisch, (freshman safety) Dylan Tonkery, (freshman linebacker) Adam Hensley, (freshman defensive lineman) Reese Donahue and (freshman safety) Jovanni Stewart will all dress and we anticipate all of them will play. All of the junior college guys, first-year guys, are all slated to play as well.

 

On if he feels comfortable playing the true freshmen

I do because none of those guys I mentioned have to start. Okay. If we’re having to start a bunch of freshmen, if we’re having to start a bunch of first year junior college guys, then I would be a little nervous about that. I’ve referenced this, we have a lot of new guys and we’re going to have all hands on deck, let’s go, let’s play, but we’re starting nine seniors and two juniors on defense. Then offensively, I think it’s seven seniors and a couple of juniors and a couple of sophomores that have experience. All these new guys were recruited to add depth, which is what they are. A lot of those true freshmen coming in, I think our recruiting has been pretty good and those guys are going to be able to do a lot of special teams work and just add depth where you need it. We need a lot of these guys to play.

 

On the overall health of the team

Good other than the long term guys. Everyone is cleared and playing other than the long term guys who have had surgery. (Freshman linebacker) (Brendan) Ferns had surgery a couple of days ago. (Junior safety) Dravon (Askew-Henry) is scheduled to have it I believe in another day or two. (Freshman cornerback) Jake Long had shoulder surgery. (Redshirt junior defensive lineman) (Xavier) Pegues and (redshirt sophomore defensive lineman) (Jaleel) Fields, those guys have obviously been healing up. Everyone is ready to go. They’re those long term guys.

 

On if it’s fun to find out what the other team will do

No it sucks. You have to use resources, make phone calls and dig up old film. We watched old Oklahoma film on offensive and last year’s Utah State’s film. We brought up and watched some TCU stuff because coach (Missouri’s) (defensive coordinator/ linebackers) (DeMontie) Cross came over from TCU on the defensive side of the ball. We know all of that stuff, and we’re watching it and we’re looking at it, but it’s still a guessing game. I have news from Missouri too. What we’re doing on all three sides of the ball should probably be a little bit of a guessing game for them, too, based on the fact that we’ve had eight months to be able to make adjustments and look at our personnel as far as what we have, what we do well and what we feel like we need to do in order to be successful. That’s just part of the game. Everyone has to deal with it, game one. Once you start getting a little bit of a body of work from the previous game, the previous couple of games, the previous three games then you start to figure it out a little bit more, but so does the opponent.

 

On why it’s not fun

Because you don’t know. As opposed to just preparing for this you have to prepare for this (hand motion), and you only get 20 hours in a week. There’s only so much time in the day that you can have to be able to figure out what they do. Having a better idea of what they’re going to do just makes you sleep better at night. I’ve prepared our guys to be able to defend this or attack this and you feel pretty good about that, but when you really can’t give your players definitive answers as far as this is what you’re going to see, it keeps you up.

 

On the right tackle position

Yeah they’ll both play. (Redshirt junior offensive lineman) Marcell (Lazard) will get to start. (Redshirt freshman offensive lineman) Colton (McKivitz) will play. If we need to take (redshirt sophomore) Yodny (Cajuste) out to calm him down or whatever because he’s going against the top-10 pick in the league, then we can possibly move Colton (McKivitz) over to the other side. He’ll be our swing guy. The same thing will happen at guard with (redshirt junior offensive lineman) Grant Lingafelter. He’ll play both guards. Grant (Lingafelter) has done a good job. We’ll be able to put him in there a little bit as well.

 

On the tight ends

They’re young guys right now. You have guys who really haven’t played yet. (Redshirt freshman tight end/full back) Stone Wolfley has done a good job. He’s put him in a position where he’s going to see some action. (Redshirt sophomore tight end) (Trevon) Wesco is not quite ready yet. He missed the first three and a half weeks of camp, so he’s just not ready yet. (Redshirt sophomore tight end/full back) Michael Ferns will take a snap or two at tight end as well. He’s a little undersized. You don’t have that fifth year senior presence like you had with Cody (Clay), where we were going to do a lot of tight end stuff just because he was a guy who had that much experience, so got to see how it looks. We’ll put them out there and see what happens, and then go from there.

 

On what he’s wants the defense to improve on

Show improvement from what, I don’t know because there’s a lot of new guys out there. Last year’s group had a different dynamic to it than this year’s group. What I’m really anxious to see defensively, is how we play together and how we handle adversity because there’s a lot of first time starters. They’re not really first time players, they’re first time starters. I’m really anxious to see how they rise up when things are tough and how they play together. How many points is it going to take to win, I don’t know. I don’t know how much improved Missouri is on offense. I’m anticipating them to be improved on offense. We’ll just kind of take it and see what it looks like and go from there.

 

On the adjustments with the defense

Going to correct him, we’re not young. Again, that’s the difference from where we are right now as opposed to where we were four years ago when we had to play all of those freshmen. All of those freshmen just went to the NFL. We’re playing guys, older guys like (redshirt junior linebacker) Al (Al-Rasheed) Benton who have a lot of experience. Al started a game before (redshirt senior linebacker) Justin Arndt played, it seems like he’s been here longer than I have. (Redshirt senior linebacker) Sean Walters, I think Sean’s 30 at this point. We have guys who have been here for a while, and the d-line, all the starters are all seniors, played a lot of ball for us. You look at the secondary you have (redshirt senior safety) (Jarrod) Harper. Harper’s been here longer than me. He was in this building before I was. We have guys. (Redshirt senior cornerback) Nana (Kyeremeh) has been here for a long time. Nana was playing, we watched film of a punt return clip of Tavon (Austin) and Nana was in that game, wearing the old uniforms. We have guys who have been here. We’re not young. We’re experienced. We just have to see how we play together. How much volume they can handle, that’s (associate head coach defensive coordinator/linebackers) Tony Gibson) Gibby’s job. Trust them mentally with it. He’ll get those guys in a position to be successful. 

 

On redshirt senior offensive lineman Adam Pankey’s suspension

Yeah, (redshirt senior offensive lineman) (Adam) Pankey will serve a one-game suspension. Anticipating him being back next week. With that said, I couldn’t feel better about his replacement. The truth of the matter is, when (redshirt senior offensive lineman) Tony (Matteo) got hurt after week one, he was arguably our best guard after week one. It gave us a little bit of a hit with depth, but by having (Tony) Matteo out that shoved (redshirt junior offensive lineman) Grant Lingafelter in there to rep a lot, and I’ve seen a lot of improvements with Grant (Lingafelter). Now Grant (Lingafelter) is our swing guy. Then a week from now, we’ll get (Adam) Pankey back and give us even more depth.

 

On if he has even been fooled or surprised

I can’t reference anything. I can’t remember who we opened up with last year. Our train of thought going forward on exactly what we’re seeing. Again, people want to make a big deal about it. It’s happened a good bit. Two years ago, we opened up with Alabama, I think it was (Lane) Kiffin’sfirst year, so what are they going to do? What offense are they going to run? It’s only so much honestly. Offensively and defensively, there’s only so much you can do. I don’t think the element of surprise is really going to give you that much of a competitive advantage. We all do this for a living. We’re all professionals I think everyone is going to figure out what the wrinkles are and all that and be able to adjust to it fairly quickly.

 

On if you have to limit how much you show your players

Absolutely. We have to be careful about that. We talked about that in the staff meeting this morning. We introduced Missouri last year (week) and we went through it, but we’ll really introduce our game plan today. You have to be careful about giving them too much to think about. I think the first game because of the dynamics that exist with it, I think you have to worry a little bit more about yourself than the opponent. Again, you have to do your due diligence and you have to prepare your kids and all that. You better worry about yourself and your frame of mind and what you have going on.

 

On Mizzou’s defensive line

I tell you, looking at it from last year, it’s arguably the best d-line, defensive front. It’s arguably one of the best defenses that I’ve ever seen. One of the linebackers, NFL guy. Another one of the linebackers has a ton of starts but where the real, real good dudes are, the d-line. Not only were they, just like with the one guy the Harris kid obviously, he’s top-10 pick, but they have some young d-tackles who are going to be big time guys. They’re depth was really good. They rotated 10 to 12 guys in there last year at times. A lot of depth, and it’s pretty much the same guys. I know they lost a couple of guys. They still have plenty of them. It’s every bit as good as anything I’ve seen.

 

On if the punting competition is close

Yes it has been. Things can happen in practice today and tomorrow. Right now if I have to say get in there and punt, it’s going to be (freshman kicker/punter) Billy Kinney. With that said, (freshman kicker/punter) Jonn Yong is a freshman who is going to continue to get better and better. I’m excited about that competition because when you have that kind of competition at spots, it makes people better. I would anticipate Jonn (Young) to go out there and work his tail off out there for the next couple of days. He’ll dress. He’ll be available. He’ll be ready to go. I like that competition. I think they’re both pretty dang good.

 

On if he is concerned about special teams

You can’t practice kickoffs and stuff like that. You can drill them. You can go against scout teams. There’s a lot of space in the kicking game. Yeah, it’s concerned with the new guys, but like I said I think our roster is pretty healthy and we have enough guys that have done it in the past to where I’d like to think we’re pretty prepared and be able to go out there and play well.

 

On junior safety Kyzir White

He’ll start. He’s going to play a good bit. He’s looked good in practice. He’s big. He’s rangy. He’s competitive. He’s exactly what we thought we were getting in recruiting. Thought he’s looked good in practice. Thought he’s looked good in scrimmages. Anxious to see it live, really anxious to see it live, so we’ll see where it goes.

 

Editor's Note: Photo of Dylan Tonkery at recent WVU practice by Ben Queen of www.benqueenphotography.com.