West Virginia University football coach Dana Holgorsen met with media prior to today’s practice at The Greenbrier:

 

The Quarterbacks and Skyler Howard

(Skyler Howard) He is the clear-cut No. 1 right now. Not even close. He’s a different kid. He’s operating well. I sure hope I am not jinxing him right now.  He is operating very well and looks great. His teammates believe in him. The coaches believe in him. He is doing well. All the other young kids are young kids. They are freshman and keep getting better. How good they get I don’t know. We are going to keep repping the heck out of them and watch them and see how they progress.

 

Surprised by how Quickly Skyler has stepped up this Spring

He’s stepped up. I said the same thing last year (wanting someone to step up and take the quarterback job). He just wasn’t ready to do it. He’s making plays. Just put it that way. He’s making plays and people believe in him. That’s what you look for in a quarterback.

 

Where Skyler has grown the most this spring

Everything. His knowledge. His fundamentals are good. He’s accurate and he’s throwing the deep ball well. His communications is really good. His understanding of the offense continues to improve. He took a lot of reps last spring and all the reps he got once we redshirted William and the game experience toward the end of the year. It’s paying off for him.

 

Improvement from Daikiel on the outside

Yes. Him and Shelton (Gibson) both have had a great week on the outside. Those guys are clear-cut No. 1s at receiver; at outside receiver. And again, all this stuff could change. I’m saying where we are at right now.  Once we continue to practice, have a whole summer and a whole camp with new people, anything can change. But that’s where we are at right now.

 

Jordan Thompson’s performance

He is a solid guy on the inside. He’s made a bunch of plays on the inside. Him and Skyler are getting on the same page. Our defense is blitzing a lot and have a lots of adjustments that he understands the game. We started talking about Jordan last year during the season. We were happy with the way he’s performed on the inside last year. And Wendell looks good on the inside. You’re not going to see Wendell, he’s hurt. He’s performs well on the inside as well and will be a difference maker not only in the backfield but at slot receiver too. Which enabled us to move Daikiel to the outside. Jordan is a good football player and his understanding of what we are doing is hopefully is going to carry over into the fall and not just this spring

 

The Left Tackle position

Russell Haughton-James has played well this last week. Yodny has a broken finger so you won’t see him much. What we’re going through you’re going to see a lot of serious injuries, no surgeries or anything that we need to talk about. Him not taking those reps have enabled Russell to get a lot of valuable reps. I don’t’ know if Russell will crack the starting two-deep but he can play all four positions. I wouldn’t trust him at center but he can play the rest of them. He is continuing to get better.

 

The Offense

I think we have 12 or 13 guys that can play right now. So now it’s about the continuity that needs to exist with them. That’s what I see with our offense. When our two are out there and we are shuffling quarterbacks in and out, it doesn’t look very good. With our ones, it’s starting to look pretty good at times just because the continuity that those guys are playing with.

 

Rushel Shell

He started last year and got a lot of reps. He needs to take some things over. I haven’t seen him take anything over yet and he’s been challenged.  We’ll see if he can take something over today. He looks good and we have to continue to develop those young guys. You guys understand. There was a lot of talk about five backs last year and a lot of those guys playing. It will be the same this year. We’ve got to have four or five guys that are able to play. That position takes some pounding so when guys go down we need other guys to step in there.

 

Is there a point when you say Skyler is the guy

Probably. I don’t think I need to say it to the team. I think they understand where we are at with it. It’s all about the development of the young guys.  Is any of the young guys going to get  enough reps and make enough plays where they warrant a first team rep. Right now, the answer is no. so Skyler is the guy.

 

Is this team relying more on the Defense now than any time since you’ve been here

I would certainly be OK with that. If we are shutting people out, it takes a lot of pressure off of me to call the perfect plays. I like where we are at on defense. We got guys banged up and all of that but when those guys got their guys out there, they look good. The defense staff continuity with being on the same page is really good. Its as good of a place as its been since I’ve been here without a doubt. Those guys are flying around, they know what to do and they are making a bunch of plays. We’re developing depth on defense right now.

 

Bringing the team to the Greenbrier

It’s been great. Mr. Justice has been gracious enough to be able to let us use this facility. This is a world-class resort but it’s a pretty good football facility as well. The thing that is so awesome is all that space out there – two full fields to practice – boy that’s a genius idea. I didn’t know how to set up our practice schedule – I didn’t  know where to put everybody because we’re not used to this kind of space. The grass is great, the weather is great, the facility is great. Our guys  were fired up about coming down here and seeing this part of the country. They’ve heard so much about it. They aware that the Saints use this facility. I’ve been down here and saw it in action but for them to come down here and see wh at it is really like has been really cool for them.  We took them to dinner over at The Greenbrier last night. They walked around and saw the facility so it’s been good for them to see it. This is such a great weekend for West Virginia University with the cancer center down here raising a bunch of money. Coach Huggs has been here. I was with him last night and this morning. The awareness and the amount of money, there is a lot of heavy hitters here. There is a lot of heavy hitters, a lot of donors, booster and administration and the board is here. It’s been great for West Virginia University. And for us to be here and be a small part of it,  I think has been great. With that said. The hotel has been sold out for some time so it’s great that we got the Quality Inn. Our guys were great about coming down, getting off the bus and getting a good practice in yesterday. We fed them a good meal last night and they woke up and they are ready to play today.

 

Kyle Rose’s Status

You will see him out there today. He’s paid his dues and has learned a valuable lesson.

 

Josh Lambert

Hopefully the ball continues to go through the goal posts. If  the ball continues to go through the goal posts, then we are good.

 

New holders for Lambert

We’ve used a couple of different ones. He’s training Billy (Kinney) but he is comfortable with Nick (O’Toole). Nick and him have been here for a good while. We relied on Mike Molinari last year but Nick did a lot of that stuff as well. He’s very comfortable with Nick.

 

Cody Clay

He’s valuable, extremely valuable. He has a position coach for the first time in his career here. He’s went back and forth from me, to Coach Seider to Coach Crook. That position didn’t have a coach. Dan Gerberry is a graduate assistant who knows what he’s doing. Having that individual time with Cody, you’ve seen a bunch of  improvement on the little things that you really can’t see. So his time is going to continue to increase. Darren Arndt has got to where he’s going to be a functional backup to Cody.

 

Editor's Note: From top, photos show Skyler Howard, Jordan Thompson, Rushel Shell and Dana Holgorsen. All photos by Ben Queen of www.benqueenphotography.com.