West Virginia Coach Dana Holgorsen met with members of the media earlier Tuesday.

 

Opening Statement

Thanksgiving week is probably, me personally, my favorite week of the year. If you’re playing football this time of the year, then you're pretty fortunate. I've told the kids here the last couple of days to take advantage of it, while you can because when it's gone, you're going to miss this. Being able to spend time with your football family for an entire week with no distractions, just worried about football, just worried about preparing to play a Big 12 football game, is something they will miss when it's gone. Take advantage of it and make the most of it. Obviously because of the game this Saturday is at 11 a.m. (CT), we will take this whole week and prepare in the morning time to get them ready for an early game. We meet and lift in the morning and get out there and practice about the time we would be out there to stretch. That's what we'll be doing all week - kind of giving them the afternoons off to be able to enjoy their time off. It will be a normal Friday routine as far as traveling and going over there. It will be a hard game as they all are. There are no easy games. There are no easy games in the Big 12. We need to ignore their record. They're going to be competitive. They're going to try. They're going to give effort. They're going to be well coached. They're going to be a group of guys who are going to want to win the game. The last two years, if you just look at what happened the last two years, we went in there two years ago and the game was challenging. It was one of the more challenging games that we've had. We pulled out a victory two years ago. Then last year, much of things that we talked about throughout the entire offseason had to do with how we finished the year last year - up 31-7 in the third quarter and then blowing that lead, losing in triple overtime. We didn’t finish that game. We didn't finish the year. We didn't win. We're pretty motivated to be able to play and to hopefully finish the year better than we did a year ago and get ourselves in a good spot when it comes to preparing for the bowl game. 

 

Iowa State is good on offense. They're good on offense. They've got good skill. The (Sam) Richardson kid is playing pretty good. He was banged up a couple of weeks ago, but he was back last week against Texas Tech - had a good game. He's a guy we're familiar with. He didn't play against us last year. He played against us two years ago. He's played a lot of ball for them. He runs a lot better than he looks. He's really a good runner. He's their second-leading rusher. Number two, (Aaron) Wimberly, is their running back. He's a good, quality back. They've got two big receivers who are young, 6-5 and 6-5, I believe - number five and number eight. Number eight (D'Vario Montgomery) played against us last year. Number six (Tad Ecby) is a true freshman. Those are two big guys on the outside who are getting better and better. Then, number one (Jarvis West) in the slot, the West kid, is a guy who's done some good things for them, too. They've got good skill. They're going to score points. They're going to move the ball. We have to matchup with them and we have to make sure that we get to the quarterback. One thing that I was very happy with that I did make mention to in my press conference after the (Kansas State) game - we did great goaline stand wise defensively. We did great in stopping the run. We didn't touch their quarterback all night. He's sat back there, even when we blitzed, we're trying to play man coverage with a quarterback who's got three, four seconds to throw the ball. If we can't get to the quarterback, I don't care who we play, it's going to be a long day for us. We're working hard this week on trying to get to the quarterback. We're going to have to do that in order to slow these guys down. 

 

Defensively, they're the same as they've been. They're a 4-3 team that adds people to the box when they need to. They've been coached the same way for five, six years. They do a great job of coaching them up. Their guys play hard. They play with effort. They're always going to be in the right spots. We've had our challenges with them in the past and know what we're dealing with there. We're going to have to block them. We're going to have to sustain blocks. We're going to have to do a good job with that, which I assume we will. 

 

Special teams wise, their returners have gotten things going. The (Jarvis) West kid, number one, he returned one against Kansas State. Their placekicker is almost perfect on the year. He's only missed a couple. They're sound in the kicking game as well. We're expecting a challenging team that's going to play hard. That's going to give us everything that they've got. And again, if you just look back to what last two games have been against these guys, we've got our work cut out for us to be able to finish up the regular season with a victory. 

 

On Iowa State tight end E.J. Bibbs

He's the best tight end in the league. The dude is really athletic. They use him in a bunch of different ways. I had him starred right there and just looked by it. Clearly, he's a guy that we're aware of. He's a guy who really hurts people in the passing game. He's big enough, athletic enough where he can be an attached tight end and do some good things there. Him in the passing game is someone we're going to have, every single snap, be aware of where he is at.

 

On the WVU quarterback situation

Clint (Trickett) is our starting quarterback. He's been our starting quarterback for 11 games. He's been a huge part in the success that we've had offensively. He's done a great job for us. He's dinged up right now. It's still unknown as far as what's going to happen. We've got all those guy repping right now. We're going to continue to evaluate the situation today, tomorrow, Thursday and even on Friday to see exactly who's going to be getting the reps. 

 

On if Clint Trickett got a concussion against Kansas State

He got dinged up and they took his helmet, so I guess that means he had a concussion. Yes. So did Jordan Thompson, and Jordan is cleared and ready to go. I would hate to comment on the severity of concussions, because I don't know what the severity of the concussions are. That's for our doctors - for them to evaluate. They've got tests. They've got written tests. They've got computerized tests and all that. If they say 'thumbs up,' that means thumbs up - I get to coach them. Up until this point right now, they have not given the thumbs up. 

 

On if coach Holgorsen expects Clint Trickett to practice today

He did not practice today. We've already practiced today. I would expect him to practice tomorrow, yes. 

 

On the health status of Daryl Worley

He was out there in green. He's got a lingering shoulder issue. Again, guys, keep in mind that we're in week 12 now. What we're dealing with is what everybody else in the country is dealing with. There are going to be guys banged up. Worley went out in the third quarter. (Terrell) Chestnut went out in the second quarter. Those two guys have been banged up all year. They play hard. Chestnut has been cleared and is ready to go. Daryl's been practicing out there, but he's in green. His strength is an issue. We will continue to monitor that progress as well. 

 

On Skyler Howard

After watching the tape, it did nothing but confirm what I said on Thursday night, I was extremely happy with how he went in there and the spark that he gave us. He's been here for almost a year now and has taken a lot of reps. Earlier in the year, we didn't think he was ready to go. He has a redshirt. We tried to redshirt him. This happens with William (Crest) - we need a backup quarterback - so we start repping him (Skyler). He's been repping a lot for the last two months. You can clearly see that things are starting to click for him. Really, the first game opportunity that he's had to go in there and perform, and I thought he handled it awesome. I thought he handled it really well. I would anticipate that he's going to continue, like all quarterbacks, to get better with reps. 

 

On Clint Trickett's health status

The season has taken its toll on him much like it has on a number of other guys as well. I can go down the list as far as guys who the wear and tear of the season - the snaps. We've talked about this - all of the guys who have played a bunch of snaps. I think it's hurt our offensive line performance. We've only played five guys. There are some safeties and some linebackers, who I'm not prepared to say they've not been playing well, but the length of the season, week-in and week-out, a lot of snaps. It's taken its toll a little bit. I don't think Clint has done anything performance wise to jeopardize his starting quarterback role. He's a great leader. He's done a great job for us in the locker room. He studies the game. The Kansas State game was as good as any of the other games leading up until this point. I hope he can finish the year. He's earned that. He's deserved that. Again, I'm paid to win football games. I have to put guys in there who give us the best chance to win. I think up until Skyler probably scored a couple of touchdowns in there, we thought Clint was the best option out there. I don't think he's done anything to jeopardize that at this point. 

 

On Shaq Petteway

He's a starter right now. Coach (Tony) Gibson made that decision either late first quarter or early second quarter. Shaq has been playing a bunch. Him and (Edward) Muldrow have been splitting reps, and Shaq just keeps improving - keeps getting better. He's been battling injuries his whole career. He's been in there, and he feels comfortable. He's got snap to him. He's got twitch to him. He can get to the quarterback. He can cover. He just continues to get better and better. He is right now one of our main starters.

 

On if it is satisfying to see Petteway earn a starting spot

It happens to kid who have been in the program for four years. It's tough to get guys after six weeks, seven weeks to expect the light to come and be real players. But he's been here as long as I've been here. He came in and played his freshman year. He got hurt. He redshirted. He got hurt again. He just hangs in there, and there was a point where I didn't know if he would be anything more than a backup - any more than a special teams guy. The guy is really playing hard right now. 

 

On the Kansas State punt return for the touchdown

I would prefer to talk about Iowa State, but yes, he (Nick O'Toole) miss hit it. We had 10 cover guys go that way, and the ball went that way. We had no chance. It is what it is.

 

On getting the offense going this week

I thought the last quarter and a half, having about 300 yards of total offense, was much better than the first two and a half quarters. Again, I've got some issues with execution. I've got some mixed issues with ball security. I've got some issues with some things. The effort and the attitude is not one thing I've had to address all year. The locker room - we challenged them. We went back outside, and they kept playing. It wasn't just the offense. It was the whole team. They went out and played and had a chance to win the game at the end. We came up a little bit short - disappointing. Nobody is more disappointed than I am. Our guys didn't quit. They don't know what that means. I think Skyler coming in gave us a little bit of bounce. He ended up doing a pretty good job of getting the ball down field - guys made some plays. Mario (Alford) made a play. Kevin (White) made a play. Daikiel (Shorts) made some plays. I think we've still got the guys to be able to go out there and try to continue to execute and continue to try to get a little bit better.

 

On the difference between a winning season and .500

It would be a win this weekend and a win in the bowl game. It would ensure us in more than 500 percent. I think we're a good football team. Our guys aren't quitting. Nobody is happy about a three-game losing streak. We've lost to the number six team in the country, the number 10 team in the country and then Texas, who is as hot as all of them right now. We feel like we could be in that same conversation with the teams that they are. We came up a little bit short. We didn't get the job done. We're going to be judged on the next one. And the next one is the only one that counts right now. We will judged on the next one. We want to go play well. We want to go get a win. We want to have a good month to prepare for a bowl game. Winning this one and winning the bowl game - we'll feel good at that point. 

 

On playing at Iowa State and the weather challenges in November

Two years ago, that was tough. That and Rutgers were tough. The rest of the weather games we had, I don't view as any more challenging than anything else. I guess there's some soft people that would have said that the weather on Saturday night was an issue, but it wasn't for the two teams that were on the field. I don't know, I looked at the weather report, and it's pretty favorable - make the fans happy, make you all happy.

 

On finishing games

Yeah, about the time you start talking about finishing, then starting becomes an issue. Then you focus on starting and finishing becomes an issue. I could come up with about 50 points that we need talk about that are all important, I did talk about starting today. We talked about finishing the season. We talked about starting the game better. Again, we're practicing that this week. We're getting them up, and we're going to get in the weight room for 30, 45 minutes, then we're going to eat, then we're going to go out and practice, and it's all going to be done by one o'clock. We're talking about it. That's the one thing, offensively, that I thought we've done a pretty good job of starting the majority of the year. If you look at our opening drives, a lot of them score. It's been something that we've talked about. It's something that everyone talks about. We have not done a very good job of it the last few weeks - that's for sure.

 

On if there is an explanation for forcing 16 fumbles and recovering two

I don't know. That's crazy, man. As good of defense as we're playing, we can't get one. I don't get it. Then we get one and the offense is so dang shocked - we got one on kickoff team - the offense is shocked, and we go out there and three-and-out and go backward and miss the field goal. I don't know. Ball security is a problem. I can assure you we've talked about it. I can assure you we addressed. I haven’t ignored it. We've worked on it. I've obsessed over it. We've read books on it. We've made them write books on it. We've read books. We've talked about it. We've shown videos. We've down virtually everything single thing including coach punt returners to be able to possess the ball. I'm clearly failing when it comes to getting our guys to understand the importance of possessing the ball. 

 

On if the ball security problems are present in practice

It's random things on Saturday. It's not one person or one thing. It's random things. It's our quarterback in the pocket. It's our punt returners. It's quarterback-running back exchanges. It's open field, poor ball security. There have been a couple of receivers catch it and turn up field and get batted down - a variety of things. 

 

On the turnover margin 

There is no thinking about it. It is a problem. We've addressed it. I don't know what else to say.

 

On the special teams this season

There have been some glaring things that everybody sees and everybody is uncomfortable with. There have been some very good coverages at times. There have been a couple of kickoff returns for touchdowns. There have been last-second field goals that I think everybody is happy about. There have been very good things that have happened and very bad things that have happened. If you look anybody's special teams across the country, that's going to be similar to everybody else as well. I think we've got a good plan on all of the big four. I think our specialists have been dynamic and need to probably work on being a little bit more consistent. 

 

On Mario Alford and Kevin White

We need to get them the ball. Those guys have been - I don't think they're wore out. They're playing virtually every single snap at receiver. I've complained and complained and complained about depth at that spot, not as an overall problem. But at that spot I've complained about depth. Those guys take a lot of snaps. They are two guys who can change a game. Mario made a great play and gave us a chance. Kevin has been pretty consistent. I don't know if they're wearing down or not. We'll find out on Saturday how they're doing. 

 

On if Mario Alford and Kevin White have careers in football after WVU

I think Kevin continues to get better and has a lot of ahead of him. Mario has got something that nobody can coach. Those guys clearly possess something that the next level wants. I hesitate to talk about the next level. I thought Justin Blackmon was a pretty good player. He's kind of fizzled a little bit. Hopefully he gets it back. That's out of my area. 

 

On the backup if Skyler Howard starts at quarterback

Paul (Millard) has been taking reps out there. He can go. Logan Moore has been taking reps out there. He can go. William (Crest) still hasn't been cleared. I think we'll be able to start repping some next week in developmental practices. Logan can take snaps for us. If we need to use Paul, obviously we're going to pull the redshirt and use him if we need to. Skyler is good, and he's ready to go. I expect Clint to be ready to go as well.

 

Editor's Note: All photos by Ben Queen of www.benqueenphotography.com.