West Virginia head coach Dana Holgorsen met with members of the media on earlier today at the Milan Puskar Center Team Room.

 

Opening statement

Welcome everybody. I don’t know what the big deal about having a press conference here at this point in time. There’s not a whole lot to talk about, but we’ll figure out a few things to talk about I guess. Where we’re at right now – we had two weeks of good recruiting. Two good recruiting weekends. We got a lot of good work with our young guys, practiced our older guys on the weekends. We did a lot of recovery, a lot of lifting to get the blood pumping. We healed our guys up a good bit. We’re pretty healthy right now- shoot, even Jared Barber’s ready to go. Obviously we’re not going to play him but guys are in good spots. We had finals Monday and Tuesday, wrapped yesterday. We had a good practice yesterday, and we’ll have another good practice today and tomorrow. We’ll give them some time off – I like to give them a few days off prior to the game to go home and spend time with their friends and family and celebrate Christmas. We’ll show up for the game on the 25th in Memphis. Our guys are excited about going to Memphis. The Liberty Bowl has great tradition. They do things right, and it’s going to be extremely organized and well-planned out. They get a lot of support, and it’s been a very successful bowl game for many years.

 

It’s a good matchup – SEC and Big 12 is a good matchup. Texas A&M and West Virginia is a good match up. It’s pretty neat that Texas A&M left the Big 12 three years ago for the SEC and have had success there for three years. They’re 7-5 now, which Coach (Kevin) Sumlin isn’t ecstatic about but those games are close losses to very good opponents. Three years ago, we took their place in the Big 12 and this year we’re 7-5, and we’ve got some pretty close losses to some pretty good football teams so both teams are pretty similar, I think. Both teams will be excited about being able to play in this game and hopefully the fan bases are excited about traveling to Memphis and getting on Beale Street a little bit, seeing Graceland and watching a heck of a football game. The Aggie’s have great tradition. I’ve been in College Station plenty of times. They’ve got an unbelievable fan base. Just tremendous tradition when it comes to their football program. It’s about 110,000 people that are in their football stadium when they’re playing so it’s a special place.  It’s going to be a challenge for us. I think they’re somewhere along the lines of 27-9 since they joined the SEC, so they’ve won lots of games. They’ve recruited Top-5 classes the last three years, so they’ve got unbelievable talent. Some of the coaches that we’ve talked to that have played A&M say that when you see them on the huff – when they come out on the game field, they’re going to look like one of the best teams in the country. They’re going to be big, they’re going to be long, they’re going to be athletic and they’re going to be fast. We’ve got a big challenge. Maybe the biggest challenge that we’ve had all year.

 

Offensively, the history – Coach Sumlin and I go way back. We competed against each other when I was at Texas Tech, he was at Texas A&M and Oklahoma. Obviously, I worked for him for two years at Houston so we’re pretty familiar with each other. When I left, he promoted (Kliff) Kingsbury to continue running the offense that we installed at Houston. When Kliff left, he obviously hired Jake (Spavital) to continue to run the offense so there’s a lot of familiarity with what they do offensively and what we do offensively. They’re young, their whole team is pretty young. They’ve got some pretty key players on offense that are young. The quarterback was a very highly recruited player out of Arizona. He will continue to get better and better. I’m sure this last month has been very good for him – Kyle Allen. The back-up, Kenny Hill, he was as good as any kid in the country at the beginning of the year so good, quality young quarterbacks. Great looking receivers. They’re pretty balanced, so you can’t just kind of hone in on one of them. They’re more along the lines of Baylor. There are about four or five guys that they spread the ball around to. They are running back by committee, like we are. They have three good, quality players that are all juniors that can all carry the load. They could give it to any of those guys 20-something times a game if they chose. Up front, they’ve had two Top-5 draft picks the last two years, and they’re going to have another one this year. Their right tackle, Cedric Ogbuehi, is going to be another Top-5 player this year. The center is probably the best center that we’ve gone against all year as well, Mike Matthews. The Matthews are an interesting story. My older brother actually coached all of these guys in Fort Bend down in Houston. Bruce Matthews was a 17-year vet in the NFL – I think he’s at Tennessee right now, if I’m not mistaken. This is the third Matthews that has started for Texas A&M and there’s a couple more coming. I’m sure they’re going to A&M as well. They have lots of good players and they’re very familiar with what they do.

 

Defensively, they’re in limbo. They’re going through a coaching change and - I’ve been through this a lot – you go through a coaching change. We went through it once with Kansas – what kind of a defense can you instill? How much can you actually change when you really don’t have that much prep time? You think a month is a long time, but you don’t get that much practice time to where you can actually change things. There’s too much going on. All we can do is prepare for the defense that we can see on tap. They’re a four-down team. They like to do a lot of different things with the front, and they play a lot of man coverage. Probably more man coverage than we’ve faced this year, which would be something that we’ve been working hard on. I don’t know what to expect with it. All we can do is prepare for the guys that are out there. They play a lot of different people. Their corners can cover, their safeties are active. Up front, they’ve got one of the best pass rushers in the country with a true freshman, Myles Garrett. They’re going to look good, and they’re going to play good. We’ve got our work cut out for us offensively.

 

Special teams is really solid. Kevin has always taken pride in the special teams. He works a lot with it. There’s no weakness with their special teams. It’s probably the biggest challenge, equal to or even greater than Kansas State was. They’re well-coached and sound in everything they do. They’re probably averaging about 45 yard per punt. Their kicker; it’s kind of ironic that his name is Josh Lambo, which is obviously very similar to Josh Lambert. He’s dang-near perfect on the year. He’s only missed two. Their kickoff coverage unit and their punt unit are extremely athletic and fast. Their returners are very athletic and skilled. They’re average almost 15 yards per punt return and 25 yards per kickoff return. So that is going to be key, especially in a bowl game. The speed of the game is hard to duplicate when you don’t duplicate it for a month. Special teams is kind of where it shows up so we’ve got our work cut out for us with that as well.  We’re excited about the matchup and ready to go. We’ll practice a few days here and get prepared, then get down there and repeat everything once we get down there, and have a normal game week of practice. We look forward to the match-up on game day. With that I’ll take some questions.

 

On Coach Shannon Dawson’s departure and whether or not he’ll coach the bowl game

That was my decision. I’ve known Shannon for a long time and I trust him as much as any coach I’ve ever been with. I’ve talked to Mark Stoops several times throughout the last three or four days. It’s a great opportunity for Shannon and I couldn’t be happier for him. He works for an offensive coach, who’s going to be involved in offense and you all understand that. The opportunity to work for a defensive head coach and have complete control is something that he’s ready for at this point. He joked around a little bit when he came to me four years ago, he thought he was ready for that job at that point. After four years, he knows he’s ready for this job, and I know he’s ready for this job. It’s a great opportunity for him and his family. To have complete control of it, I would never try to talk anybody out of that. I did the same thing at Texas Tech back in 2008, and it worked out for me. He’s ready for it, and he’ll do a great job. As far as the bowl game goes, he coaches our quarterbacks. He’s going to continue to coach them until the end of the game, and then he’ll move on.

 

On the WVU quarterback situation

I anticipate having both ready to go. We’ll practice them. I’ve covered this; it’s really not any different than the last time we covered it. Clint (Trickett) has done such a good job for us throughout the course of the year and is responsible for us being in a bowl game. He’s done nothing to change what I think of him as far as the starting quarterback and what kind of a kid he is, what kind of competitor he is. With that said, Skyler (Howard) is improving. He’s taken a lot of reps the last three weeks, and he’s playing pretty good. I anticipate to have both ready to go, and we’ll probably make a game-time decision on who starts and what the rotation will be.

 

On Clint Trickett’s condition

He’s ready to go. He hasn’t been taking reps over the last month, so we’ve got to evaluate him in practice – not only here, but in the bowl game as well – to see where he’s at. You don’t take reps, it’s going to hurt you. Skyler’s been taking a lot of those reps, so we will monitor it here in practice this week and when we get down there, we’ll look at it and make a decision.

 

On the challenge of playing a team with familiarities on offense

Whatever those challenges are, it’s going to be the same thing on the other side of the ball. We run the same offense. We don’t run the same defense. We don’t run the same special teams so that’s just like preparing for any random opponent. Offensively, we’re familiar with them, they’re familiar with us. Who does it benefit? I don’t know. Whatever benefits we have, they have too. We’ve dealt with this before. TCU runs the same thing, Texas Tech runs the same thing. We’ve dealt with it before. We know how to kind of hide some things, change some things and communicate a little bit differently. Be a little secretive with some things. It’s stuff that we’re used to, so it’s not going to be abnormal for our players. We change signals each week, we change boards each week. We change verbiage and communication each week so it’s something I don’t think will be an issue. Who it benefits more? I don’t know. Hopefully it benefits both defenses.

 

On a quarterback rotation

Don’t know yet. Again, it’s about how they look in practice. It’s always going to be – regardless of position – it’s always going to be who gives us the best to win. It’s more about wining – any game is more about wining – than anything else, whether it’s future, whether it’s getting guys more reps or whatever it is.

 

On having a game plane for replacing Shannon Dawson

I do not yet. There’s no urgency to the matter. I’m not even going to think about it until after the game, and after the game there’s a couple of weeks as to where there’s nothing going on. No recruiting, the kids are home. After the bowl game, our guys get two weeks off which doesn’t happen very often. They get two weeks off after the bowl game, so there’s no sense in me being up here in the office because nobody’s going to be around. I’ll take that time and re-evaluate not only what we’re doing offensively, staff-wise, but other things as well. I’m not in a hurry to do that. We’ll go to the convention in Louisville about the same time we start school – the national convention is in Louisville so I’ll probably go there, meet with some people and figure out what I want to do.

 

On the benefits of the semester being over

At this point in time we’re not developing guys. We’re not interested in developing guys; we took the last two and a half weeks and did some developmental stuff. At this point and time, you’d better hone in on who you’re playing. Yesterday was the first day we talked about Texas A&M. We’re in game-prep mode. We’re going to go through a whole week and then we’ll get to the bowl game and repeat it to get them more familiar with who we’re playing. Any time you’re around your guys, there’s a developmental advantage. That does exist. We get to spend time with them, we get to communicate with them. They lift, they see ball and all that. It’s more about the game at this point in time than it is about development.

 

On his relationship with departing AD Oliver Luck

If you look at his resume it’s not surprising. He’s the most intelligent guy that I’ve been around. He’s an athletics guy, a football guy, a smart guy – a guy’s guy. I don’t think our communication is going to stop. I don’t think our communication and his interest in West Virginia’s going to stop, West Virginia University in particular. The role that he’s going to in the NCAA, he’s going to be in the know. He’s going to know a lot of things that are going on and I think some of that information is going to be relayed this way. Just because this is his alma mater and he had a big part in where we’re at as an athletic department at this point. I’m going to miss the conversations, clearly, but I know they’re not going to stop. He’s done a lot for me, he obviously brought me here, but he gives me a lot of advice, and he’s a sounding board that I use quite frequently. He’s done a tremendous job of building the athletic department to where we’re at in the conference that we’re currently in with the support that we’re currently have. He’s going to do a great job at the NCAA. What exactly he’s doing I don’t know or quite understand yet and I’m sure he doesn’t either. That’s going to be a broad role I would anticipate.

 

On the “coach in waiting” situation

He’s a guy’s guy, and I trusted him and currently trust him. When our communication took place four years ago, it was about this time four years ago that we had a press conference in here, if I’m not mistaken. It was about this date exactly four years ago. I just trusted his vision and what he wanted, where he wanted the football program to go. I think we’ve made great strides in the four years that I’ve been here. I think I have as a head coach, and I think we have as a football program as well.

 

On staff turnover

It’s a reality in today’s day and time. We talked about this last year. You look at the guys who have left, they’ve left for some pretty good jobs. Shannon’s the same as the previous guys that we’ve lost, in particular offensive, that have moved on for some pretty good jobs. That’s a compliment to what we’re going as well. What we’re doing offensively there’s a lot of people that have interest in it, there’s a lot of people that want to do very similar things so that makes our guys marketable. So it’s a part of the deal. That’s not going to change, especially if you have success. You have success, you’re marketable. Your guys are going to move on, they’re going to have opportunities to be able to spread their wings. I’m happy for him. It’s just part of the job. You can’t expect to have my position and not have to worry about staffing every year.  Chances are, it’s not the only coach we’re going to lose off this staff this year. It’s just the way it is. With that said, I love this staff. The guys are doing a great job recruiting. The camaraderie with everybody is good. Shannon will be the first one to tell you he’ll miss the camaraderie that exists. Offensively, defensively, we’re meshing. I want continuity. I think it’s important. You need to do everything you possibly can to keep the coaches in place, doing what they’re doing, if you want to see improvement. There’s going to be times where you need to make changes because things aren’t exactly the way you want them. There’s nothing on our staff right now that I view as important when it comes to a change.

 

On Kevin White’s transition from last year to this year

“Frustration” I don’t think is an appropriate term when it comes to that. I take great pride and I’m thrilled. It was exciting to be able to watch him blossom. You take a guy that has never been a “real productive guy” whether it was high school, junior college or his first year here. To watch the light come on and to watch him start figuring things out and to watch him be productive as the player that he was this year, that’s awesome. There isn’t anything frustrating about that I can assure you. That’s called coaching, and that’s called developing. It’s not the first time we’ve taken kids and developed them into great players and it’s not going to be the last time that we take them and develop them into great players, especially at that position.

 

On Tony Gibson’s contract

I think we could all see the improvement that we made defensively. We’ve got dang-near every one of those guys coming back. We’ve had some turnover defensively for various reasons existed. This is Tony’s home; Tony wants to be here. My working relationship with him is excellent. The way he calls it, the confidence that he calls it with, the scheme that’s out there is great. It’s exactly what we want. To be able to lock him up – that was important to Oliver before he left, to be able to get that done. I’m hoping to be able to get seven or eight other coaches – I guess it would be seven now – other coaches locked in and locked up. For Tony to be able to get that he earned every bit of it. I’m really thrilled to be able to work with him in the next few years.

 

On promoting Coach Gibson from within

Well, perception is not reality. The perceptions that might exist with people are not reality. I liked our communication. Even when Coach Patterson was here there was communication between me and Coach Patterson and Tony an a couple other defensive guys on where we need to go with the current defense. Tony had a pretty good idea, a pretty good handle, on where we needed to go with it. Those ideas turned into being a pretty good idea.

 

On practice vs. rest in preparation for the bowl

I would challenge anybody to say they’ve had more prep work than we have. Everybody plays games at different times- there’s not a set amount of days. It’s not spring football. Whenever your game is, you get some many hours in a week to be able to practice. When practice is over, you can pretty much practice as much as you want until the game starts. So then you have to balance do you practice the heck out of them and wear them out or do you get them fresh and healed up and in a good place to be able to win the game. Bowl 101 is about wanting to play the game. We had an issue with that two years ago. I don’t think we’re going to have an issue with that this year.