West Virginia head coach Dana Holgorsen met with members of the media Tuesday to discuss this Saturday’s Big 12 Conference game against Kansas.

 

Opening Statement

A quick little update on last week - just so everyone knows. We had a good three days of work on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. I was pleased with the amount of work that we got in and the amount of reps that we got, working not only our starters to maintain timing and maintain their physical shape and football shape. We got a lot of the backups work. We got a lot of the developmental guys a ton of work. It allowed them to get away from it on Friday and Saturday and most of the day on Sunday. Some guys went home, some guys didn't. I really saw a difference in it when they showed up on Sunday with what they're attitude was, not that their attitude was bad, but they probably were as energetic and had a good of a practice as we've had all year on Sunday night. We got started with Kansas. We talked about this, but we were able to get out on the road recruiting on Thursday, Friday, Saturday. I was pleased with how that's going. I couldn't be happier with the job our assistant coaches are doing with recruiting. It's been going well and continues to go well. Glad those guys are able to get out and be in high schools and be at some games - saw some junior college games as well. I got the coaches back in and started on Kansas Sunday.

 

Kansas is a team that plays hard. It kind of starts with their defense, which is I guess why Clint Bowen is their interim head coach at this point in time. I've known Clint for a long time. He does a great job for them. When I was at Texas Tech for my nine years at Texas Tech, he was at Kansas for all of those years as well. We do have a history. I have respected the body of work that he has put out there defensively. He's worked under some great coaches - (former Kansas and Oklahoma State defensive coordinator) Bill Young being one of them. A guy I worked with at Oklahoma State. His knowledge of defensive football, his knowledge of Kansas - he's a Kansas kid who went to Kansas, who married a Kansas lady and knows about everything you possibly can about that university. Expect him to do a great job. Expect the players, not only defensively, but offensively as well to respond to him. We are anticipating a Kansas team to come in here to be energetic, enthusiastic and excited to play this football game. In addition to that, I doubt they're going to be very scared of us based on what happened last year. We've got our work cut out for us. That's the way we're going to approach this game. We're going to continue to prep here for the next four days, and we better show up Saturday at four o'clock ready to go. That's our mentality.

 

Offensively, John Reagan's their offensive coordinator. They brought him in from Rice. He was at Rice the last five years and was at Rice when I was at Houston. I've got a history with him as well. They were good at Rice on offense, mainly because of coach Reagan. Before Rice, he was at Kansas. So they brought him back. He's got a lot of familiarity with what's going on there with the Jayhawks and has put his own spin on what they're doing offensively here for the time that he has been there. He will continue to call the plays. How much is it going to change from what we've seen the first four games? I doubt very much. It starts with their quarterback. They went with (Montell) Cozart last year against us. The biggest thing that he does well is keep the play alive. He'll do some run game stuff, but in the pass game, he does a great job of keeping things alive. Their strength in my opinion, and what's going on with them offensively, are their receivers. They've got guys who can make plays. They haven't had as many opportunities as they would have liked. We've got to do a great job of containing them. We better keep our eyes on them, because when the quarterback scrambles around, they have opportunities to make plays down the field.

 

Defensively, same stuff as what they did last year. It's basically the same guys. They play hard. They play with great technique. Their effort is off the charts. If you look back at all the games that they've been in for the last year and a half, their defense is the main reason why they've been in the majority of those games until late in the game. Their scheme poses challenges. They're good up front. They have two senior cornerbacks who are as good of corners that I've seen. We're going to be challenged on the outside. We didn't do a great job of converting on man-to-man situations last year. I definitely think we're in a much different place at this point in time to be able to win in man-to-man coverage. Their deal is to stop the run. If they can't do it with the amount of people that are in the box, they are going to add more people until they get it done. It will pose a problem for us. We're going to have to run the ball against a good defensive front. We're going to have to complete passes on the outside against corners who are great in coverage.

 

Special teams, the biggest thing that stands out special teams wise is their punter can kick it a mile. He sometimes outkicks his coverage, but he's averaging over 45 yards a kick. He leads the Big 12 - will flip the field pretty much every single time that he has the opportunity to do it. We probably ought to be on the lookout for some tricks. They've tried some tricks in the kicking game, and that's something that we will make sure that we're sound on.

 

It's homecoming, which is always exciting. We will be extremely fired up to be able to play in this game because of that. In addition to that, it's a Gold Rush game so make sure that you wear your gold. The students have been great. They were great the last two games that we've played. They've already requested over 12,000 tickets. I have no reason to believe that this wouldn't be an exciting game for all Mountaineer fans to be able to enjoy Saturday at four o'clock.

 

On Holgorsen's reaction to the Kansas coaching change

I mentioned that my respect for (interim head coach) Clint Bowen, based on my past with him, and my history with him, has been stated. He will get these guys fired up to play. I would anticipate a much more energetic, enthusiastic bunch to come to Morgantown to expect to win. My reaction to it - I don't know the inside information on why it happened or how it happened. I worry a little bit more about West Virginia, and what we have to do to make sure our guys are prepared to play and not if their guys are prepared to play.

 

On if Holgorsen was surprised by the coaching change

Yeah. It's game four. I never like to see that happen to any coach, doesn't matter who it is.

 

On how much focus was placed on special teams during the off week and if personnel changes have been made

I looked at all of that, and the guys who didn't do a great job on that one kickoff cover are guys who have made a lot of tackles on our kickoff team. We didn't feel it was necessary to make changes. If you look at every one of them with the exception of one in four games, they've all been very solid. Our net kickoff right now, without including the touchdown, is about 22 yards. If we kick it in the end zone, it's 25, and our net is about 22. Which means when we kick it and return it, we've been pinning them inside the 20-yard line, for the exception of one that everyone wants to keep talking about. We're not going to overreact to the one. We're going to challenge them. We're going to coach hard, we're going to cover hard and we're going to make tackles.

 

On if Holgorsen was pleased with the offensive timing during the bye week

Yeah. It was good. It's all about work. I was a little worried about it coming back after taking a couple days off, so we had a more extensive practice on Sunday. We didn't go live at all or any of that. We didn't want to do any of that. But we did some one-on-one stuff and some seven-on-seven stuff and felt like we had our best period of the year. I was happy and excited. I thought Clint (Trickett) was throwing  the ball well. I thought guys were running fast. We completed some stuff, so I was glad with where we were at on Sunday. I wouldn't anticipate it to be any different here today.

 

On last year's game against Kansas

I've already kind of alluded to it a little bit - and this was a problem that existed throughout the course of the year - the quarterback. If you remember. We switched quarterbacks. Paul (Millard) went in there and didn't do a great job of being on the same page with wide outs and didn't make any plays downfield. Was running the ball effectively. Was throwing some screen passes effectively, and then they loaded the box and played man coverage, and we couldn't do anything about it. That's what happened offensively. Defensively, we were pretty depleted, we were pretty hungover from the Texas game, and didn't play very good. I think emotion had a lot to play with it, and it's my job to have our guys ready to play. I didn't do a very good job of that last year.

 

On if the Kansas offensive line has struggled with pass protection throughout the year

Yeah. He (Cozart) does a good job of alluding some of the pressure and keeping the play alive. We haven't sacked the quarterback as much as I would have liked to sack the quarterback. We worked hard on that over the last week as far as getting guys into position to get to the quarterback. With Cozart, once you get there, the play is not over. You've got to do a great job of getting him on the ground. If he alludes pressure, we've got to stay in coverage, and we have to keep our eye on him in case he scrambles.

 

On what changes are expected on offense from Kansas after the coaching change

My first comment to that is that Clint (Bowen) is going to worry about the defense, probably not going to worry about the offense. Right now, defensively is what their strength is. They have good players on defense. Their scheme is good. If anything, they're probably going to turn the heat up on them defensively a little bit. They trusted John Reagan to come in and take over the offense. Those guys worked together at Kansas for six years. I would imagine their relationship is pretty good. He was hired to come to Kansas to try to fix the offense. I would imagine that he is going to continue to try to do that.

 

On if the goal is to get a lead on Kansas early to take it out of its game plan

Yeah, but defensively they're pretty good. They've been in every game. Even going back to last year, I've watched every one of their games last year - they were in the majority of the games at halftime. Because of the nature of what they do defensively, they do a great job of stopping the run which puts you in third down situations. If you don't convert on man-to-man coverage then you're going to punt, and it's going to be a back-and-forth game, but typically low scoring. We just have to be patient with that. When you look at their game against whoever the games were last year and the games this year as well, the big plays are what have ended up getting them defensively. We're going to have to be patient in the run, and we're going to have to make some plays downfield. Whether they can do that offensively or not, I hope not. They're averaging 13 points per game, so we need to make sure that we do a great job of defending them and covering their receivers, stopping the run and containing the quarterback.

 

On improving against the run after the Oklahoma game

I don't know how you compare what Oklahoma is offensively with what Kansas is offensively. They're two different type teams. Kansas - they do a lot of different things in the run game when it comes to quarterback. They're a zone team. OU is a zone team. They've got five fifth-year seniors who are all 330 pounds who mauled us and ended up wearing us down by the end of the game. Hopefully, that doesn't happen again all year. We will look on film with what they do, and we'll try to put our guys in position to be able to stop them.

 

On if any changes or planned for the running back position by using a 'feature back'

A feature back? What does that mean?

(Rushel) Shell has carried the ball more than most people have carried the ball. It kills me when you said (feature back) because I've heard a lot of times before. I don't know what a feature back is. We put guys in there who are playing well. We put guys in there who can get yards and if they get tired or hurt, they come out, and we put another guy in. The one who's got the hot hand - the one that is playing the best - is the one we're going to put in the game. Are we going to do anything schematically? No, we're just going to try to get better at what we're doing.

 

On the red zone struggles on offense

First and foremost, I'm just glad we're getting there. Last year we couldn't get there. We're getting there, which is step one. When you get in the red zone scoring zone, things start to get condensed, which makes it harder to be able to move the ball. The run game needs to improve. Whether that's finishing blocks or whether that's something a little bit schematically - which is possible - whether it's running backs making guys miss, whether it's being able to complete a pass route when guys are open and when they've got a lot of people in the box, that probably ought to improve as well.

 

On if the status of cornerback Daryl Worley has changed

No.

 

On if there is such a thing as a must-win game

Every game is a must-win. We treat every game the same. I wish we would have had some things to do over again in the first and fourth game. Every game is a game that we're going to work diligently at preparation to put ourselves at the end of the week of being able to enjoy a win.

 

On third downs on offense and defense

Both sides of the ball are better than last year.

 

On if that is because of the success on first and second down or because of the experience of the players

I think it's probably both. The magic formula for being able to be successful on third down offensively and defensively, I don't know what that magic formula is. It's a combination of being comfortable with the play calls. It's a combination of being able to identify specific defenses, fronts, coverages, quarterbacks playing better, being able to snap the ball effectively, being able to finish blocks, run routes, being in the correct spots and catching balls. There are a lot of variations that go into it that we're able to do in critical situations that we weren't able to do on normal downs last year.

 

On the importance of imposes the will on your opponent

My interpretation of imposing your will on somebody is playing with energy and effort. Right now, I've been very pleased with our team playing with energy and effort. With all due respect to Kansas, it's going to be a little bit more about us then it going to be about them. We'll let them worry about their team, and we'll worry about our team. It's like I challenged our guys each and every week - if you play with the effort that you should and the effort that is expected. The energy level has been high, which in my opinion has been high for all four games. If you're the most excited team to play then you're going to put ourselves in position to be able to win.