MORGANTOWN, WV – Coach Dana Holgorsen talks about how his Team looks in camp.
About the expectations
We talked about expectations yesterday. We had administrative, compliance and team meetings, where we went over rules. We addressed expectations, and we told them we’re going to handle expectations like we did last year going into the Clemson game. We didn’t care what you guys wrote or what the media was saying on TV. It’s the same thing now, expectations are high which we like, but we’re not going to pay attention to it. How you handle expectations is you just do your job. We talked to them about focusing hard on making themselves better on all three sides of the ball.
On what the rankings mean
It’s important to be in the Top 20. The Top 20 teams get more recognition, so it’s good to be there. We’re happy about being there. Are we going to throw a party about it? Probably not. Are we going to talk about it? Probably not. It’s an honor to be there, and it’s good for program and its good publicity, but it’s not going to change anything we do. We’re not going to talk about it, and we’re not going to change what routine is or how we practice.
On the four true freshman signees not in camp
(Sam) Lebbie is going to a prep school, (Deontay) McManus is going to a prep school, Dee Joyner, I’m not sure about and (Roshard) Burney is still trying.
On guys who were injured in the spring and back on the field
I was excited to see them out there. Terence (Garvin) looked like Terence, and he is out there and moving around. Dustin (Garrison) looked good. Jewone Snow was a shoulder thing, so we’ll see when he pops the pads. Pat Miller is back and ready to go. We start every meeting at 2 p.m., with Dave Kerns giving us an update on healthy/not healthy and practicing/not practicing. He had zero people on his list, and that’s how it should be the first practice.
On having five quarterbacks this fall
We had five arms, which helps. A lot of those drills we do require five guys to throw it. It alleviates some of the every-down throwing that Geno (Smith) and Paul (Millard) do. Long term, it should really help us because we can get better from a drill standpoint and not wear out Geno’s and Paul’s arm.
On Logan Moore transferring from Division II to WVU
He thinks he can play here. I don’t know anything about him yet and today is the first day I saw him. When he called and wanted to talk to Jake (Spavital) about coming up here, Jake asked him why? He said well I think I can play.
On how much today was teaching
There are 25-30 new guys out there, so they need to look up to the older guys and follow them. It’s obviously part of the transition. You get these guys in here during the summer. It used to be that you would have three practices with the freshmen and you taught them, but because we can bring them in the summer on scholarship, it eases that transition.
On teaching the defense this season
The schemes we put in place defensively and special teams wise are much like it is for us offensively. It’s not that hard to pick up. I’m not saying it’s easy, but it’s easy to pick up. The reason is because the conference we’re going to is going to require us to play more people. It’s going to require us to play more people on defense and special teams. What you mean by more people is getting the freshmen involved. It’s going to be a work in progress that’s no question.
On where the team is scholarship wise
I think we’re at 79 or 80. Guys are still in school, and they still have another week of school. There are a couple of guys that need to finish strong from an academic standpoint. That could happen, but if we retained all of guys and signed all of our guys, we’d be in much better shape than we were last year. I’m not prepared to say that yet, because three or four guys won’t make it and there are a handful of guys still taking classes. Hopefully next year we can get that up to 85, that’s the goal.
On what is different from this year’s first week to last year’s
It should be a little easier. We’re still going to do the same thing. We’re still going to watch what’s going on and then make corrections. There are guys out there who are seniors who have played a lot of football, but we’re still going to correct things from a technique standpoint. That never goes away, whether it’s teaching them what to do or getting them fundamentally better, or technique a little better.
On older guys working with the younger guys
It’s incredibly important during the summer when we’re not here. Having older guys that know what’s going on get them to where they know what’s going on in the first practice. Those guys have been there, done that and those younger guys look up to them.
On if it is easier to run a camp in year two
We were happy with the structure of things last year; the structure and how we did things. We didn’t change a whole lot. I have some notes on how we did things that we wanted to change, but had a pretty good plan of how we wanted to do camp last year, and how we wanted to approach the season. We didn’t change too many things from last year from a schedule and structure standpoint. That’s all pretty much the same.
On whether he went to coaches to learn how to set up camp
I’ve coached before. I was heavily involved in my two years at Houston and one at Oklahoma State in how we practiced and how we did camp. I had a pretty good idea of how to run camp.
On making December’s success in August’s success
That’s the goal. You have 15 practices in December, 15 practices in the spring and 15 practices prior to getting ready for a game. That’s how we approach it. We want to make as much progress in the spring as we do in December. You’re playing with a full team now too, last December you had seniors who were gone and in the spring your minus 25 and here you gain 25. That’s the goal, that’s why we don’t talk about games, we just want to get better. Once we get closer to the game we’ll worry about the game.
On Dustin Garrison coming back from injury
He looked like he was cutting pretty good, but it’s the hitting that people need to get over. Not only him, but the rest of those guys that were injured.
Discussion about this post