MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (August 23, 2016) – West Virginia University football coach Dana Holgorsen addressed members of the media on Tuesday, August 23, 2016, at the Milan Puskar Center Team Room.
Opening Statement
Okay. I’m going to open it up to questions real quick, but we are currently in what we call a ‘mock week’, so does that make this a ‘mock press conference’? Does this count? It’s not a mock press conference, so we will move forward with the real one. In all seriousness, we finished last week with our final scrimmage of camp on Saturday. We got probably, I don’t know, about 90 plays in, which is about 20, 30 less than what you all saw the previous Saturday. Didn’t do as much with the one’s, they got a lot of work in. I feel like they are ready to go. We did a lot with the twos, and we did a lot with the three’s. Then the next day on Sunday, started what we will do for the entire week, which is a mock week. We will put them through exactly what they are going to do through a game week. No different than what we have done the previous three or four years. Sunday, they came in, we watched the scrimmage, we lifted weights and then let them go. Monday was their off day. That’s their school day. Today we will start preparing for Missouri. When the kids come in here today they aren’t going to know anything about Missouri. We haven’t really started prepping them at all. I know a little bit about Missouri, not nearly as much as I will know a week from now. The assistant coaches will have a good knowledge of Missouri. If you have any of those questions that’s fine, but the players won’t know anything about it, just so you have that heads up. We will start preparing, we will break up scout teams. We will introduce our opponent and teach our kids how to practice on Tuesday, how to practice on Wednesday, what the routine is going to be like Thursday, travel Friday, come in on Saturday and have a game day routine. We will go through all of the pre-game stuff. Even prior to that, what the food is going to be Friday night, where they will be staying, what our meeting schedules are like, when you wake up, all of that good stuff. We have quite a bit of guys that haven’t traveled with us yet, so I feel like it is important for those guys to go through that routine before we asked them to do it for real next week. Then we will do the mock game, it’s not a scrimmage. I used to try to tackle a little bit in that thing, and it doesn’t work out very well. Sideline situations, how you sub, when you sub, special teams things, there are a lot of moving parts in this mock game that I think is very important for our guys to go through. Then, obviously, once that’s over we will sing “Country Roads” and get used to doing that. Then we will start the real deal here in the next week. That’s where we are currently. I know you guys probably have some questions. It’s been awhile, so I will turn it over to you all.
On how prepared the players are for the first game
I feel good about where we are. We have good depth. We pretty much know who the guys are that are going to play. You do get to a point in camp where you know that you aren’t going to get any better until you play. We hit that last week at some point. We know who the guys are that are going to play. I don’t think you totally understand what that’s going to look like or how you are going to perform until you actually go out there and do it. Even with some of the older guys, it’s a new year, you are a year older. How much better have some of these guys got? I just don’t think you are going to be able to figure that out until you go out there and play. I feel good about who we have, what our depth is and what our schemes are. I think our guys will be fired up about our challenge against a good, quality Missouri team, we will go out and see what happens.
On how the offense has progressed since the scrimmage on August 13
We have gotten a little better since then, we had an off day. We know kind of what we have on offense. We had some complacency issues, which I addressed. With that said, I thought our defense has been playing well. I think they are pretty motivated. We have some good players, and we have some motivated players. I would much rather it be like that the offense getting after the defense. We did a little bit better the next week, but I am not concerned with where we are at.
On communication during games with the four new assistants
Yeah, we kind of went over that last Saturday, we will do it again this Saturday its apart of the mock game. (Assistant Coach (Offensive Coordinator/Fullbacks-Tight Ends)) Coach (Joe) Wickline will be upstairs in the box talking to (Assistant Coach (Offensive Line) Coach (Ron) Crook. (Assistant Coach (Receivers) Coach (Tyron) Carrier will be on the sidelines like Lonnie (Galloway) was, doing all of the motivational stuff. Defensively, (Assistant Coach (Defense/Special Teams) Mark Scott will be up in the box and relaying down to the field through (Assistant Coach (Safeties) Coach (Matt) Caponi, who will be on the sidelines as well as (Assistant Coach (Cornerbacks) Coach Blue (Adams).
On what it would take to get Associate Head Coach (Defense/ Linebackers) Tony Gibson to sit in the box
What will it take to get (Tony) Gibby (Gibson) in the box? Yeah right.
On position battles at tackle and cornerback
Yeah, they are still battling. Hopefully, we will keep them battling all year long. (Redshirt junior offensive lineman) Marcell (Lazard) will get the nod and will start, but (redshirt freshman offensive lineman) Colton (Mckivitz)is going to play. Colton (Mckivitz)is probably going to end up playing both left tackle and right tackle. When do we put Colton (Mckivitz)in the game? That depends on how Marcell (Lazard) plays. There are situations that effect that. The battle at corner is ongoing. We have four seniors in, (redshirt senior cornerback) Antonio (Crawford), (redshirt senior cornerback) Nana (Kyeremeh), (redshirt senior cornerback) Maurice (Fleming), and (redshirt senior cornerback) Rasul (Douglas), that have all done good things and they will keep plugging away. You have nickel packages where guys are going into the game. You have guys that need a rest, maybe they will take a series off here and there. Having all of those guys there, (junior cornerback) MikeDanielswill play. We have (junior cornerback) JordanAdams. We have (junior cornerback) Elijah Battle, we have a lot of bodies there that need to keep practicing and keep playing. What ends up happening in the first game with who starts and what the reps are, I will be shocked if it doesn’t change between game one and game two.
On free safety position
Yeah, (senior safety) Jeremy (Tyler) looks good there. He’s played it, he has experience. I’ve been very proud of Jeremy. Where I thought that (redshirt senior safety) Jarrod Harper stepped in for Karl (Joseph) last year and did a solid job, I see Jeremy (Tyler) stepping in for (junior safety) Dravon (Askew-Henry) and doing a solid job, not only from a performance point of view but from a leadership point of view as well. Both of those guys, I’m proud of how they have stepped in and done it. (junior safety) Kyzir White, has done a great job at spur, that’s allowed us to have those other bodies there. (Redshirt sophomore safety) Toyous (Avery) is going to continue to get better and better. (Redshirt senior safety) Khairi Sharif has been around here for a good while and knows what to do as well.
On the teams health currently
Real good. You had the long-term things, which was unfortunate. Other than that, it’s been good. We are as healthy as we have been since the day that we started.
On if redshirt sophomore tight end Trevon Wesco and senior fullback/tight end Elijah Wellman are okay to practice
They are all good to go. They are all cleared. Eli (Wellman) had a good week. (Trevon) Wesco actually got cleared now, so I will be able to work with him for dang near the first time all camp. All of those guys who had knicks and bruises, (redshirt junior safety) (Marvin) Gross (Jr.) and (redshirt senior offensive lineman) (Tony) Matteo, was out for a while but he’s good, so all of those guys will be cleared and out there practicing today. Other than the three long term guys Dravon (Askew-Henry), (redshirt sophomore tight end/full back) Ferns, and (freshman cornerback) Jake Long.
On redshirt senior offensive lineman Adam Pankey’s status
He’s currently suspended from the team. We hold these guys to high expectations and when you don’t meet that then there are going to be consequences. He is suspended from the team, it’s disappointing, but we will continue his suspension through Missouri and then we will readdress it at that point.
On if redshirt senior offensive lineman Tony Matteo will step in for redshirt senior offensive lineman) Adam Pankey
Absolutely, Tony (Matteo) is a fifth year senior who was competing for a guard job anyway. Tony (Matteo) was probably playing better than any of the guards for the first five, six days, then he went down. We will slot him at the left guard spot and he will start there, and (redshirt junior offensive lineman)Kyle Bosch will start at the right guard spot. Depth took a hit, (redshirt junior offensive lineman)Grant Lingafelter has been stepping up for the last week while both of those guys were out and did a good job. He started a game a couple of years ago, so we still have a good rotation in there with those four guys. I think we will be fine on the inside.
On how he will handle at the rotations at running back and wide receivers during games
They’ve all shown signs of doing some good things. We’ll play a couple of those guys at a time too. I think last year we didn’t have (redshirt senior running back) Rushel (Shell III) and Wendell (Smallwood) in there together very much because there wasn’t really a third. Now that we have a third, we’ll probably get into some more two back stuff. They’ve all shown signs of a guy who we can count on, who looks good, who has the hot hands, who’s tired and who’s fresh. All of that stuff is taken into consideration. Same thing at receiver. We have, how many three receivers set that we use, how many four receivers set do we use. It depends on how the game planning aspect of things go, but how much does (redshirt junior wide receiver) Shelton (Gibson) play as opposed to (sophomore wide receiver) Gary (Jennings), depends on what the previous snaps look like and how fresh they are. Both of those guys play a lot of special teams as well. That’s going to be fluid. As long as they’re fresh and they’re out there doing the right thing then we’ll divvy up the reps based on production and how those reps look.
On the backup quarterbacks
It’s the same. We’ve been repping (freshman quarterback) Cody Saunders a bunch, lately. (Redshirt freshman quarterback) (Chris) Chugs’s (Chugunov) arm is a little worn out, so we sat him out for a couple of days. He’ll be just fine. Neither him, nor (redshirt sophomore quarterback/running back) (William) Crest (Jr.), nor (Cody) Saunders have done anything to the point where it’s just like (points up) right up there solid number two. Not disappointed in that at all because there’s an aspect of hitting the wall and not doing a good job that sometimes gives other guys the backup nod. I haven’t seen that either which is a positive thing. We know what William (Crest Jr.) brings to the table. We know what (Chris) Chugs (Chugunov) brings to the table. We’re figuring out what Cody (Saunders) brings to the table. I’m happy with his production and his development for a young guy. We’ll keep doing it. We’ll keep evaluating here over the next 11 days.
On the game plan with redshirt junior wide receiver Shelton Gibson and what he was able to do with the number of touches that he had last year
I don’t think so. He tracks the ball over his shoulder better than he tracks the ball coming back to it. It’s just what he does. In order for him to be a better all-around player, he has to be able to do all of that stuff, but by no means are we going to take what he does well and try to get him to do something else. We have big play potential with him, with (sophomore wide receiver) Jovon (Durante) and with (redshirt junior wide receiver) Ka’Raun (white) that the can stretch the field. We’d be foolish not to continue to do that. If they’re going to pile people into the box then we need to be able to stretch it. If we’re stretching it, then they have to back people off and we should be able to run the ball. It would be foolish to do that. We like the 24-yards per catch that he got or whatever it was. I would be okay for twice as many catches and 18-yards a catch. That would be fine.
On punt returners
(Sophomore wide receiver) Gary Jennings will be that guy. He’s makes too good of decisions. He got a lot better throughout the course of last year. He’s a dependable guy who makes great decisions that has very very very few mistakes and very very very few muffs. He’s tracking it well. I’d like to be able to get a few more yards after the catch to improve field position from what we’ve done the last couple of years, but we’re at a point now where we’re just trying to get a guy to catch the damn thing. Now we have a guy who can catch it, so now let’s try to figure out what we do with it.
On kickoff returns
(Sophomore wide receiver) Gary (Jennings) does a good job back there as well. (Sophomore wide receiver) Jovon (Durante) is good back there. (Redshirt junior wide receiver) Shelton (Gibson) is good back there. (Freshman running back) Kennedy McKoy has looked okay back there. (Junior running back) Justin Crawford has looked okay back there. (Redshirt junior wide receiver) Ka’Raun (White) has looked okay back there. We can only put two people back there. I know who can for sure. We’ll keep looking at the guys who need to develop from a depth perspective.
On the personality of the team
I think it’s too early to tell. I don’t think you truly know that. You might have a little bit of a hunch. This team kind of and we’ve talked a lot in here with me and the team about what our identity is and they’re pretty determined. They’re a pretty blue collared, hardworking bunch that’s determined to get out there and out work people. That sort of thing. I hope that’s who they are. That’s who they think they are. That’s who I think they are right now. I hope that continues throughout the course of the season. It’s a long season and teams change. I think we would all like to see a little bit of consistency with who we are and get out there and have that same mentality over the course of the next three or four months.
On the differences from last year to this year with senior quarterback Skyler Howard
Yeah, confidence and consistency. He’s more confidence. Part of that he’s more trustworthy with the people around him. There’s more familiarity. The relationship that he and (redshirt senior offensive lineman) Tyler (Orlosky) has is really good on the field. Those guys know what each other are thinking at all times. The rapport he has with the receivers and the timing aspect of what he has with the receivers is night and day. The confidence that he has in the backs, and just from a consistency point of view from an x’s and o’s standpoint. Going into his senior year after being here for two years, there’s a consistency that I’m seeing that needs to develop as well. He’s in a better place. I like where we are offensively. We have to go out there and be more consistent, and I think he will be a big part of that.
On feeling comfortable
Yea we can do that. I’d like to not have to do that with the quarterback run game and stuff. It just depends whether you need it or not. There were a lot of times last year where we need it because our passing games wasn’t sufficient enough. Being multiple is what you need to do. I’d like to go into every single games and say we’re going to run the ball 50 percent of the time and pass it 50 percent of the time. That’s as balanced as you can be. I’d like to be able to get into a whole bunch of different sets and do the same stuff over and over again and be really good at it. Defenses start to dictate that stuff. They can change their defenses to dictate what you feel like you need to do and the key to being good offensively is if you have to up and throw the ball 85 percent of the time, like we did against Arizona State, then you need to be effective and be able to do it. If you need to be able to run the ball 85 percent of the time based on coverages and having a lid on it, then you need to be able to do it. I think we’re there. I think we’re there. We’ll see what happens.
On the Arizona State game last year
Throw it. Correct. Yeah. We made a lot of strides in that month leading up to that bowl game from a passing point of view. (Senior quarterback) Skyler (Howard) with the guys and improving the protection a little bit as well. That gave us some confidence, and I think we’ll be able to do that if we need to do it, but I don’t want to lose sight of the fact that we have three good running backs. We need to be able to do that as well.
Opening Statement
Okay. I’m going to open it up to questions real quick, but we are currently in what we call a ‘mock week’, so does that make this a ‘mock press conference’? Does this count? It’s not a mock press conference, so we will move forward with the real one. In all seriousness, we finished last week with our final scrimmage of camp on Saturday. We got probably, I don’t know, about 90 plays in, which is about 20, 30 less than what you all saw the previous Saturday. Didn’t do as much with the one’s, they got a lot of work in. I feel like they are ready to go. We did a lot with the twos, and we did a lot with the three’s. Then the next day on Sunday, started what we will do for the entire week, which is a mock week. We will put them through exactly what they are going to do through a game week. No different than what we have done the previous three or four years. Sunday, they came in, we watched the scrimmage, we lifted weights and then let them go. Monday was their off day. That’s their school day. Today we will start preparing for Missouri. When the kids come in here today they aren’t going to know anything about Missouri. We haven’t really started prepping them at all. I know a little bit about Missouri, not nearly as much as I will know a week from now. The assistant coaches will have a good knowledge of Missouri. If you have any of those questions that’s fine, but the players won’t know anything about it, just so you have that heads up. We will start preparing, we will break up scout teams. We will introduce our opponent and teach our kids how to practice on Tuesday, how to practice on Wednesday, what the routine is going to be like Thursday, travel Friday, come in on Saturday and have a game day routine. We will go through all of the pre-game stuff. Even prior to that, what the food is going to be Friday night, where they will be staying, what our meeting schedules are like, when you wake up, all of that good stuff. We have quite a bit of guys that haven’t traveled with us yet, so I feel like it is important for those guys to go through that routine before we asked them to do it for real next week. Then we will do the mock game, it’s not a scrimmage. I used to try to tackle a little bit in that thing, and it doesn’t work out very well. Sideline situations, how you sub, when you sub, special teams things, there are a lot of moving parts in this mock game that I think is very important for our guys to go through. Then, obviously, once that’s over we will sing “Country Roads” and get used to doing that. Then we will start the real deal here in the next week. That’s where we are currently. I know you guys probably have some questions. It’s been awhile, so I will turn it over to you all.
On how prepared the players are for the first game
I feel good about where we are. We have good depth. We pretty much know who the guys are that are going to play. You do get to a point in camp where you know that you aren’t going to get any better until you play. We hit that last week at some point. We know who the guys are that are going to play. I don’t think you totally understand what that’s going to look like or how you are going to perform until you actually go out there and do it. Even with some of the older guys, it’s a new year, you are a year older. How much better have some of these guys got? I just don’t think you are going to be able to figure that out until you go out there and play. I feel good about who we have, what our depth is and what our schemes are. I think our guys will be fired up about our challenge against a good, quality Missouri team, we will go out and see what happens.
On how the offense has progressed since the scrimmage on August 13
We have gotten a little better since then, we had an off day. We know kind of what we have on offense. We had some complacency issues, which I addressed. With that said, I thought our defense has been playing well. I think they are pretty motivated. We have some good players, and we have some motivated players. I would much rather it be like that the offense getting after the defense. We did a little bit better the next week, but I am not concerned with where we are at.
On communication during games with the four new assistants
Yeah, we kind of went over that last Saturday, we will do it again this Saturday its apart of the mock game. (Assistant Coach (Offensive Coordinator/Fullbacks-Tight Ends)) Coach (Joe) Wickline will be upstairs in the box talking to (Assistant Coach (Offensive Line) Coach (Ron) Crook. (Assistant Coach (Receivers) Coach (Tyron) Carrier will be on the sidelines like Lonnie (Galloway) was, doing all of the motivational stuff. Defensively, (Assistant Coach (Defense/Special Teams) Mark Scott will be up in the box and relaying down to the field through (Assistant Coach (Safeties) Coach (Matt) Caponi, who will be on the sidelines as well as (Assistant Coach (Cornerbacks) Coach Blue (Adams).
On what it would take to get Associate Head Coach (Defense/ Linebackers) Tony Gibson to sit in the box
What will it take to get (Tony) Gibby (Gibson) in the box? Yeah right.
On position battles at tackle and cornerback
Yeah, they are still battling. Hopefully, we will keep them battling all year long. (Redshirt junior offensive lineman) Marcell (Lazard) will get the nod and will start, but (redshirt freshman offensive lineman) Colton (Mckivitz)is going to play. Colton (Mckivitz)is probably going to end up playing both left tackle and right tackle. When do we put Colton (Mckivitz)in the game? That depends on how Marcell (Lazard) plays. There are situations that effect that. The battle at corner is ongoing. We have four seniors in, (redshirt senior cornerback) Antonio (Crawford), (redshirt senior cornerback) Nana (Kyeremeh), (redshirt senior cornerback) Maurice (Fleming), and (redshirt senior cornerback) Rasul (Douglas), that have all done good things and they will keep plugging away. You have nickel packages where guys are going into the game. You have guys that need a rest, maybe they will take a series off here and there. Having all of those guys there, (junior cornerback) MikeDanielswill play. We have (junior cornerback) JordanAdams. We have (junior cornerback) Elijah Battle, we have a lot of bodies there that need to keep practicing and keep playing. What ends up happening in the first game with who starts and what the reps are, I will be shocked if it doesn’t change between game one and game two.
On free safety position
Yeah, (senior safety) Jeremy (Tyler) looks good there. He’s played it, he has experience. I’ve been very proud of Jeremy. Where I thought that (redshirt senior safety) Jarrod Harper stepped in for Karl (Joseph) last year and did a solid job, I see Jeremy (Tyler) stepping in for (junior safety) Dravon (Askew-Henry) and doing a solid job, not only from a performance point of view but from a leadership point of view as well. Both of those guys, I’m proud of how they have stepped in and done it. (junior safety) Kyzir White, has done a great job at spur, that’s allowed us to have those other bodies there. (Redshirt sophomore safety) Toyous (Avery) is going to continue to get better and better. (Redshirt senior safety) Khairi Sharif has been around here for a good while and knows what to do as well.
On the teams health currently
Real good. You had the long-term things, which was unfortunate. Other than that, it’s been good. We are as healthy as we have been since the day that we started.
On if redshirt sophomore tight end Trevon Wesco and senior fullback/tight end Elijah Wellman are okay to practice
They are all good to go. They are all cleared. Eli (Wellman) had a good week. (Trevon) Wesco actually got cleared now, so I will be able to work with him for dang near the first time all camp. All of those guys who had knicks and bruises, (redshirt junior safety) (Marvin) Gross (Jr.) and (redshirt senior offensive lineman) (Tony) Matteo, was out for a while but he’s good, so all of those guys will be cleared and out there practicing today. Other than the three long term guys Dravon (Askew-Henry), (redshirt sophomore tight end/full back) Ferns, and (freshman cornerback) Jake Long.
On redshirt senior offensive lineman Adam Pankey’s status
He’s currently suspended from the team. We hold these guys to high expectations and when you don’t meet that then there are going to be consequences. He is suspended from the team, it’s disappointing, but we will continue his suspension through Missouri and then we will readdress it at that point.
On if redshirt senior offensive lineman Tony Matteo will step in for redshirt senior offensive lineman) Adam Pankey
Absolutely, Tony (Matteo) is a fifth year senior who was competing for a guard job anyway. Tony (Matteo) was probably playing better than any of the guards for the first five, six days, then he went down. We will slot him at the left guard spot and he will start there, and (redshirt junior offensive lineman)Kyle Bosch will start at the right guard spot. Depth took a hit, (redshirt junior offensive lineman)Grant Lingafelter has been stepping up for the last week while both of those guys were out and did a good job. He started a game a couple of years ago, so we still have a good rotation in there with those four guys. I think we will be fine on the inside.
On how he will handle at the rotations at running back and wide receivers during games
They’ve all shown signs of doing some good things. We’ll play a couple of those guys at a time too. I think last year we didn’t have (redshirt senior running back) Rushel (Shell III) and Wendell (Smallwood) in there together very much because there wasn’t really a third. Now that we have a third, we’ll probably get into some more two back stuff. They’ve all shown signs of a guy who we can count on, who looks good, who has the hot hands, who’s tired and who’s fresh. All of that stuff is taken into consideration. Same thing at receiver. We have, how many three receivers set that we use, how many four receivers set do we use. It depends on how the game planning aspect of things go, but how much does (redshirt junior wide receiver) Shelton (Gibson) play as opposed to (sophomore wide receiver) Gary (Jennings), depends on what the previous snaps look like and how fresh they are. Both of those guys play a lot of special teams as well. That’s going to be fluid. As long as they’re fresh and they’re out there doing the right thing then we’ll divvy up the reps based on production and how those reps look.
On the backup quarterbacks
It’s the same. We’ve been repping (freshman quarterback) Cody Saunders a bunch, lately. (Redshirt freshman quarterback) (Chris) Chugs’s (Chugunov) arm is a little worn out, so we sat him out for a couple of days. He’ll be just fine. Neither him, nor (redshirt sophomore quarterback/running back) (William) Crest (Jr.), nor (Cody) Saunders have done anything to the point where it’s just like (points up) right up there solid number two. Not disappointed in that at all because there’s an aspect of hitting the wall and not doing a good job that sometimes gives other guys the backup nod. I haven’t seen that either which is a positive thing. We know what William (Crest Jr.) brings to the table. We know what (Chris) Chugs (Chugunov) brings to the table. We’re figuring out what Cody (Saunders) brings to the table. I’m happy with his production and his development for a young guy. We’ll keep doing it. We’ll keep evaluating here over the next 11 days.
On the game plan with redshirt junior wide receiver Shelton Gibson and what he was able to do with the number of touches that he had last year
I don’t think so. He tracks the ball over his shoulder better than he tracks the ball coming back to it. It’s just what he does. In order for him to be a better all-around player, he has to be able to do all of that stuff, but by no means are we going to take what he does well and try to get him to do something else. We have big play potential with him, with (sophomore wide receiver) Jovon (Durante) and with (redshirt junior wide receiver) Ka’Raun (white) that the can stretch the field. We’d be foolish not to continue to do that. If they’re going to pile people into the box then we need to be able to stretch it. If we’re stretching it, then they have to back people off and we should be able to run the ball. It would be foolish to do that. We like the 24-yards per catch that he got or whatever it was. I would be okay for twice as many catches and 18-yards a catch. That would be fine.
On punt returners
(Sophomore wide receiver) Gary Jennings will be that guy. He’s makes too good of decisions. He got a lot better throughout the course of last year. He’s a dependable guy who makes great decisions that has very very very few mistakes and very very very few muffs. He’s tracking it well. I’d like to be able to get a few more yards after the catch to improve field position from what we’ve done the last couple of years, but we’re at a point now where we’re just trying to get a guy to catch the damn thing. Now we have a guy who can catch it, so now let’s try to figure out what we do with it.
On kickoff returns
(Sophomore wide receiver) Gary (Jennings) does a good job back there as well. (Sophomore wide receiver) Jovon (Durante) is good back there. (Redshirt junior wide receiver) Shelton (Gibson) is good back there. (Freshman running back) Kennedy McKoy has looked okay back there. (Junior running back) Justin Crawford has looked okay back there. (Redshirt junior wide receiver) Ka’Raun (White) has looked okay back there. We can only put two people back there. I know who can for sure. We’ll keep looking at the guys who need to develop from a depth perspective.
On the personality of the team
I think it’s too early to tell. I don’t think you truly know that. You might have a little bit of a hunch. This team kind of and we’ve talked a lot in here with me and the team about what our identity is and they’re pretty determined. They’re a pretty blue collared, hardworking bunch that’s determined to get out there and out work people. That sort of thing. I hope that’s who they are. That’s who they think they are. That’s who I think they are right now. I hope that continues throughout the course of the season. It’s a long season and teams change. I think we would all like to see a little bit of consistency with who we are and get out there and have that same mentality over the course of the next three or four months.
On the differences from last year to this year with senior quarterback Skyler Howard
Yeah, confidence and consistency. He’s more confidence. Part of that he’s more trustworthy with the people around him. There’s more familiarity. The relationship that he and (redshirt senior offensive lineman) Tyler (Orlosky) has is really good on the field. Those guys know what each other are thinking at all times. The rapport he has with the receivers and the timing aspect of what he has with the receivers is night and day. The confidence that he has in the backs, and just from a consistency point of view from an x’s and o’s standpoint. Going into his senior year after being here for two years, there’s a consistency that I’m seeing that needs to develop as well. He’s in a better place. I like where we are offensively. We have to go out there and be more consistent, and I think he will be a big part of that.
On feeling comfortable
Yea we can do that. I’d like to not have to do that with the quarterback run game and stuff. It just depends whether you need it or not. There were a lot of times last year where we need it because our passing games wasn’t sufficient enough. Being multiple is what you need to do. I’d like to go into every single games and say we’re going to run the ball 50 percent of the time and pass it 50 percent of the time. That’s as balanced as you can be. I’d like to be able to get into a whole bunch of different sets and do the same stuff over and over again and be really good at it. Defenses start to dictate that stuff. They can change their defenses to dictate what you feel like you need to do and the key to being good offensively is if you have to up and throw the ball 85 percent of the time, like we did against Arizona State, then you need to be effective and be able to do it. If you need to be able to run the ball 85 percent of the time based on coverages and having a lid on it, then you need to be able to do it. I think we’re there. I think we’re there. We’ll see what happens.
On the Arizona State game last year
Throw it. Correct. Yeah. We made a lot of strides in that month leading up to that bowl game from a passing point of view. (Senior quarterback) Skyler (Howard) with the guys and improving the protection a little bit as well. That gave us some confidence, and I think we’ll be able to do that if we need to do it, but I don’t want to lose sight of the fact that we have three good running backs. We need to be able to do that as well.
