West Virginia University
Coach Dana Holgorsen Media Conference
August 25, 2015
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (August 25, 2015) - Coach Dana Holgorsen addresses members of the media on Tuesday, Aug. 25, at the Milan Puskar Center Team Room.
Opening Statement
Welcome everybody. I’m going to start this one by going into some Georgia Southern material. I feel like we should be in game week this week. We’ve been practicing, and we have 18 of them under our belt. I have a plan for what I am going to do with the guys here for the next two weeks, but with that said, we are in our second week of school. It feels like this should be game week. I don’t have anything else to talk about, so let’s talk about Georgia Southern. In reality, when we meet with our players this afternoon at 2:30 p.m., we will start talking about Georgia Southern. That way, we will have two weeks of prep time. I think that is appropriate based on the challenges that they (Georgia Southern) pose. We have been doing some Georgia Southern stuff over the last week, but we will exclusively go against Georgia Southern here for the next two weeks.
This will be a quote on quote ‘mock game week’ for us. We will have a good Tuesday practice today, and another one tomorrow. We will travel on Friday. There are going to be about eight to 10 guys who are traveling with us this year that don’t know how we travel, so we will travel on Friday. We will stay at the hotel. We will do exactly what we will be doing during game week on Friday and Saturday. We will come back here Saturday and have a mock game. We will go through a lot of situations and then turn them loose until Sunday night. Then when we get back here Sunday night, it will be a routine for everybody.
Georgia Southern is very well coached. They won a lot of FCS National Championships. They are not an FCS opponent. They have successfully made the transition from I-A, and won the conference their first year in the Sun Belt. That speaks volumes of Willie Fritz of how good of a coach he is and the tradition that Georgia Southern possesses. These guys have won a bunch. They have great tradition, and they understand how to win. My job is to get through to our players that they might not have the name recognition of Alabama, but within our coaching fraternity they have plenty of name recognition. The staff and I understand who they are, what they have accomplished and the talent that is in Georgia. I know, I was there. I know what kind of players they have, and I know what kind of players they get. They are used to winning. They expect to win. They won nine games last year, and they should’ve won two more. They barely lost to NC State, and they barely lost to Georgia Tech. They were winning in both of those games. They almost won the Georgia Tech game. They are a good team. Everybody knows they beat Florida two years ago, and we know what kind of players Florida has.
The challenge is the offense that they possess. We know that they are on their second quarterback. There were plenty of games last year where they were on their second quarterback. The (redshirt junior quarterback Favian) Upshaw kid came in with a lot of different situations last year. He’s going to be a year older, and he’s going to understand what to do. He’s going to run that offense just as good as last year, more than likely better than last year. The starter that’s not playing, we know that is a break for us. He is a great player. They still have lots of good players around him. If you look at their o-line, they are replacing a lot of guys, but they are replacing them with upperclassmen. That shows what kind of shape their program is in. When you lose a lot of starters up front, and you’re replacing them with juniors and seniors, that means they have a lot of players that understand what to do. The style of ball that they play offensively is not one that new guys can pick up and play right away. They have a lot of guys that understand what to do. Their running back (junior running back Matt Breida) is probably as good as anybody we will face all year. He has top-end speed and can get out in the open. People can’t catch him. That’s why they led the nation in rushing last year. When you have quarterbacks and running backs that can do that, then you are pretty good. They don’t turn the ball over, which is really impressive based on the ball changing hands so much. The spread attack, the option attack and the amount of hand offs that they have going on, it is impressive that they only turned the ball over 12 times all year. They do a great job with ball security as well.
Defensively, they have a lot of guys coming back. It’s different than what we do defensively, so we are going to need the extra week to be able to prepare for them. They are based out of a four down, but they go multiples with it. They will get into a three down front. They will get into a bear front with two outside guys that are up on the line of scrimmage. They have seven returning starters. Their linebackers are really good players: No. 37 (redshirt senior linebacker Antwione) Williams and No. 27 (redshirt junior linebacker Deshawntee) Gallon. Those guys are both good players that showed up on tape last year. Most of their d-line is back and their safeties are extremely active. They have new people at corner, but we have new people at receivers, so that’s probably a wash.
Like I said, this is a team that we will start talking about, and it is our job to get through to them (the players). I don’t think it will take long once we start watching the tape with our players today. They are going to see the quality of the opponent, and they are going to understand that this is a difficult task. We need to make sure we prepare the way that we know how to prepare in order to play this game. With that said, I turn it over to you for some questions, whether it pertains to personnel with us or Georgia Southern, I’ll take some questions.
On how to replicate what Georgia Southern does on offense with the scout team
Our scout offense has been watching tape for two weeks. We have been getting bits and pieces of it. (Assistant coach/defensive coordinator/linebackers Tony Gibson) Gibby has taken some individual time and some morning walk through time to go through it. You can never replicate it, the way you want to replicate it. (Freshman quarterback) David Sills has been doing a great job with that. He’s been coming in and watching tape. His hand-off option stuff is really good. He really does a great job with that stuff, and he is a smart kid, so he understands that that’s kind of what his role is going to be here for the next couple of weeks. We keep showing him a bunch of tape, and he keeps up with it. Hopefully, we can get it to where it looks close.
On the health of the team
It’s really good. The only advantage is having them at camp for three weeks, and then them being in school for three weeks prior to the first game. Once school starts, we only get them for 20 hours a week. Lately, we haven’t had knock down practices. Our overall health is really good. (Redshirt senior linebacker Edward) Ed Muldrow is the only guy who has not practiced yet. Everybody else has been well. I don’t know what’s wrong with (redshirt senior linebacker Edward) Ed (Muldrow III). Nobody else knows what’s wrong with (redshirt senior linebacker Edward) Ed (Muldrow III), but he can’t play. He’s going into his senior year, and when he feels good. I know he is going to get out there, but he is the only one that has not taken any reps.
On assistant coach (defensive coordinator/linebackers) Tony Gibson working with freshman quarterback David Sills
(Assistant coach/defensive coordinator/linebackers Tony Gibson) Gibby’s doing it. He’s running the whole show over there.
On his goals for this upcoming season
We have been talking a little bit more long term stuff than I have in the past. Usually, everybody does the same thing. They say this (Georgia Southern game) is what’s important. This is the only thing that is important. This team right here. We have to win one game a week. We have to prepare for this one. We have to win it, and then we can move on to the next one. I think that is the way the majority of the coaching staffs across the country do it. I have some older guys that I can be a little more real with. We break it down and talk about the Big 12 championship every day. We talk about Big 12 championships. Everybody wants to win a national championship. Well, what happens in the past when that is not a reality? That doesn’t mean things are done. I have been talking with our guys about the big picture, too. Let’s make sure that what happened in the last couple of years, does not happen this year if we are not successful for some reason throughout the course of the season. What’s successful to me? There are a lot of things that are successful to me. We want to win a Big 12 Championship. We want to put ourselves in position to talk about the College Football Playoffs. That’s what everybody in the power five want to talk about. Winning the conference is important, but graduating kids and having a winning season with the best bowl game that we can possibly go to is important as well.
On if he saw what he wanted to see from the offense in the scrimmages
You never do. I had no idea what we were going to do this past Saturday. We struggled with it as a staff because it was a week of transition from camp to mock week. We had a week and no one has ever been in that situation before. In my 20 years of coaching, I never had three weeks of school prior to the first game, so there was a lot of talk about what to do. We only get them for 20 hours. What do you do? Do you hold three hour practices and not meet. Do you lift them? Do you rest them? Do you recover them? We practiced a good bit on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. We got after it pretty good, and we rested a little bit on Friday. Then late Friday night, we had a meeting after practice and we decided that our top 22 did not need to play a whole lot. We held those guys a good bit on Saturday and practiced the two’s and three’s. I have never been in a place where we could practice the three’s the way that we practiced our three’s last Saturday. Those guys had about 50 live reps. I never been anywhere where you could sit your first team offensive line, have a second team practice and have a third team understand what to do. From that standpoint, I like what we have. Did it look the way we wanted it too from some of the key backups? No. You never do, but we will keep evaluating, and hopefully, that will pay off in the future.
On if the scrimmage helped him figured out the two’s and three’s on the depth chart
It should’ve. For the majority of the positions, we know who our two’s are. There are still some positions out there that we don’t know. We told the team Saturday after practice why we did this. We know who the top 22 players are. The top 22 may be a starter or may not be a starter, but we play about 55 or 56 in a game. How important is that No. 50 guy that is running down on kickoff or on punt return? He is pretty important. If the starter goes out, the next guy goes in. The third team guy has to go in and play a little bit as well. Those guys have to play at a high level, if they want to win. They have to keep getting better.
On junior quarterback Skyler Howard’s best quality
He is competitive. He has a chip on his shoulder. He’s tired of hearing how he is not big enough, fast enough or good enough. He wakes up every day competing with himself and doing what he has to do to make all that go away. He’s going to wake up and work hard. He’s going to be focused on what he’s responsible for, and I’ve been happy with what he has done.
On when he started doing the mock week
It was either last year or two years ago. I think everybody kind of simulates it a little bit, but to the extent of doing everything I believe it was last year. I don’t want to remember anything that happened two years ago, so we will go with last year.
On redshirt senior linebacker Jared Barber throughout the last few weeks of camp
He’s been good. That’s a position where we been able to play a lot of people, whether it’s (redshirt sophomore linebacker Al-Rasheed) Benton or (redshirt junior linebacker) Justin Arndt going in at that middle linebacker spot. We have bumped (redshirt senior linebacker Nick) Kwiatkoski in there some. We have a lot of people. He hasn’t had to take the maximum amount of reps every single day.
On what he is looking to see from redshirt senior linebacker Jared Barber on game day
The same thing I have seen since the Orange Bowl or his freshman year. He’s played a lot of ball around here. This isn’t the first time someone had a knee injury. It’s part of the game. A very high percentage of guys come back stronger than ever. He’s practiced a lot since that happened, and he is without a doubt our smartest football player. He is probably our most physical football player as well. He looks better than ever.
On how his defensive scheme matches up against Georgia Southern
I think it matches up pretty well. We are a perimeter oriented defense. Offensively, we try to throw the ball. They (Georgia Southern) try to throw it with a bunch of different options such as motions and pitching the ball. If we can maintain our assignments defensively, then I think our team speed will be able to handle that. It’s a lot of reps that these guys have to see in order to understand what to do. I think having that experience at linebacker and safety is going to be key. We are talking about five seniors that are second level players. If our front line guys can be tough and hold the gaps and allow those five guys to run, see it and understand it, then I have confidence in our defense to be able to slow them down.
On bringing in a transfer player
If we are going to entertain a transfer, then this is an easy question. Whatever is happening outside of here is not for me to talk about at this time. We always done the same thing. We’ve done background checks on guys based on high school coaches, junior college coaches, and former coaches. We put everything in our administration’s hands, and if there is an issue, then we will make a decision on what is best for this university, collectively.
On if first year receivers playing against first year cornerbacks make it a wash
I hope so. It will be fun to watch. They have some guys that are transfers, so they have some four year transfers at corners. They have junior college transfers at corners. From an experience point of view, it is probably a wash. (Redshirt sophomore) Ka’Raun (White) played a year of junior college. (Redshirt junior wide receiver) Devonte Mathis and (redshirt junior wide receiver) Vernon Davis are juniors that have played some snaps here. (Redshirt sophomore wide receiver) Shelton (Gibson) has played some snaps here. Obviously, there a couple of true freshman who haven’t played any snaps here. I think the best player wins. You have to get out there, and you have to play. You have to put them under the lights. You have to put live bullets in the holster and fire away. See what happens. I don’t think you can truly answer that question until you see it live.
On if he expects collective production from the wide receivers
It might have to be that way. Again, I don’t know how they are going to respond. None of them have experience, and we have to put somebody out there first. I wouldn’t put too much thought in who goes out there first. Based on how it looks, guys are going to get yanked or guys are going to get pushed back in there. I am as interested to see it as you all are. I like what their bodies are. I like their attitude. I like their effort and mentality. I like where they are at. I didn’t truly know where Kevin (White) and Mario (Alford) were going to be at last year until they were in the game and started making plays. That relationship with the quarterback is huge. Clint (Trickett) knew those guys. How much (junior quarterback) Skyler (Howard) or (redshirt freshman quarterback) William (Crest Jr.) can get on the same page as some of those guys is going to make an impact on how they do out there.
On who is going to start in the first game against Georgia Southern
Those are the two spots that I haven’t made the decision yet. It is the right guard with (redshirt junior offensive lineman Tony) Matteo and (redshirt sophomore offensive lineman Kyle) Bosch and the X and the Z. Those are the two spots on our football team where I haven’t made a decision yet.
On the biggest obstacle that a wide receiver faces
I don’t think that is an issue as much as it is the timing with the quarterback. Quarterbacks learn nuances of receivers that you can’t be told. I can’t say that this guy runs a 4.3 and this guy runs 4.5, place the ball a little bit further. You can’t say that. It’s understanding little nuances and developing chemistry with these guys. Everybody knows what I’m talking about with little nods, flashes and pumps to where those guys have to figure that stuff out on their own. I don’t think Kevin (White) will have the year that he had last year with the chemistry that existed between him and Clint (Trickett). Not taking anything away from Kevin (White). He’s a top-10 pick. I’m talking about the overall production numbers. Everybody sees guys that get drafted in the second, third and fourth round that don’t have big numbers. It’s because the chemistry wasn’t there with the quarterback. The good news is that that exists right now with (junior quarterback) Skyler (Howard) and (junior wide receiver) Daikiel (Shorts Jr.), (redshirt freshman wide receiver) Jordan Thompson and (junior running back) Wendell Smallwood. It exists with them right now because they have been doing it for the past two years. It’s pretty good with (redshirt sophomore wide receiver) Shelton (Gibson) because they have been doing it for a year and a half. We have to find one or two more.
On if there are plans of giving redshirt freshman quarterback William Crest Jr. snaps at quarterback
He’s been practicing well. I like what I see out of (redshirt freshman quarterback) William (Crest Jr.). He’s been practicing. He’s been competing. He had his best day on Saturday. That’s the decision that I have to figure out.
On his goal of having his best five guys at wide receiver
My job is to get to five as soon as I can. I can’t get to five right now. (Junior wide receiver) Daikiel (Shorts Jr.) is one of them. (Redshirt freshman wide receiver) Jordan (Thompson) is one of them, and (junior running back) Wendell Smallwood is one of them. We are at 60 percent right now. Two years ago, we were at zero percent. None of those guys were ready to go, even Charles Sims. If you watched him last night, he is a good NFL player. (Charles) Sims and Clint (Trickett) shook hands and two days later they were playing a game. We are further along than we were two years ago, but we still have to find two more guys.
Coach Dana Holgorsen Media Conference
August 25, 2015
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (August 25, 2015) - Coach Dana Holgorsen addresses members of the media on Tuesday, Aug. 25, at the Milan Puskar Center Team Room.
Opening Statement
Welcome everybody. I’m going to start this one by going into some Georgia Southern material. I feel like we should be in game week this week. We’ve been practicing, and we have 18 of them under our belt. I have a plan for what I am going to do with the guys here for the next two weeks, but with that said, we are in our second week of school. It feels like this should be game week. I don’t have anything else to talk about, so let’s talk about Georgia Southern. In reality, when we meet with our players this afternoon at 2:30 p.m., we will start talking about Georgia Southern. That way, we will have two weeks of prep time. I think that is appropriate based on the challenges that they (Georgia Southern) pose. We have been doing some Georgia Southern stuff over the last week, but we will exclusively go against Georgia Southern here for the next two weeks.
This will be a quote on quote ‘mock game week’ for us. We will have a good Tuesday practice today, and another one tomorrow. We will travel on Friday. There are going to be about eight to 10 guys who are traveling with us this year that don’t know how we travel, so we will travel on Friday. We will stay at the hotel. We will do exactly what we will be doing during game week on Friday and Saturday. We will come back here Saturday and have a mock game. We will go through a lot of situations and then turn them loose until Sunday night. Then when we get back here Sunday night, it will be a routine for everybody.
Georgia Southern is very well coached. They won a lot of FCS National Championships. They are not an FCS opponent. They have successfully made the transition from I-A, and won the conference their first year in the Sun Belt. That speaks volumes of Willie Fritz of how good of a coach he is and the tradition that Georgia Southern possesses. These guys have won a bunch. They have great tradition, and they understand how to win. My job is to get through to our players that they might not have the name recognition of Alabama, but within our coaching fraternity they have plenty of name recognition. The staff and I understand who they are, what they have accomplished and the talent that is in Georgia. I know, I was there. I know what kind of players they have, and I know what kind of players they get. They are used to winning. They expect to win. They won nine games last year, and they should’ve won two more. They barely lost to NC State, and they barely lost to Georgia Tech. They were winning in both of those games. They almost won the Georgia Tech game. They are a good team. Everybody knows they beat Florida two years ago, and we know what kind of players Florida has.
The challenge is the offense that they possess. We know that they are on their second quarterback. There were plenty of games last year where they were on their second quarterback. The (redshirt junior quarterback Favian) Upshaw kid came in with a lot of different situations last year. He’s going to be a year older, and he’s going to understand what to do. He’s going to run that offense just as good as last year, more than likely better than last year. The starter that’s not playing, we know that is a break for us. He is a great player. They still have lots of good players around him. If you look at their o-line, they are replacing a lot of guys, but they are replacing them with upperclassmen. That shows what kind of shape their program is in. When you lose a lot of starters up front, and you’re replacing them with juniors and seniors, that means they have a lot of players that understand what to do. The style of ball that they play offensively is not one that new guys can pick up and play right away. They have a lot of guys that understand what to do. Their running back (junior running back Matt Breida) is probably as good as anybody we will face all year. He has top-end speed and can get out in the open. People can’t catch him. That’s why they led the nation in rushing last year. When you have quarterbacks and running backs that can do that, then you are pretty good. They don’t turn the ball over, which is really impressive based on the ball changing hands so much. The spread attack, the option attack and the amount of hand offs that they have going on, it is impressive that they only turned the ball over 12 times all year. They do a great job with ball security as well.
Defensively, they have a lot of guys coming back. It’s different than what we do defensively, so we are going to need the extra week to be able to prepare for them. They are based out of a four down, but they go multiples with it. They will get into a three down front. They will get into a bear front with two outside guys that are up on the line of scrimmage. They have seven returning starters. Their linebackers are really good players: No. 37 (redshirt senior linebacker Antwione) Williams and No. 27 (redshirt junior linebacker Deshawntee) Gallon. Those guys are both good players that showed up on tape last year. Most of their d-line is back and their safeties are extremely active. They have new people at corner, but we have new people at receivers, so that’s probably a wash.
Like I said, this is a team that we will start talking about, and it is our job to get through to them (the players). I don’t think it will take long once we start watching the tape with our players today. They are going to see the quality of the opponent, and they are going to understand that this is a difficult task. We need to make sure we prepare the way that we know how to prepare in order to play this game. With that said, I turn it over to you for some questions, whether it pertains to personnel with us or Georgia Southern, I’ll take some questions.
On how to replicate what Georgia Southern does on offense with the scout team
Our scout offense has been watching tape for two weeks. We have been getting bits and pieces of it. (Assistant coach/defensive coordinator/linebackers Tony Gibson) Gibby has taken some individual time and some morning walk through time to go through it. You can never replicate it, the way you want to replicate it. (Freshman quarterback) David Sills has been doing a great job with that. He’s been coming in and watching tape. His hand-off option stuff is really good. He really does a great job with that stuff, and he is a smart kid, so he understands that that’s kind of what his role is going to be here for the next couple of weeks. We keep showing him a bunch of tape, and he keeps up with it. Hopefully, we can get it to where it looks close.
On the health of the team
It’s really good. The only advantage is having them at camp for three weeks, and then them being in school for three weeks prior to the first game. Once school starts, we only get them for 20 hours a week. Lately, we haven’t had knock down practices. Our overall health is really good. (Redshirt senior linebacker Edward) Ed Muldrow is the only guy who has not practiced yet. Everybody else has been well. I don’t know what’s wrong with (redshirt senior linebacker Edward) Ed (Muldrow III). Nobody else knows what’s wrong with (redshirt senior linebacker Edward) Ed (Muldrow III), but he can’t play. He’s going into his senior year, and when he feels good. I know he is going to get out there, but he is the only one that has not taken any reps.
On assistant coach (defensive coordinator/linebackers) Tony Gibson working with freshman quarterback David Sills
(Assistant coach/defensive coordinator/linebackers Tony Gibson) Gibby’s doing it. He’s running the whole show over there.
On his goals for this upcoming season
We have been talking a little bit more long term stuff than I have in the past. Usually, everybody does the same thing. They say this (Georgia Southern game) is what’s important. This is the only thing that is important. This team right here. We have to win one game a week. We have to prepare for this one. We have to win it, and then we can move on to the next one. I think that is the way the majority of the coaching staffs across the country do it. I have some older guys that I can be a little more real with. We break it down and talk about the Big 12 championship every day. We talk about Big 12 championships. Everybody wants to win a national championship. Well, what happens in the past when that is not a reality? That doesn’t mean things are done. I have been talking with our guys about the big picture, too. Let’s make sure that what happened in the last couple of years, does not happen this year if we are not successful for some reason throughout the course of the season. What’s successful to me? There are a lot of things that are successful to me. We want to win a Big 12 Championship. We want to put ourselves in position to talk about the College Football Playoffs. That’s what everybody in the power five want to talk about. Winning the conference is important, but graduating kids and having a winning season with the best bowl game that we can possibly go to is important as well.
On if he saw what he wanted to see from the offense in the scrimmages
You never do. I had no idea what we were going to do this past Saturday. We struggled with it as a staff because it was a week of transition from camp to mock week. We had a week and no one has ever been in that situation before. In my 20 years of coaching, I never had three weeks of school prior to the first game, so there was a lot of talk about what to do. We only get them for 20 hours. What do you do? Do you hold three hour practices and not meet. Do you lift them? Do you rest them? Do you recover them? We practiced a good bit on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. We got after it pretty good, and we rested a little bit on Friday. Then late Friday night, we had a meeting after practice and we decided that our top 22 did not need to play a whole lot. We held those guys a good bit on Saturday and practiced the two’s and three’s. I have never been in a place where we could practice the three’s the way that we practiced our three’s last Saturday. Those guys had about 50 live reps. I never been anywhere where you could sit your first team offensive line, have a second team practice and have a third team understand what to do. From that standpoint, I like what we have. Did it look the way we wanted it too from some of the key backups? No. You never do, but we will keep evaluating, and hopefully, that will pay off in the future.
On if the scrimmage helped him figured out the two’s and three’s on the depth chart
It should’ve. For the majority of the positions, we know who our two’s are. There are still some positions out there that we don’t know. We told the team Saturday after practice why we did this. We know who the top 22 players are. The top 22 may be a starter or may not be a starter, but we play about 55 or 56 in a game. How important is that No. 50 guy that is running down on kickoff or on punt return? He is pretty important. If the starter goes out, the next guy goes in. The third team guy has to go in and play a little bit as well. Those guys have to play at a high level, if they want to win. They have to keep getting better.
On junior quarterback Skyler Howard’s best quality
He is competitive. He has a chip on his shoulder. He’s tired of hearing how he is not big enough, fast enough or good enough. He wakes up every day competing with himself and doing what he has to do to make all that go away. He’s going to wake up and work hard. He’s going to be focused on what he’s responsible for, and I’ve been happy with what he has done.
On when he started doing the mock week
It was either last year or two years ago. I think everybody kind of simulates it a little bit, but to the extent of doing everything I believe it was last year. I don’t want to remember anything that happened two years ago, so we will go with last year.
On redshirt senior linebacker Jared Barber throughout the last few weeks of camp
He’s been good. That’s a position where we been able to play a lot of people, whether it’s (redshirt sophomore linebacker Al-Rasheed) Benton or (redshirt junior linebacker) Justin Arndt going in at that middle linebacker spot. We have bumped (redshirt senior linebacker Nick) Kwiatkoski in there some. We have a lot of people. He hasn’t had to take the maximum amount of reps every single day.
On what he is looking to see from redshirt senior linebacker Jared Barber on game day
The same thing I have seen since the Orange Bowl or his freshman year. He’s played a lot of ball around here. This isn’t the first time someone had a knee injury. It’s part of the game. A very high percentage of guys come back stronger than ever. He’s practiced a lot since that happened, and he is without a doubt our smartest football player. He is probably our most physical football player as well. He looks better than ever.
On how his defensive scheme matches up against Georgia Southern
I think it matches up pretty well. We are a perimeter oriented defense. Offensively, we try to throw the ball. They (Georgia Southern) try to throw it with a bunch of different options such as motions and pitching the ball. If we can maintain our assignments defensively, then I think our team speed will be able to handle that. It’s a lot of reps that these guys have to see in order to understand what to do. I think having that experience at linebacker and safety is going to be key. We are talking about five seniors that are second level players. If our front line guys can be tough and hold the gaps and allow those five guys to run, see it and understand it, then I have confidence in our defense to be able to slow them down.
On bringing in a transfer player
If we are going to entertain a transfer, then this is an easy question. Whatever is happening outside of here is not for me to talk about at this time. We always done the same thing. We’ve done background checks on guys based on high school coaches, junior college coaches, and former coaches. We put everything in our administration’s hands, and if there is an issue, then we will make a decision on what is best for this university, collectively.
On if first year receivers playing against first year cornerbacks make it a wash
I hope so. It will be fun to watch. They have some guys that are transfers, so they have some four year transfers at corners. They have junior college transfers at corners. From an experience point of view, it is probably a wash. (Redshirt sophomore) Ka’Raun (White) played a year of junior college. (Redshirt junior wide receiver) Devonte Mathis and (redshirt junior wide receiver) Vernon Davis are juniors that have played some snaps here. (Redshirt sophomore wide receiver) Shelton (Gibson) has played some snaps here. Obviously, there a couple of true freshman who haven’t played any snaps here. I think the best player wins. You have to get out there, and you have to play. You have to put them under the lights. You have to put live bullets in the holster and fire away. See what happens. I don’t think you can truly answer that question until you see it live.
On if he expects collective production from the wide receivers
It might have to be that way. Again, I don’t know how they are going to respond. None of them have experience, and we have to put somebody out there first. I wouldn’t put too much thought in who goes out there first. Based on how it looks, guys are going to get yanked or guys are going to get pushed back in there. I am as interested to see it as you all are. I like what their bodies are. I like their attitude. I like their effort and mentality. I like where they are at. I didn’t truly know where Kevin (White) and Mario (Alford) were going to be at last year until they were in the game and started making plays. That relationship with the quarterback is huge. Clint (Trickett) knew those guys. How much (junior quarterback) Skyler (Howard) or (redshirt freshman quarterback) William (Crest Jr.) can get on the same page as some of those guys is going to make an impact on how they do out there.
On who is going to start in the first game against Georgia Southern
Those are the two spots that I haven’t made the decision yet. It is the right guard with (redshirt junior offensive lineman Tony) Matteo and (redshirt sophomore offensive lineman Kyle) Bosch and the X and the Z. Those are the two spots on our football team where I haven’t made a decision yet.
On the biggest obstacle that a wide receiver faces
I don’t think that is an issue as much as it is the timing with the quarterback. Quarterbacks learn nuances of receivers that you can’t be told. I can’t say that this guy runs a 4.3 and this guy runs 4.5, place the ball a little bit further. You can’t say that. It’s understanding little nuances and developing chemistry with these guys. Everybody knows what I’m talking about with little nods, flashes and pumps to where those guys have to figure that stuff out on their own. I don’t think Kevin (White) will have the year that he had last year with the chemistry that existed between him and Clint (Trickett). Not taking anything away from Kevin (White). He’s a top-10 pick. I’m talking about the overall production numbers. Everybody sees guys that get drafted in the second, third and fourth round that don’t have big numbers. It’s because the chemistry wasn’t there with the quarterback. The good news is that that exists right now with (junior quarterback) Skyler (Howard) and (junior wide receiver) Daikiel (Shorts Jr.), (redshirt freshman wide receiver) Jordan Thompson and (junior running back) Wendell Smallwood. It exists with them right now because they have been doing it for the past two years. It’s pretty good with (redshirt sophomore wide receiver) Shelton (Gibson) because they have been doing it for a year and a half. We have to find one or two more.
On if there are plans of giving redshirt freshman quarterback William Crest Jr. snaps at quarterback
He’s been practicing well. I like what I see out of (redshirt freshman quarterback) William (Crest Jr.). He’s been practicing. He’s been competing. He had his best day on Saturday. That’s the decision that I have to figure out.
On his goal of having his best five guys at wide receiver
My job is to get to five as soon as I can. I can’t get to five right now. (Junior wide receiver) Daikiel (Shorts Jr.) is one of them. (Redshirt freshman wide receiver) Jordan (Thompson) is one of them, and (junior running back) Wendell Smallwood is one of them. We are at 60 percent right now. Two years ago, we were at zero percent. None of those guys were ready to go, even Charles Sims. If you watched him last night, he is a good NFL player. (Charles) Sims and Clint (Trickett) shook hands and two days later they were playing a game. We are further along than we were two years ago, but we still have to find two more guys.
