MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (October 9, 2018) – West Virginia University football coach Dana Holgorsen addressed members of the media on Tuesday, Oct. 9, at the Milan Puskar Center Team Room.
Opening Statement
OK, moving on to Iowa State. We have a good opportunity this week. We’re excited about a night game. We better get used to it, we’ve got a bunch of them ahead of us, so it’ll be good to get into a night-game routine. So, we’re looking forward to that. We’ll head over to Iowa on Friday, probably just a little bit later than we normally do, but we’ll get over there and have a different type of schedule on Saturday that we need to get used to. Obviously, they’re coming off a big win at Oklahoma State, a hard place to go play. They competed hard and won that game. Shoot, the week before, they went to TCU and competed hard down there, as well. These guys don’t care who they’re playing. They’re going to line up and play the same. They’re a well-coached, disciplined, hard-working bunch that continues to get better. We don’t care if they’re 2-3 or if they’re 5-0. That doesn’t make any difference to me, or our team. Our job is to prepare the same way every week, and these guys pose a lot of challenges. We respect their program and what they do.
Offensively, they’re searching a little bit for their identity, so to speak, because of some injury issues that everybody has to deal with at times. Their two main, old, leading players in Kyle Kempt and David Montgomery have been dealing with injuries. We’re expecting both those guys to be available and play. They’re really good players, especially Montgomery. He’s an All-American, NFL-type player, and he’s been banged up as of late, but we’re expecting him to play. He played against us last year — both of them — so we know what type of players they are, and we’ll prepare for those guys to be ready to go. Obviously, with the switch at quarterback last week, it poses different challenges for us defensively with the (Brock) Purdy kid in from Arizona. He didn’t go in and play like a freshman. I don’t think I’ve seen a game one, freshman performance quite like that. Texas Tech had to put their freshman in game one and had some good performances, but it wasn’t like in the first one, like that Purdy guy did. It’s different; he runs around a lot better than Kempt does. That’s just not what Kempt’s game is. The (Zeb) Noland kid, No. 4, that has played a lot of games for them, he was probably a little bit more of a thrower and a scrambler, but they’re doing all kinds of quarterback run game with Purdy, which is a different challenge for us. With him in there, they look a lot like what we looked like two or three years ago with Skyler (Howard), as far as quarterback-run game, and different things that were coached up the appropriate way. We’ll have to figure that out when we get there. But we got a lot of good information to be able coach up at this point.
Their receiver, No. 18, (Hakeem) Butler, is making all kinds of plays. It seems like he’s got more than 18 (receptions) for 372 (yards) and four (touchdowns). It seems like he does, because he’s made a lot of big plays in a lot of big games. He’s a matchup nightmare. He’s a lot like the Texas Tech guys were. The other guy, (Matthew) Eaton, is another 6-4 guy. Those two tall guys on the outside pose the same challenges from a corners’ and covers’ perspective than the Texas Tech guys do. We’ll have to keep our eye on that. They will keep getting better on offense. Last week’s performance at Oklahoma State was impressive, and that’s what we will be expecting moving forward.
Defensively, I have a lot of respect for what they’re doing. Coach (Jon) Heacock has done a great job and has taken a kind of odd stack with what we do here, and kind of put his own spin on it. It’s not exactly what we’re doing, but it’s got some of those principles to it. It starts with their (defensive) line. They’ve got three good (defensive)-line bodies, especially their nose (tackle), the (Ray) Lima kid and the (Joshua) Bailey kid, the end and the nose. Those guys started against us last year; they’re really good players. Two of the three linebackers are back, and the two corners that started against us and got a lot of experience, it seems like they’ve been three- or four-year starters. The (D’Andre) Payne kid, No. 1, and the (Brian) Peavey kid, all-conference guy, No. 10, they’re legit players. They’re really good players. They lost three senior safeties. They play a lot of the same coverage as we do. Whether it’s three guys back or one back, two guys down or two guys back, one hole player, the three safeties they had last year is what made that defense go. Those guys are all new, but other guys have stepped up, and they’re playing as good or better defensively than what they were last year. And they were a pretty good front last year, pretty good defense last year. So, they’ll pose a lot of the same problems Kansas did last week, in that they’re a quality defense.
Special teams lost a lot of their guys. The kicker has been solid. The punter, another Australian guy that’s come in, they’ve been doing different things with him. They’re doing a really good job with the pooch punting stuff that we’ve seen a lot of these Australians do. They do some roll punting, but do some traditional punting, as well. We’ve got to get used to them spraying it everywhere, fielding that thing. They’ve always been good and solid at the kicking game, and it’s something that we will continue to focus on.
They came in here hot last year, and I thought our team played really well against them. It’s the same type team, same scheme, same players. They’ll pose a lot of the same problems that they did last year. They’ll play hard, and we’re going to have to play hard for four quarters in order to give ourselves a chance.
On Iowa State’s issues and improvement at offense last week
They lost their coordinator, they’ve had some coaching stuff, they had the injury to their main player, their quarterback. Like I said, their running back is so good, and they rely on him so much. They give it to him a lot. You don’t have him, then you surge. We’ve been in that situation before. These guys have been good on offense. They know how to coach it up. I think it’s just a matter of continuity more than anything. I know Matt (Campbell) has kind of taken over the play calling, and he’s obviously as good of a coach as there is out there, so they’ll keep getting better with it. I think they’ve found a good, young quarterback that can make plays (Brock Purdy). He ran around, he can make guys miss. He was accurate when he was throwing the ball. It was a good offensive performance. Whether that’s going to be the same thing against us, or whether they go in a different direction with Kempt, I don’t know. We’ll be ready for whatever they throw at us.
On Iowa State’s defense and tackles for losses
They’re disruptive up front. The biggest difference in what they’re doing this year and what they did last year is their front is a lot better. It’s similar to our stuff, it really is. They’re playing good up front, and we’re playing good up front with those three. And they’re creating some stuff with that three, but then they bring second-level bodies from everywhere – corners, safeties, linebackers. And you don’t know where it’s coming from. So, you’ve got to do a good job of identifying it. We’ve got to do better up front. We’ve got to do better up front as far as identifying it. We’ve had too many sacks, tackles for loss, and disruptions in the backfield last week that we didn’t have in the previous four games. So, we’ve got our work cut out for us. Offensively, up front, to figure out where that stuff’s coming from, because they do a very nice job with it, as we do here on defense, as well.
On similarities to Kansas’s defense
It’s all those second-level guys. The similarities coverage-wise, defensively, with what Kansas and Iowa State are doing are pretty similar. Whatever worked for Kansas, I would assume we’re going to get it here this week.
On redshirt sophomore linebacker Brendan Ferns and senior linebacker Quondarius Qualls returning
We’re going to get them. I don’t make any of those decisions. If they’re practicing, I can assure you, they’d be playing. They’re not cleared, they’re not practicing. The closer we get to that six-month mark, the better we’ll all feel about it. It’s getting close. I think we’re about a month away.
On redshirt sophomore wide receiver T.J. Simmons stepping up and the team’s versatility at wide receiver position
Yeah, I think so. T.J. probably played the best out of all of those guys last week. (He) was pretty consistent and made some plays. (Senior wide receiver) Gary (Jennings Jr.) and (senior wide receiver) David (Sills V) do things that is just routine at this point and that’s pretty good. (Junior wide receiver) Marcus (Simms) had a couple of games where he played pretty good. I don’t think he quite did what we need him to do last week. T.J. has been solid. I’ve been pleased with the backups as well. There have been plenty of years when I’ve been sitting here pulling what hair I have left out over (our wide receiver backups). (Senior wide receiver) Dominique Maiden has been doing (well); he went in and made a big catch. (Sophomore wide receiver) Tevin Bush went in and made a couple of nice plays. (Freshman wide receiver) Sam James got some action for the first time all year; we’ll see how that goes. I feel better about those guys in general. The tight ends take one of those guys off the field a lot, so we don’t have to play four all the time. It makes it harder for us to game plan against when all of those guys are capable of making a play.
On having 10 different players catch touchdown passes already this season
It’s having more than three people, is one. Last year, we had Ka’Raun (White) and (senior wide receiver) Gary (Jennings Jr.) and (senior wide receiver) David (Sills V) out there about 95 percent of the time. It’s the emergence of (junior wide receiver) Marcus (Simms), it’s (redshirt sophomore wide receiver) T.J. (Simmons) being eligible, it’s backup receivers doing a better job and maturing and playing better and being guys who we can count on. Then, it’s getting our running backs involved as well. That’s probably the biggest difference scheme-wise. They have to account for those backs. We flipped it out there in the flat twice last week and scored. You have to cover everybody. That makes it hard for everybody to defend us.
On redshirt sophomore tight end/fullback Jovani Haskins getting more playing time
He’s (in between) right now. He’s still young and still maturing, still growing, still filling out. (Redshirt senior tight end Trevon) Wesco is a dominating blocker. Jovani is far from that. He’s 40 pounds less. Wesco is turning into a guy who we want to throw the ball to a good bit, so you have to account for him as well. He hasn’t scored a touchdown yet, has he? We’ll get him on the touchdown train at some point. Jovani is more of a natural receiver, which has something to do with him being lighter, so he can run better. He has great ball skills. I like the one-two punch with those guys right now. I think probably in two years, the maturity of Jovani should get him to where he can block as good as Wesco, then we’ll use younger guys who can come in. It’s the natural progression of a tight end. You want them 270 so that they can block people, but when you’re 270 as a freshman, you probably can’t run and catch very well. I think it’s just the natural progression of that position, which makes that position hard to recruit. You can’t go recruit a guy and just plug them in year one, which has always been the problem. We can find running backs and receivers and plug them in there year one. (We) can’t do that at tight end. Having two young guys right now that we’re currently redshirting will help us mature those guys into what they need to be down the road.
On how critical it is to get running game on track against Iowa State
Critical, without a doubt. We ran the ball against them last year. I don’t remember the number exactly, but I was happy with how we ran the ball against them last year. They give us favorable boxes, but they do a really nice job of filling gaps from second- and third-level defenders, which usually means that you can get five, but getting eight to 10 is hard. You have to be patient with that, and I thought that we did an outstanding job last year being patient with running the ball. Last week, we did the same thing. I thought we did a good job of running the ball until we got into the red zone and then we didn’t do a good job at that.
On different offensive schemes depending on who the running back is
Not really. Those guys all practice the same. We don’t call plays differently based on who is in the game, we really don’t. Some guys get hot hands and you go with them. Some guys probably do a little better in maybe one specific area than the others, but not to where it’s so drastic to where we really change what we do based on who that guy is. A lot of times, (assistant coach – offensive coordinator/quarterbacks) Jake (Spavital) doesn’t know which one is in there because it can’t matter. We train all of them to do the same stuff.
On employing sophomore cornerback Derrek Pitts Jr. if redshirt senior safety Toyous Avery Jr. comes back this week
He’s versatile, so we can do different things with him. We should get Toyous back, and he should practice today. He’s a good player for us. It gives us the ability to be able to play more than one person per spot. We need to get Derrek out there playing more, whether it’s a corner/safety rotation or just moving guys around, that’s a heck of a problem to have.
On junior wide receiver Marcus Simms’ next step in his progression
Obviously, consistency and better production. He dropped a couple of balls and didn’t play very good last week – that’s nothing to panic about. He practiced really well last week. I would anticipate him practicing good this week, going out there and being ready to make a bunch of plays.
On how he watches film now as a head coach and how he uses analysts
Having the analysts helps the specific sides because they can give you the report before you have to sit there and watch 12 hours of video. That gets each side of the ball ahead to where they know what they have to look at, and they can just start getting into the weeds on the specifics of game planning. For one, I thought that was an odd question that guy asked. Odd and random. But I’ve changed a little bit. In the past, when I was a play caller, there was only so much time in the day as to when you have to sit there and you have to get into the weeds as fast as you can. Mondays were an absolute nightmare for me because you would have to watch a lot of the video to figure out what you’re going to focus on, then you have to get into the weeds with it. Now, you get into the weeds quicker as a coordinator, so that’s awesome. I don’t have to do a lot of that stuff. The assistants do a lot of that. I focus more on how the opponents’ specific games play out from an offense, special teams, defense. That sort of thing has allowed me to get a better feel for our opponent as far as the overall aspect of their team and how their games have unfolded. In the past, I did that when I could because I had to really focus on being in the weeds on offense.
On his evaluation of redshirt sophomore offensive lineman Josh Sills
He’s doing well. I’m happy with where Josh is at. He’s big. He gets kind of tired and he gets kind of – he’s not a lazy person – but he gets kind of lazy with his technique throughout the course of the game that he has to fix. That’s typical for a lot of younger guys, so he has to keep focusing on being a really good player the entire game. Don’t lose focus and don’t get lazy on us, we need you the whole time. His first halves have been generally better than the second halves.
On similarities between his offense and Oklahoma State’s and how that factors into Iowa State’s schedule
I don’t think that goes all the way through, though. I know what you’re saying, but usually my experiences with it – and I’ll have to look at the schedule to be exact – but usually the first half you get it like that and then the second half it changes as far as who we’re looking at. You’re right, there have been years where we’ve had Kansas State as the one before us, which didn’t do us a whole lot of good. That was the one that was before us for about half the year or three-quarters of the year, whatever that mark was. It can be an advantage, but there are so many teams in the Big 12 now that are so similar that it is probably not that big of an advantage.
Opening Statement
OK, moving on to Iowa State. We have a good opportunity this week. We’re excited about a night game. We better get used to it, we’ve got a bunch of them ahead of us, so it’ll be good to get into a night-game routine. So, we’re looking forward to that. We’ll head over to Iowa on Friday, probably just a little bit later than we normally do, but we’ll get over there and have a different type of schedule on Saturday that we need to get used to. Obviously, they’re coming off a big win at Oklahoma State, a hard place to go play. They competed hard and won that game. Shoot, the week before, they went to TCU and competed hard down there, as well. These guys don’t care who they’re playing. They’re going to line up and play the same. They’re a well-coached, disciplined, hard-working bunch that continues to get better. We don’t care if they’re 2-3 or if they’re 5-0. That doesn’t make any difference to me, or our team. Our job is to prepare the same way every week, and these guys pose a lot of challenges. We respect their program and what they do.
Offensively, they’re searching a little bit for their identity, so to speak, because of some injury issues that everybody has to deal with at times. Their two main, old, leading players in Kyle Kempt and David Montgomery have been dealing with injuries. We’re expecting both those guys to be available and play. They’re really good players, especially Montgomery. He’s an All-American, NFL-type player, and he’s been banged up as of late, but we’re expecting him to play. He played against us last year — both of them — so we know what type of players they are, and we’ll prepare for those guys to be ready to go. Obviously, with the switch at quarterback last week, it poses different challenges for us defensively with the (Brock) Purdy kid in from Arizona. He didn’t go in and play like a freshman. I don’t think I’ve seen a game one, freshman performance quite like that. Texas Tech had to put their freshman in game one and had some good performances, but it wasn’t like in the first one, like that Purdy guy did. It’s different; he runs around a lot better than Kempt does. That’s just not what Kempt’s game is. The (Zeb) Noland kid, No. 4, that has played a lot of games for them, he was probably a little bit more of a thrower and a scrambler, but they’re doing all kinds of quarterback run game with Purdy, which is a different challenge for us. With him in there, they look a lot like what we looked like two or three years ago with Skyler (Howard), as far as quarterback-run game, and different things that were coached up the appropriate way. We’ll have to figure that out when we get there. But we got a lot of good information to be able coach up at this point.
Their receiver, No. 18, (Hakeem) Butler, is making all kinds of plays. It seems like he’s got more than 18 (receptions) for 372 (yards) and four (touchdowns). It seems like he does, because he’s made a lot of big plays in a lot of big games. He’s a matchup nightmare. He’s a lot like the Texas Tech guys were. The other guy, (Matthew) Eaton, is another 6-4 guy. Those two tall guys on the outside pose the same challenges from a corners’ and covers’ perspective than the Texas Tech guys do. We’ll have to keep our eye on that. They will keep getting better on offense. Last week’s performance at Oklahoma State was impressive, and that’s what we will be expecting moving forward.
Defensively, I have a lot of respect for what they’re doing. Coach (Jon) Heacock has done a great job and has taken a kind of odd stack with what we do here, and kind of put his own spin on it. It’s not exactly what we’re doing, but it’s got some of those principles to it. It starts with their (defensive) line. They’ve got three good (defensive)-line bodies, especially their nose (tackle), the (Ray) Lima kid and the (Joshua) Bailey kid, the end and the nose. Those guys started against us last year; they’re really good players. Two of the three linebackers are back, and the two corners that started against us and got a lot of experience, it seems like they’ve been three- or four-year starters. The (D’Andre) Payne kid, No. 1, and the (Brian) Peavey kid, all-conference guy, No. 10, they’re legit players. They’re really good players. They lost three senior safeties. They play a lot of the same coverage as we do. Whether it’s three guys back or one back, two guys down or two guys back, one hole player, the three safeties they had last year is what made that defense go. Those guys are all new, but other guys have stepped up, and they’re playing as good or better defensively than what they were last year. And they were a pretty good front last year, pretty good defense last year. So, they’ll pose a lot of the same problems Kansas did last week, in that they’re a quality defense.
Special teams lost a lot of their guys. The kicker has been solid. The punter, another Australian guy that’s come in, they’ve been doing different things with him. They’re doing a really good job with the pooch punting stuff that we’ve seen a lot of these Australians do. They do some roll punting, but do some traditional punting, as well. We’ve got to get used to them spraying it everywhere, fielding that thing. They’ve always been good and solid at the kicking game, and it’s something that we will continue to focus on.
They came in here hot last year, and I thought our team played really well against them. It’s the same type team, same scheme, same players. They’ll pose a lot of the same problems that they did last year. They’ll play hard, and we’re going to have to play hard for four quarters in order to give ourselves a chance.
On Iowa State’s issues and improvement at offense last week
They lost their coordinator, they’ve had some coaching stuff, they had the injury to their main player, their quarterback. Like I said, their running back is so good, and they rely on him so much. They give it to him a lot. You don’t have him, then you surge. We’ve been in that situation before. These guys have been good on offense. They know how to coach it up. I think it’s just a matter of continuity more than anything. I know Matt (Campbell) has kind of taken over the play calling, and he’s obviously as good of a coach as there is out there, so they’ll keep getting better with it. I think they’ve found a good, young quarterback that can make plays (Brock Purdy). He ran around, he can make guys miss. He was accurate when he was throwing the ball. It was a good offensive performance. Whether that’s going to be the same thing against us, or whether they go in a different direction with Kempt, I don’t know. We’ll be ready for whatever they throw at us.
On Iowa State’s defense and tackles for losses
They’re disruptive up front. The biggest difference in what they’re doing this year and what they did last year is their front is a lot better. It’s similar to our stuff, it really is. They’re playing good up front, and we’re playing good up front with those three. And they’re creating some stuff with that three, but then they bring second-level bodies from everywhere – corners, safeties, linebackers. And you don’t know where it’s coming from. So, you’ve got to do a good job of identifying it. We’ve got to do better up front. We’ve got to do better up front as far as identifying it. We’ve had too many sacks, tackles for loss, and disruptions in the backfield last week that we didn’t have in the previous four games. So, we’ve got our work cut out for us. Offensively, up front, to figure out where that stuff’s coming from, because they do a very nice job with it, as we do here on defense, as well.
On similarities to Kansas’s defense
It’s all those second-level guys. The similarities coverage-wise, defensively, with what Kansas and Iowa State are doing are pretty similar. Whatever worked for Kansas, I would assume we’re going to get it here this week.
On redshirt sophomore linebacker Brendan Ferns and senior linebacker Quondarius Qualls returning
We’re going to get them. I don’t make any of those decisions. If they’re practicing, I can assure you, they’d be playing. They’re not cleared, they’re not practicing. The closer we get to that six-month mark, the better we’ll all feel about it. It’s getting close. I think we’re about a month away.
On redshirt sophomore wide receiver T.J. Simmons stepping up and the team’s versatility at wide receiver position
Yeah, I think so. T.J. probably played the best out of all of those guys last week. (He) was pretty consistent and made some plays. (Senior wide receiver) Gary (Jennings Jr.) and (senior wide receiver) David (Sills V) do things that is just routine at this point and that’s pretty good. (Junior wide receiver) Marcus (Simms) had a couple of games where he played pretty good. I don’t think he quite did what we need him to do last week. T.J. has been solid. I’ve been pleased with the backups as well. There have been plenty of years when I’ve been sitting here pulling what hair I have left out over (our wide receiver backups). (Senior wide receiver) Dominique Maiden has been doing (well); he went in and made a big catch. (Sophomore wide receiver) Tevin Bush went in and made a couple of nice plays. (Freshman wide receiver) Sam James got some action for the first time all year; we’ll see how that goes. I feel better about those guys in general. The tight ends take one of those guys off the field a lot, so we don’t have to play four all the time. It makes it harder for us to game plan against when all of those guys are capable of making a play.
On having 10 different players catch touchdown passes already this season
It’s having more than three people, is one. Last year, we had Ka’Raun (White) and (senior wide receiver) Gary (Jennings Jr.) and (senior wide receiver) David (Sills V) out there about 95 percent of the time. It’s the emergence of (junior wide receiver) Marcus (Simms), it’s (redshirt sophomore wide receiver) T.J. (Simmons) being eligible, it’s backup receivers doing a better job and maturing and playing better and being guys who we can count on. Then, it’s getting our running backs involved as well. That’s probably the biggest difference scheme-wise. They have to account for those backs. We flipped it out there in the flat twice last week and scored. You have to cover everybody. That makes it hard for everybody to defend us.
On redshirt sophomore tight end/fullback Jovani Haskins getting more playing time
He’s (in between) right now. He’s still young and still maturing, still growing, still filling out. (Redshirt senior tight end Trevon) Wesco is a dominating blocker. Jovani is far from that. He’s 40 pounds less. Wesco is turning into a guy who we want to throw the ball to a good bit, so you have to account for him as well. He hasn’t scored a touchdown yet, has he? We’ll get him on the touchdown train at some point. Jovani is more of a natural receiver, which has something to do with him being lighter, so he can run better. He has great ball skills. I like the one-two punch with those guys right now. I think probably in two years, the maturity of Jovani should get him to where he can block as good as Wesco, then we’ll use younger guys who can come in. It’s the natural progression of a tight end. You want them 270 so that they can block people, but when you’re 270 as a freshman, you probably can’t run and catch very well. I think it’s just the natural progression of that position, which makes that position hard to recruit. You can’t go recruit a guy and just plug them in year one, which has always been the problem. We can find running backs and receivers and plug them in there year one. (We) can’t do that at tight end. Having two young guys right now that we’re currently redshirting will help us mature those guys into what they need to be down the road.
On how critical it is to get running game on track against Iowa State
Critical, without a doubt. We ran the ball against them last year. I don’t remember the number exactly, but I was happy with how we ran the ball against them last year. They give us favorable boxes, but they do a really nice job of filling gaps from second- and third-level defenders, which usually means that you can get five, but getting eight to 10 is hard. You have to be patient with that, and I thought that we did an outstanding job last year being patient with running the ball. Last week, we did the same thing. I thought we did a good job of running the ball until we got into the red zone and then we didn’t do a good job at that.
On different offensive schemes depending on who the running back is
Not really. Those guys all practice the same. We don’t call plays differently based on who is in the game, we really don’t. Some guys get hot hands and you go with them. Some guys probably do a little better in maybe one specific area than the others, but not to where it’s so drastic to where we really change what we do based on who that guy is. A lot of times, (assistant coach – offensive coordinator/quarterbacks) Jake (Spavital) doesn’t know which one is in there because it can’t matter. We train all of them to do the same stuff.
On employing sophomore cornerback Derrek Pitts Jr. if redshirt senior safety Toyous Avery Jr. comes back this week
He’s versatile, so we can do different things with him. We should get Toyous back, and he should practice today. He’s a good player for us. It gives us the ability to be able to play more than one person per spot. We need to get Derrek out there playing more, whether it’s a corner/safety rotation or just moving guys around, that’s a heck of a problem to have.
On junior wide receiver Marcus Simms’ next step in his progression
Obviously, consistency and better production. He dropped a couple of balls and didn’t play very good last week – that’s nothing to panic about. He practiced really well last week. I would anticipate him practicing good this week, going out there and being ready to make a bunch of plays.
On how he watches film now as a head coach and how he uses analysts
Having the analysts helps the specific sides because they can give you the report before you have to sit there and watch 12 hours of video. That gets each side of the ball ahead to where they know what they have to look at, and they can just start getting into the weeds on the specifics of game planning. For one, I thought that was an odd question that guy asked. Odd and random. But I’ve changed a little bit. In the past, when I was a play caller, there was only so much time in the day as to when you have to sit there and you have to get into the weeds as fast as you can. Mondays were an absolute nightmare for me because you would have to watch a lot of the video to figure out what you’re going to focus on, then you have to get into the weeds with it. Now, you get into the weeds quicker as a coordinator, so that’s awesome. I don’t have to do a lot of that stuff. The assistants do a lot of that. I focus more on how the opponents’ specific games play out from an offense, special teams, defense. That sort of thing has allowed me to get a better feel for our opponent as far as the overall aspect of their team and how their games have unfolded. In the past, I did that when I could because I had to really focus on being in the weeds on offense.
On his evaluation of redshirt sophomore offensive lineman Josh Sills
He’s doing well. I’m happy with where Josh is at. He’s big. He gets kind of tired and he gets kind of – he’s not a lazy person – but he gets kind of lazy with his technique throughout the course of the game that he has to fix. That’s typical for a lot of younger guys, so he has to keep focusing on being a really good player the entire game. Don’t lose focus and don’t get lazy on us, we need you the whole time. His first halves have been generally better than the second halves.
On similarities between his offense and Oklahoma State’s and how that factors into Iowa State’s schedule
I don’t think that goes all the way through, though. I know what you’re saying, but usually my experiences with it – and I’ll have to look at the schedule to be exact – but usually the first half you get it like that and then the second half it changes as far as who we’re looking at. You’re right, there have been years where we’ve had Kansas State as the one before us, which didn’t do us a whole lot of good. That was the one that was before us for about half the year or three-quarters of the year, whatever that mark was. It can be an advantage, but there are so many teams in the Big 12 now that are so similar that it is probably not that big of an advantage.
