MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (October 30, 2018) – West Virginia University football coach Dana Holgorsen addressed members of the media on Tuesday, Oct. 30, at the Milan Puskar Center Team Room.
Opening Statement
Okay, here we go. This one is one we’ve been looking forward to for a while. It didn’t quite end the way we wanted it to last year, and we haven’t forgotten about that. We’re looking forward to going to Austin on Friday and playing this game on Saturday. We’ll have to prepare for some heat, it’s going to be hot down there, and we’re well-aware of that. I don’t think it’s going to be as hot as some of the games we’ve already played this year, I don’t think, but we’ll be prepared for that.
A lot of guys in our locker room have been to Austin, been on that field. I don’t think we’ll be surprised by any of the excitement that they have surrounding around their program at this point in time. It’s the next one; you have to get ready to play every week. If you’ve learned anything from the last game we’ve played, if you’re not ready to play, you’re going to get beat. It’s no different than any of the other nine Big 12 teams in our league. If you’re ready to play, then you have a chance to win. If you’re not ready to play, then you’re going to get beat. That’s college football for you. It has happened to us, it has happened to them. They’ve been in some tight games and won. Obviously, the one against Oklahoma three weeks ago stands out because Oklahoma is playing pretty well at this point in time. They won a close one against Baylor – that probably had something to do with their quarterback problem at the time. Then, they lost a close one at Oklahoma State last week. So, anything I’ve said is not surprising in the Big 12, it’s not surprising in college football.
Things start with their quarterback. (Sam) Ehlinger is coming into his own. He’s really a fantastic football player. I thought he was good last year, it’s just hard for true freshmen to play at a high level, but he got a lot of valuable experience last year. They run him a lot, he’s heavily involved in their run game. He has scored eight touchdowns with his feet, so they rely on that, they’ve built their offense around it. It’s no different than what Coach (Tom) Herman did at Houston, or even in his days at Ohio State, they always ran the quarterback, and he’s good at it. He’s 6-3, 225, and he looks every bit of it. He looks to me like he’s much more comfortable in the pocket now. He’s throwing the ball well and has made a lot of plays and extended a lot of plays against Oklahoma State last week. He looks comfortable doing so.
They’re good up front. (Offensive) line-wise, I think they do a great job. Herb Hand is a name that everybody remembers – he was here at one point – and I have a lot of respect for him. They’re playing well up front, and the quarterback is doing a good job. They have three different running backs, all five-star guys that are capable of being the main guy. When you have that many of them, you use all of them. It’s no different than what we do with our running backs. And then what stands out at receiver are those basketball players that they have out there. They’re 6-5 and 6-6, and they’re both the same. They’re both talented, tall, big, can run and have made a bunch of plays for them. We have our hands full on defense to say the least.
Defensively, I think Todd Orlando has done a good job with that group. He’s no stranger to this part of the country, he’s from Pittsburgh and coached at UConn. I have a lot of respect with what he’s done. He’s getting those guys to play hard. They have a lot of older guys, experienced guys, a lot of guys that Coach (Charlie) Strong recruited. Now, four years later, we’ve faced a lot of these guys for the last three years. There’s a lot of seniors on that group. I’m glad about three of them came out early. That would be three more NFL-caliber players that would mix in with that defense that they have, which would be scary. With that said, they have a lot of experience, a lot of older guys mixed in with four or five more four- or five-star guys that are playing as true freshmen. Two of them are starting and couple of other ones play a good bit, as well. There’s a lot of talent on that defense. They’re big up front, they have linebackers that make tackles, safeties that run, corners that cover. Offensively, we have our work cut out for us. They’re going to be very multiple with what they do, as well.
Special teams-wise, I think they do a great job. We have (senior punter) Billy the kicker; they have (Cameron) Dicker the kicker. The freshman kicker is a good player, he’s doing a good job with his field goal stuff. And then another Australian punter, that, thank God, is not quite where the other one was. The other is performing at an NFL Pro Bowl level in the NFL, but this guy is going to be a pretty good one for them. You can tell they spend a lot of time with special teams. They have really good players, obviously, and they spend the time to coach them up. So, their schemes are sound, and their specialists are pretty special. Return-wise, they have several different ones they put back there. They’re trying to get No. 17, (D’Shawn) Jamison, to be the guy. He’s a dynamic freshman, probably another five-star guy, that they’ve put back there that has skills. They beat Kansas State on a punt return, which Kansas State is usually the ones that wins on punt returns. They beat them on a punt return, forced a fumble on their punt return, so, in a close game against Kansas State, special teams was the difference, which is ironic saying that against Kansas State.
So, they do a good job on all three phases. They have loads of talent. Our guys are going to be excited about going to Austin to play in that environment. We’re looking forward to it, and I know we’ll be ready to go.
On if Texas does anything unique that will force adjustments
Well, no. They’re good at what they do, they have good schemes. Their offense really reminds you what we were two years ago with Skyler (Howard) because we ran him so much. They have good passing-game schemes, they’re sound up front, they want to run the ball, they get the quarterback involved in it, so you have to account for him. And then they can drop back and throw it to NFL receivers. It’s not like we haven’t seen that – Texas Tech had 6-5 receivers, and we have to defend against that, Iowa State does a lot of stuff with motions and tight ends and quarterback-run game. We’ll have a feel for what they do, the hard part about it is defending it, obviously. Defensively, it’s a three-down front that can kick to a four-down front, a lot of Iowa State, a lot like Kansas, a lot like Texas Tech. They do the four layers of defense with that extra safety like (associate head coach – defensive coordinator/linebackers) (Tony) Gibby (Gibson) has done forever. How much they get that guy involved in the run game is what we’re going to have to figure out. We’ve seen it all, and we’ll have a good plan. We’ll be ready to play. We’re expecting a hard-fought game, and hopefully the ball bounces our way.
On the status update for senior linebacker Quondarius Qualls, redshirt sophomore linebacker Brendan Ferns and redshirt sophomore linebacker Dylan Tonkery
I could if I wanted to. We’ll see how those guys practice. The two long-term guys that have been hurt for six months are now ready to play. We have to go out and practice – I’m not saying they’re playing or starting or any of that. We have to go out and practice and see how it looks. If they help us, then we play them. If they’re not ready to go, and they can’t help us, then we won’t play them. Tonkery is in the same boat, (sophomore cornerback) (Derrek) Pitts (Jr.) is in the same boat, (redshirt junior offensive lineman) Joe Brown is in the same boat. We have guys coming back, whenever they are ready to roll is when we’ll put them out there. That’s no different than any other team in the country at this point in time.
On how to handle the running backs going forward
We don’t restrict what those guys can do from a play-call perspective. If one guy goes in, (assistant coach – offensive coordinator/quarterbacks) Jake (Spavital) doesn’t say which running back is in to be able to figure out what plays we’re going to call. They all have a little different skillset, so we may try to gear them towards what plays we call – get one guy in there for a screen or get a guy in there because we know they’re going to blitz, or one guy we want to run the routes, or one guy we want to be on the goal line. We’ll gear it towards that, but none of them are restricted with what we can call. All four of them can run the entire game plan. It’s always good to have a feature back like we’ve had in the past like Wendell (Smallwood), in my mind, was a feature back his junior year, Iowa State’s guy, I think everyone would agree, is a featured guy. But having four guys that can go in there and play, I think, is the best approach just based on health and wear-and-tear. But they have to be selfless players, too, and I think all four of those guys are. All four of them get along, and they are rooting for the other guys when they go in. We’ll try to do as much two-back stuff as we can to get those guys involved. That’s just a week-by-week game plan.
On how Texas has limited turning the ball over
It starts with the quarterback; he’s doing a good job. They have six turnovers in eight games, that’s pretty good. It starts with the quarterback, that quarterback has to have that trait. There are quarterbacks that do a good job with it, and there are quarterbacks that are pretty careless with the ball, so to speak. I think (Sam) Ehlinger does a really good job with that, especially because they run him so much to not put that ball on the ground. He’s a big, strong guy. And then making decisions as well – I think he’s a smart player, and I think he’s one that’s extra careful with the football, as well. And their team does a good job with it. We’ve been getting some turnovers, I guess that hat has something to do with it. Hopefully, we can create a few of them. I’ve always had this stance: a couple turnovers here or there isn’t really the difference in a game. It’s about what you do with the turnovers. One reason why we dominated Baylor is because we created them, we didn’t have any turnovers, we got five – I count turnover on downs as the same thing because it’s all about field position, which we dominated – and then we dominated that stat, as well.
On how to manage players returning from injury
Everybody is different. How they come back and how comfortable they get, everybody is a little bit different. We have a pretty good medical staff here that is careful enough to where they aren’t going to put them out there before they are truly ready. There are so many different tests they can do to make sure they’re ready, but then there’s the mental aspect of it, as well. That’s why you have to practice. Guys are cleared – that doesn’t mean they are going to play. I have to see how they practice to make sure that they are comfortable and that they are the best ones for that position. We have a lot of guys that we’re playing, so there’s a lot of competition, which is why we’re still improving. We played 66 guys last week, so that was great. Our snaps are distributed over 76 guys over the course of seven games. So, that’s a lot of people to rep, and that creates competition. We just add those guys to the mix, and we make decisions. That’s what they pay us to do on who is going to get the reps.
On playing in Austin
It’s a 100,000-seat stadium, that’s a little different than most. I’ve seen that place really good. Most of our guys that are on our team understand that environment. We’ve played in those environments before, and it’s one that we’re excited about. We’ve had success down there, so our guys are going to be fired up about going. It’s a nice place; Austin is a great city. The University of Texas has great tradition, great facilities, great location, really good weather, a lot of good stuff. It’s fun to go there. I’ve been there a bunch; I bet I’ve coached there 10 times.
On moving redshirt sophomore Josh Sills to right guard
I didn’t know we did that. Are you sure we did that? Well, when (redshirt sophomore offensive lineman) (Chase) Behrndt went in there, we did. We won’t do that with (senior offensive lineman) (Isaiah) Hardy, we won’t do that with (redshirt junior offensive lineman) Joe Brown, we won’t do that with (redshirt junior offensive lineman) Michael Brown, who gets the nod this week. That had nothing to do with it, I can assure you that. Sills is a versatile player that can go back and forth. There’s five other guards that can’t do that.
On how redshirt sophomore offensive lineman Chase Behrndt played against Baylor
OK. We have six, seven linemen that need to play better. I’m happy with where (redshirt senior offensive lineman) Yodny (Cajuste) and (redshirt junior) Colton (McKivitz) are at, I’m happy with (redshirt sophomore offensive lineman) Josh Sills, but the other seven need to keep improving. I thought we were targeted better, I thought (assistant coach – offensive coordinator) (Joe) Wick (Wickline) did a good job with those guys getting them ready to go. We have to keep improving there. Just the whole blocking aspect of it, I talked a lot about this after the game, just the whole blocking in general is good – that just doesn’t mean the five (offensive) linemen. It’s about (redshirt senior tight end/fullback) (Trevon) Wesco making a difference with blocking and the backs doing a better job with pass protection. And then we blocked really well on the perimeter, and I haven’t been able to say that here in like three years, so I was happy with that as well.
On senior wide receiver David Sills V’s knack for the end zone
Hand-eye coordination helps, obviously, but just body control more than anything. Those two touchdowns he had, the coverage was good. I thought No. 23, the corner for Baylor, was a good player. He’s a grad transfer from Temple and has a lot of experience. He was really handsy, he got his hands on him, so David was covered. But his body control and his technique allowed him to position himself to be able to catch that where the defender couldn’t. So, great receivers that can catch fade routes, and the touchdown aspect of it is extra special just based on the closer you get to the goal line, the less space there is, so you’re going to be covered, and the great ones are guys that understand how to use body control, and that’s technique because we coach the heck out of it to be able to position your body to catch it, and the defender can’t. David is as good as I’ve ever seen at that. He’s really good at it. I think there’s a mentality that needs to exist to be able to score. We talk a lot about that, find guys that can score. You say, ‘Duh, don’t you want all your guys to be able to score?’ There are guys that have a knack for scoring, and he’s one of those guys that has a knack for scoring. Stedman (Bailey) was great at it. Mike (Montoro) and I were talking about the number of touchdowns – Stedman had 25 touchdowns in one year. He has a knack for scoring, and his body control was unbelievable. That doesn’t just mean high-pointing it. That’s 100 percent technique and body control. David has that, and Stedman had that, as well.
On moving redshirt senior tight end/fullback Trevon Wesco around
It just developed. His skills as a tight end are continuously developing. He has really started to do some good things in the pass game. That wasn’t a quality that he possessed a year ago. He’s just really starting to come into his own. We felt like Eli (Wellman) was a better blocker than him last year, that’s why Eli played all the time. Wesco, over spring and throughout the course of camp, I thought, really did a nice job with his blocking. And the more we want to play him, the more we want to be able to get him involved. And then there’s the pass-game aspect of it that is continuously getting better. We’ll keep throwing it to him, and (redshirt sophomore tight end) Jovani (Haskins) went in there and played 15 snaps and caught three balls. So, he’s more of a receiving aspect of a tight end, and we’ll continue to get him involved, as well. They are going to have to guard those tight ends. People know that they have to guard our backs, and that was the one thing that I was so happy with last week. This is kind of a Mike Leach thing, but balance is how many different people touch the ball. We had like 14 people touch the ball last week, so everybody that goes out there is a threat to be able to touch the ball, and that makes people hard to defend.
On battling against Texas’ offensive line
They are playing well. I think Herb Hand has something to do with that. I think Herb is a good (offensive) line coach. They are getting experience, and they are playing pretty well. Our (defensive) line, I’ve been very happy with not only the disruption that they’ve caused in the backfield – they are top-five in the country in tackles for loss or whatever – that’s not just (redshirt junior linebacker) David Long (Jr.) being one of the best players in the country. That’s the (defensive) line being disruptive in the backfield, but also holding gaps, holding double teams. We have seven different guys that are playing, which allows those guys to be fresh. I think (senior defensive lineman) (Ezekiel) Zeke (Rose) or (junior defensive lineman) Reese (Donahue) is averaging like 38 snaps per game or something like that. That’s the highest we have on the (defensive) line, that helps. Last year, Reese was playing probably 60 snaps per game or whatever it was. You get tired because that’s a hard position to play. So, we’re staying fresh, and we’re being disruptive, but we’re also doing a good job of holding gaps, which is letting David and (redshirt junior linebacker) Shea Campbell and (redshirt sophomore linebacker) (Dylan) Tonk (Tonkery) and (junior linebacker) JoVanni (Stewart) to run around and make plays.
Opening Statement
Okay, here we go. This one is one we’ve been looking forward to for a while. It didn’t quite end the way we wanted it to last year, and we haven’t forgotten about that. We’re looking forward to going to Austin on Friday and playing this game on Saturday. We’ll have to prepare for some heat, it’s going to be hot down there, and we’re well-aware of that. I don’t think it’s going to be as hot as some of the games we’ve already played this year, I don’t think, but we’ll be prepared for that.
A lot of guys in our locker room have been to Austin, been on that field. I don’t think we’ll be surprised by any of the excitement that they have surrounding around their program at this point in time. It’s the next one; you have to get ready to play every week. If you’ve learned anything from the last game we’ve played, if you’re not ready to play, you’re going to get beat. It’s no different than any of the other nine Big 12 teams in our league. If you’re ready to play, then you have a chance to win. If you’re not ready to play, then you’re going to get beat. That’s college football for you. It has happened to us, it has happened to them. They’ve been in some tight games and won. Obviously, the one against Oklahoma three weeks ago stands out because Oklahoma is playing pretty well at this point in time. They won a close one against Baylor – that probably had something to do with their quarterback problem at the time. Then, they lost a close one at Oklahoma State last week. So, anything I’ve said is not surprising in the Big 12, it’s not surprising in college football.
Things start with their quarterback. (Sam) Ehlinger is coming into his own. He’s really a fantastic football player. I thought he was good last year, it’s just hard for true freshmen to play at a high level, but he got a lot of valuable experience last year. They run him a lot, he’s heavily involved in their run game. He has scored eight touchdowns with his feet, so they rely on that, they’ve built their offense around it. It’s no different than what Coach (Tom) Herman did at Houston, or even in his days at Ohio State, they always ran the quarterback, and he’s good at it. He’s 6-3, 225, and he looks every bit of it. He looks to me like he’s much more comfortable in the pocket now. He’s throwing the ball well and has made a lot of plays and extended a lot of plays against Oklahoma State last week. He looks comfortable doing so.
They’re good up front. (Offensive) line-wise, I think they do a great job. Herb Hand is a name that everybody remembers – he was here at one point – and I have a lot of respect for him. They’re playing well up front, and the quarterback is doing a good job. They have three different running backs, all five-star guys that are capable of being the main guy. When you have that many of them, you use all of them. It’s no different than what we do with our running backs. And then what stands out at receiver are those basketball players that they have out there. They’re 6-5 and 6-6, and they’re both the same. They’re both talented, tall, big, can run and have made a bunch of plays for them. We have our hands full on defense to say the least.
Defensively, I think Todd Orlando has done a good job with that group. He’s no stranger to this part of the country, he’s from Pittsburgh and coached at UConn. I have a lot of respect with what he’s done. He’s getting those guys to play hard. They have a lot of older guys, experienced guys, a lot of guys that Coach (Charlie) Strong recruited. Now, four years later, we’ve faced a lot of these guys for the last three years. There’s a lot of seniors on that group. I’m glad about three of them came out early. That would be three more NFL-caliber players that would mix in with that defense that they have, which would be scary. With that said, they have a lot of experience, a lot of older guys mixed in with four or five more four- or five-star guys that are playing as true freshmen. Two of them are starting and couple of other ones play a good bit, as well. There’s a lot of talent on that defense. They’re big up front, they have linebackers that make tackles, safeties that run, corners that cover. Offensively, we have our work cut out for us. They’re going to be very multiple with what they do, as well.
Special teams-wise, I think they do a great job. We have (senior punter) Billy the kicker; they have (Cameron) Dicker the kicker. The freshman kicker is a good player, he’s doing a good job with his field goal stuff. And then another Australian punter, that, thank God, is not quite where the other one was. The other is performing at an NFL Pro Bowl level in the NFL, but this guy is going to be a pretty good one for them. You can tell they spend a lot of time with special teams. They have really good players, obviously, and they spend the time to coach them up. So, their schemes are sound, and their specialists are pretty special. Return-wise, they have several different ones they put back there. They’re trying to get No. 17, (D’Shawn) Jamison, to be the guy. He’s a dynamic freshman, probably another five-star guy, that they’ve put back there that has skills. They beat Kansas State on a punt return, which Kansas State is usually the ones that wins on punt returns. They beat them on a punt return, forced a fumble on their punt return, so, in a close game against Kansas State, special teams was the difference, which is ironic saying that against Kansas State.
So, they do a good job on all three phases. They have loads of talent. Our guys are going to be excited about going to Austin to play in that environment. We’re looking forward to it, and I know we’ll be ready to go.
On if Texas does anything unique that will force adjustments
Well, no. They’re good at what they do, they have good schemes. Their offense really reminds you what we were two years ago with Skyler (Howard) because we ran him so much. They have good passing-game schemes, they’re sound up front, they want to run the ball, they get the quarterback involved in it, so you have to account for him. And then they can drop back and throw it to NFL receivers. It’s not like we haven’t seen that – Texas Tech had 6-5 receivers, and we have to defend against that, Iowa State does a lot of stuff with motions and tight ends and quarterback-run game. We’ll have a feel for what they do, the hard part about it is defending it, obviously. Defensively, it’s a three-down front that can kick to a four-down front, a lot of Iowa State, a lot like Kansas, a lot like Texas Tech. They do the four layers of defense with that extra safety like (associate head coach – defensive coordinator/linebackers) (Tony) Gibby (Gibson) has done forever. How much they get that guy involved in the run game is what we’re going to have to figure out. We’ve seen it all, and we’ll have a good plan. We’ll be ready to play. We’re expecting a hard-fought game, and hopefully the ball bounces our way.
On the status update for senior linebacker Quondarius Qualls, redshirt sophomore linebacker Brendan Ferns and redshirt sophomore linebacker Dylan Tonkery
I could if I wanted to. We’ll see how those guys practice. The two long-term guys that have been hurt for six months are now ready to play. We have to go out and practice – I’m not saying they’re playing or starting or any of that. We have to go out and practice and see how it looks. If they help us, then we play them. If they’re not ready to go, and they can’t help us, then we won’t play them. Tonkery is in the same boat, (sophomore cornerback) (Derrek) Pitts (Jr.) is in the same boat, (redshirt junior offensive lineman) Joe Brown is in the same boat. We have guys coming back, whenever they are ready to roll is when we’ll put them out there. That’s no different than any other team in the country at this point in time.
On how to handle the running backs going forward
We don’t restrict what those guys can do from a play-call perspective. If one guy goes in, (assistant coach – offensive coordinator/quarterbacks) Jake (Spavital) doesn’t say which running back is in to be able to figure out what plays we’re going to call. They all have a little different skillset, so we may try to gear them towards what plays we call – get one guy in there for a screen or get a guy in there because we know they’re going to blitz, or one guy we want to run the routes, or one guy we want to be on the goal line. We’ll gear it towards that, but none of them are restricted with what we can call. All four of them can run the entire game plan. It’s always good to have a feature back like we’ve had in the past like Wendell (Smallwood), in my mind, was a feature back his junior year, Iowa State’s guy, I think everyone would agree, is a featured guy. But having four guys that can go in there and play, I think, is the best approach just based on health and wear-and-tear. But they have to be selfless players, too, and I think all four of those guys are. All four of them get along, and they are rooting for the other guys when they go in. We’ll try to do as much two-back stuff as we can to get those guys involved. That’s just a week-by-week game plan.
On how Texas has limited turning the ball over
It starts with the quarterback; he’s doing a good job. They have six turnovers in eight games, that’s pretty good. It starts with the quarterback, that quarterback has to have that trait. There are quarterbacks that do a good job with it, and there are quarterbacks that are pretty careless with the ball, so to speak. I think (Sam) Ehlinger does a really good job with that, especially because they run him so much to not put that ball on the ground. He’s a big, strong guy. And then making decisions as well – I think he’s a smart player, and I think he’s one that’s extra careful with the football, as well. And their team does a good job with it. We’ve been getting some turnovers, I guess that hat has something to do with it. Hopefully, we can create a few of them. I’ve always had this stance: a couple turnovers here or there isn’t really the difference in a game. It’s about what you do with the turnovers. One reason why we dominated Baylor is because we created them, we didn’t have any turnovers, we got five – I count turnover on downs as the same thing because it’s all about field position, which we dominated – and then we dominated that stat, as well.
On how to manage players returning from injury
Everybody is different. How they come back and how comfortable they get, everybody is a little bit different. We have a pretty good medical staff here that is careful enough to where they aren’t going to put them out there before they are truly ready. There are so many different tests they can do to make sure they’re ready, but then there’s the mental aspect of it, as well. That’s why you have to practice. Guys are cleared – that doesn’t mean they are going to play. I have to see how they practice to make sure that they are comfortable and that they are the best ones for that position. We have a lot of guys that we’re playing, so there’s a lot of competition, which is why we’re still improving. We played 66 guys last week, so that was great. Our snaps are distributed over 76 guys over the course of seven games. So, that’s a lot of people to rep, and that creates competition. We just add those guys to the mix, and we make decisions. That’s what they pay us to do on who is going to get the reps.
On playing in Austin
It’s a 100,000-seat stadium, that’s a little different than most. I’ve seen that place really good. Most of our guys that are on our team understand that environment. We’ve played in those environments before, and it’s one that we’re excited about. We’ve had success down there, so our guys are going to be fired up about going. It’s a nice place; Austin is a great city. The University of Texas has great tradition, great facilities, great location, really good weather, a lot of good stuff. It’s fun to go there. I’ve been there a bunch; I bet I’ve coached there 10 times.
On moving redshirt sophomore Josh Sills to right guard
I didn’t know we did that. Are you sure we did that? Well, when (redshirt sophomore offensive lineman) (Chase) Behrndt went in there, we did. We won’t do that with (senior offensive lineman) (Isaiah) Hardy, we won’t do that with (redshirt junior offensive lineman) Joe Brown, we won’t do that with (redshirt junior offensive lineman) Michael Brown, who gets the nod this week. That had nothing to do with it, I can assure you that. Sills is a versatile player that can go back and forth. There’s five other guards that can’t do that.
On how redshirt sophomore offensive lineman Chase Behrndt played against Baylor
OK. We have six, seven linemen that need to play better. I’m happy with where (redshirt senior offensive lineman) Yodny (Cajuste) and (redshirt junior) Colton (McKivitz) are at, I’m happy with (redshirt sophomore offensive lineman) Josh Sills, but the other seven need to keep improving. I thought we were targeted better, I thought (assistant coach – offensive coordinator) (Joe) Wick (Wickline) did a good job with those guys getting them ready to go. We have to keep improving there. Just the whole blocking aspect of it, I talked a lot about this after the game, just the whole blocking in general is good – that just doesn’t mean the five (offensive) linemen. It’s about (redshirt senior tight end/fullback) (Trevon) Wesco making a difference with blocking and the backs doing a better job with pass protection. And then we blocked really well on the perimeter, and I haven’t been able to say that here in like three years, so I was happy with that as well.
On senior wide receiver David Sills V’s knack for the end zone
Hand-eye coordination helps, obviously, but just body control more than anything. Those two touchdowns he had, the coverage was good. I thought No. 23, the corner for Baylor, was a good player. He’s a grad transfer from Temple and has a lot of experience. He was really handsy, he got his hands on him, so David was covered. But his body control and his technique allowed him to position himself to be able to catch that where the defender couldn’t. So, great receivers that can catch fade routes, and the touchdown aspect of it is extra special just based on the closer you get to the goal line, the less space there is, so you’re going to be covered, and the great ones are guys that understand how to use body control, and that’s technique because we coach the heck out of it to be able to position your body to catch it, and the defender can’t. David is as good as I’ve ever seen at that. He’s really good at it. I think there’s a mentality that needs to exist to be able to score. We talk a lot about that, find guys that can score. You say, ‘Duh, don’t you want all your guys to be able to score?’ There are guys that have a knack for scoring, and he’s one of those guys that has a knack for scoring. Stedman (Bailey) was great at it. Mike (Montoro) and I were talking about the number of touchdowns – Stedman had 25 touchdowns in one year. He has a knack for scoring, and his body control was unbelievable. That doesn’t just mean high-pointing it. That’s 100 percent technique and body control. David has that, and Stedman had that, as well.
On moving redshirt senior tight end/fullback Trevon Wesco around
It just developed. His skills as a tight end are continuously developing. He has really started to do some good things in the pass game. That wasn’t a quality that he possessed a year ago. He’s just really starting to come into his own. We felt like Eli (Wellman) was a better blocker than him last year, that’s why Eli played all the time. Wesco, over spring and throughout the course of camp, I thought, really did a nice job with his blocking. And the more we want to play him, the more we want to be able to get him involved. And then there’s the pass-game aspect of it that is continuously getting better. We’ll keep throwing it to him, and (redshirt sophomore tight end) Jovani (Haskins) went in there and played 15 snaps and caught three balls. So, he’s more of a receiving aspect of a tight end, and we’ll continue to get him involved, as well. They are going to have to guard those tight ends. People know that they have to guard our backs, and that was the one thing that I was so happy with last week. This is kind of a Mike Leach thing, but balance is how many different people touch the ball. We had like 14 people touch the ball last week, so everybody that goes out there is a threat to be able to touch the ball, and that makes people hard to defend.
On battling against Texas’ offensive line
They are playing well. I think Herb Hand has something to do with that. I think Herb is a good (offensive) line coach. They are getting experience, and they are playing pretty well. Our (defensive) line, I’ve been very happy with not only the disruption that they’ve caused in the backfield – they are top-five in the country in tackles for loss or whatever – that’s not just (redshirt junior linebacker) David Long (Jr.) being one of the best players in the country. That’s the (defensive) line being disruptive in the backfield, but also holding gaps, holding double teams. We have seven different guys that are playing, which allows those guys to be fresh. I think (senior defensive lineman) (Ezekiel) Zeke (Rose) or (junior defensive lineman) Reese (Donahue) is averaging like 38 snaps per game or something like that. That’s the highest we have on the (defensive) line, that helps. Last year, Reese was playing probably 60 snaps per game or whatever it was. You get tired because that’s a hard position to play. So, we’re staying fresh, and we’re being disruptive, but we’re also doing a good job of holding gaps, which is letting David and (redshirt junior linebacker) Shea Campbell and (redshirt sophomore linebacker) (Dylan) Tonk (Tonkery) and (junior linebacker) JoVanni (Stewart) to run around and make plays.
