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WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 15, 2016

Dana Holgorsen

West Virginia - 48, Texas Tech - 17

DANA HOLGORSEN: Obviously, I'm proud of our guys. This is a good team win. You know, it's our most complete win of the year, clearly. I thought all three phases played well. It's what it takes coming here. I was really pleased with the way we attacked the field before the game. Thought we were ready to play.

These guys are known for starting fast and jumping out on you. We're the ones that kind of did that today. So proud of the way the guys started fast, played four quarters. Best game of the year for us. So it's hard to do that to these guys here. We all know that. So just really proud of them. I'll take some questions.

Q. What was it you did defensively?
DANA HOLGORSEN: I didn't know if we could score 48, 49. What did we end up with? 48. I mean, yeah, we played great. But we've played great against them in the last two years too. I think Gibby's done a great job. I think we've got a really good plan against them. It's hard. It's unconventional. I thought we had them in our grasp a little bit and early when we made some of those third down plays.

So you've just got to keep playing. You've got to show them looks. You've got to tackle well. You need to sub a lot. It was hot. We were concerned about that. We knew they'd have a lot of plays and all of that. So played great. You know, I thought offense played great, controlled the clock. It takes all three sides. It's a good team win.

Q. (Inaudible) what was the game plan? Was it something you developed today? (Inaudible)?
DANA HOLGORSEN: Yeah, his job is to hold the backside. They weren't respecting that. So, you know, we got him loose a little bit. He's able to do that. He's been pretty banged up for the first month. So he's feeling great. He's 100% healthy. Allows us to be able to utilize him more. But it was in the game plan to be able to get him to keep the ball on the edge. Did some good stuff with the draws as well early with him, so that helped the running game, no doubt.

Q. (Inaudible)?
DANA HOLGORSEN: That was Sean. Wasn't it? I didn't know who that was? That was Sean? He can't catch a lick either. Is that his first career pick? It's got to be. I mean, he's had stuff bounce off his hands and his head and all kinds of stuff. Played well. Happy for Sean. Sean lost the starting job two weeks ago to David Long who is playing well.

But just because you lose your starting job doesn't mean that you need to get down in the dumps. It means you need to get better. That's the way all these guys need to understand. I think our guys understand that. I mean, we played a lot of bodies out there today on both sides of the ball. You want to help the team win, then you need to get out there and do what's asked of you. So made the most of this opportunity. Did a good job on special teams as well. So got good senior leadership. Lost a lot of good seniors last year. Those guys taught this group how to do things right and a guy like Sean is a prime example of that.

Q. (Inaudible)?
DANA HOLGORSEN: Yeah, no, all those guys are ready to play. We've been through this a lot to that position, where you're going to get down to your second guy, third guy. That's why we had Eli in there a lot in the back field. Would take backs out of the game and keep Eli in there because he can do some things for us.

Crawford's fine. I mean, it's an ankle sprain. Shot him up, didn't feel great. It was time for Kennedy to get out there and play. We knew Kennedy had this in him. He went down and banged his shoulder. Obviously, we'll reevaluate those guys and I'm expecting both of them to be fine. Shell gets in there and plays his tail off the whole game. Couldn't be happier for him.

Q. Do you expect(Inaudible)?
DANA HOLGORSEN: Well, we worked it a good bit last week. We did pass co, and scramble drill, and all that good stuff. It's amazing what they do. I mean, Mahomes, he needs to get healthy. You can tell he's not quite 100% right now. But the way he keeps it alive, I've never seen anything like it. He keeps his eyes down field. Makes any throw you want him to. He's a fantastic player.

Q. (Inaudible)?
DANA HOLGORSEN: We pressured them. Just mixed a whole bunch of stuff. You know what I mean? I don't know how specific you want me to get, real specific calls or what. If you mix things up, keep him off balance. Gibby does a great job with them.

Q. (Inaudible)?
DANA HOLGORSEN: He's coming along. First practice that he had in August he tweaked his knee and was on the shelf for five, six weeks. So we've had them practicing for about a month. Just bringing them along slowly. Wanted to get into big sets against these guys. They didn't think we could. Their plan was to not let us run the ball, and we still went over 300. Getting into big sets and blocking them up is a big part of that.

Q. In your desire to rotate, (Inaudible).
DANA HOLGORSEN: Yeah, I mean, it's hot. They're going to play a lot of snaps. We knew it. When they would sub, we would sub and just rotate bodies in there. It slows the game down when you do that, and it gets bodies in there that are fresh. Playing probably eight D-linemen, playing bodies on defense. You have to. Guys are going to get worn out if you don't.

They do the same thing on offense. They're rotating guys. We tried to do it on offense, but we're not quite as fast as they are with the tempo. So we can rest in the huddle and stuff. But, yeah, it was the game plan. I thought it worked out good.

Q. (Inaudible)?
DANA HOLGORSEN: Were we ever down?

Q. (Inaudible)?
DANA HOLGORSEN: This game? I couldn't remember.

Q. (Inaudible)?
DANA HOLGORSEN: Well, I think it shows you that we're a balanced offense. Everybody wants to gauge balance on play calls. I think balance is being able to do what you need to do based on how the game is playing. We get down, we're able to throw the ball around. We get up, and we're able to run the ball.

I thought we'd be able to throw the ball early, we did. Made some plays, got a good lead and we're able to control the ball and shorten the game. In a perfect world, that's what we wanted to happen, so it was good to see that unfold.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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