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WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 21, 2017

Dana Holgorsen

Waco, Texas

West Virginia - 38, Baylor - 36

DANA HOLGORSEN: I'm proud of the guys the way that they hung in there. I thought it was a weird first half, but I thought we had a good halftime, went out and played a great third quarter. Was up a lot of points, and then it kind of got away from us at that point. So, you know, it's offense. Doesn't do anything in the fourth quarter. Defense gave up way too much, special teams didn't do anything. We know how that feels because it happened a week ago, we were on the positive end of both. So we got a good comeback, and we prevented a good comeback.

So give Coach Rhule credit and Baylor credit for believing. Until at the end of the third quarter, they weren't in a very good spot, and they came out in the fourth quarter and played great and scored a lot of points on us.

At the end of the day we made a play at the end, you know, and then we recovered the on-side kick, which that's two years in a road that we've recovered an on-side kick against these guys to seal the games. Proud of the way the guys did that.

So we'll take the win, and we're excited to getting out of Waco for the first time with a win.

Q. The two-point conversion, what were you guys trying to do to stop that?
DANA HOLGORSEN: We were trying to cover our receivers and defeat blocks and tackle the quarterback, which we finally did. We had a hard time getting off of what I thought was multiple holding calls in the fourth quarter. That play, we did, and we sacked them and preserved the lead.

Q. What did you think in the first three quarters of the defense?
DANA HOLGORSEN: They were playing pretty good. We gave up too many big plays. The first half, we held them to six points in the first half, which was great. I think they had 13 at the end of the third quarter. Was playing good. Was giving some big plays, but wasn't letting them get in the end zone, so to speak. So we were playing good.

Then they got on a roll and we didn't play very good in the fourth quarter. Got to do better.

Q. I know you're prepared for the quarterbacks, but does it take a little bit to adjust? Did they do a lot different?
DANA HOLGORSEN: Kid ran better than we thought, the back-up. He's a good player. He's going to be a really good player. You know, he's won a lot of State Championships around here. So we're aware of him. But he ran probably a little better than we thought he did.

Like I said, I don't think we did a very good job of containing, getting off blocks and holds and all that stuff. And he broke contain several times and did a nice job.

Q. Offensively, the first three what stopped them?
DANA HOLGORSEN: Well, we didn't have the ball. I think we had two three-and-outs. And this is something that's been concerning to me that will get addressed. We have a lead, we need to preserve the lead, and not hurry up and three-and-out twice in the fourth quarter. That just puts our defense on the field way too much, and that's not good offensively. We obviously made a lot of plays offensively and rolled through five touchdowns and we scored 38 points. All that stuff's positive.

But when we have an 18-point lead in the fourth quarter that needs to remain an 18-point lead. And we three-and-out twice, and they gained a possession on a special teams thing that we work every single day. You know, went right to one of our guys and then it bounced right over his head. I don't know what to say. You've got to make that play. So they gained a possession on that which hurts our defense as well.

Q. How would you assess the offensive touchback?
DANA HOLGORSEN: Work in progress.

Q. Run game still an issue?
DANA HOLGORSEN: Yep. Absolutely. I expect more. Thought McKoy went in there, McKoy and Pettaway, I was happy with how they went in there and ran the ball. It looked different. Justin's had -- I don't know if he's hit a wall. He's a little banged up. It was really good for five games and then took a step back a week ago and wasn't quite ready and wasn't quite himself tonight. But I thought Kennedy and Pettaway went in there and sparked us a little bit. I don't think it was good early, but I thought it was decent in the third quarter which allowed us to make some big plays in the pass game.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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