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MOTEL 6 CACTUS BOWL: WEST VIRGINIA VS ARIZONA STATE

December 29, 2015

Dana Holgorsen

Phoenix, Arizona

THE MODERATOR: I'd like to welcome West Virginia University to the 27th Annual Motel 6 Cactus Bowl. The Mountaineers posted an overall season record of 7-5 in 2015, and are making their fourth post-season appearance in five years, their 13th since 2002.

West Virginia last played in Arizona eight years ago, taking home the 2008 Fiesta Bowl crown with a 48-28 upset over No. 3 Oklahoma.

Join me in welcoming West Virginia head coach Dana Holgorsen.

COACH HOLGORSEN: Thank you. On behalf of West Virginia, the athletic department, the football program, our overall team, just want to thank everybody, thank the Cactus Bowl, the Motel 6 Cactus Bowl, to be able to spend this time in the great state of Arizona. Spending time in Scottsdale and the greater Phoenix area, our guys are going to remember this for a long, long time.

When I think of bowl games, this is one of the areas that stands out. There's no better place to be this time of the year. There's no better place to be for ringing in the new year and being able to cap off this season than being here in Scottsdale and the greater Phoenix area.

We look forward to a great week and hopefully we'll end the week with a great game, very entertaining game between two evenly matched teams. Hopefully the Mountaineers will be happy on their four-hour trip back to the East Coast.

We're anxious to get to the hotel, and I know our accommodations are awesome. Then we'll get a good practice in this afternoon.

With that said, I'll take a few questions if anybody has anything.

Q. Last time you coached against Coach Graham, he was at Pitt. What do you remember about that game? Did you think at that time you two would be playing a lot in that capacity, with him being at Pitt?
COACH HOLGORSEN: I mean, we kind of go way back. Both of us were in the state of Texas for so long time. We coached in an All-Star Game together for a couple hours. He was the head coach at Rice, took the Tulsa job about two hours after our first meeting in the All-Star Game.

We competed against each other when I was at Houston, Oklahoma State. Then the first year I was at West Virginia, he was at Pitt. So we have a pretty good history.

He's a fantastic football coach. He's been successful everywhere he's been. That Backyard Brawl was awesome. I knew nothing about it going into that first year. He really knew nothing about it. I take that back, he was there for a couple years, so he had been in the Backyard Brawl a couple of times.

It's a shame in college football that some of these rivalry games are kind of going by the wayside now. But we did start that back up. I think we played Pitt, which seems like a lifetime now.

Every game we've coached against Coach Graham has been very competitive. His teams are very competitive, extremely well-coached, and he's had success everywhere he's been.

Q. A lot of big shows in town, big teams. How do you separate yourself on such a big weekend from the rest of the pack?
COACH HOLGORSEN: You don't. The thing with bowl games, and we've been to a bunch of 'em, it's a reward for a good season. Our guys are really excited about it.

I think the biggest key going to a bowl game is being excited about where you're at. We can check that one off. Being excited about who your opponent is. We can check that one off. Then figuring out the balance between letting your guys enjoy.

I'm going to see 99% of our team has not been to Phoenix. These guys are excited about being here. They're going to be able to get out, see some things, enjoy their time when they're here. When it's time to play, they're going to go play. When it's time to work, we're going to go work.

We have a bunch of veterans, 20 seniors, 17 of which got their degree. They're old, they're mature, so they're going to be able to get out and have a good time, but understand when it's time to go to work, it's time to go to work.

Thank you all very much.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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