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DISCOVER ORANGE BOWL: CLEMSON v WEST VIRGINIAJanuary 3, 2012Dana HolgorsenMIAMI GARDENS, FLORIDA THE MODERATOR: Coach, we appreciate you coming down here. We hope you've had a good time getting ready for Bowl week and the Bowl game, the Discover Orange Bowl. One day left to go before game time. Is there anything left that you have to do with your team to get them ready to play? COACH HOLGORSEN: Well, it's been a great week in South Florida. Obviously the kids have had a great time. The hospitality has been great. The accommodations have been great. They're at the Fontainebleau with lots of things to do around‑‑ Miami Beach has been really a good time. We do have one more day of work. We're trying to make this as much like a game week as we possibly can. That's hard and that's the challenge of a Bowl game, but I think our guys have done a great job of focusing in when it's time to meet, focusing in when it's time to practice, and we have one more day which we're going to try to make exactly like we do a day before a game, what we've done the last 12 games. The weather has been good, obviously. That's one of the things that makes this as good of a Bowl game as there is. Q. If you could, please just discuss your game prep, how you feel like you guys have done over the course of the past week, and if you ever feel like there's more to do. COACH HOLGORSEN: No, we've had lots of practices. It gets to a point to where if you keep working it, it becomes a little stale. So I think we've done a good job. The first seven or eight practices, most of which took place in Morgantown, were focused on a lot of our young guys to try to get our young guys better. That's one of the advantages to being in a Bowl game obviously, and had really good work up in Morgantown, and then we got in about three or four days of Clemson prior to coming down here to where we've had pretty much a normal game week. The other 12 games that we played all year, we had one week to prepare for a game. So this situation here, we didn't want to have to practice 15 days to get ready for a game. That's just not how we feel like it should be done. So we've taken about a game week and probably about a half of a game week. If anything we've overprepared, and now it's to the point where we've just got to get to the game and put them in position to make plays, and hopefully that will happen. Q. You've talked about the guys being ready. Does getting overprepared apply to the coaching staff, as well? Do you guys get to a point where you feel like enough is enough, let's get to this game already? COACH HOLGORSEN: Yeah, you've got to be careful with time on your hands. Coaches have a tendency to outsmart themselves at times, so you've got to figure out what your team does well, which we've had a lot of time here in the last four months to figure out what our team does well, and we've just got to put them in those positions to be successful. Our job as coaches is to put our players in position to be successful and prepare them as well as we possibly can, which I think has taken place. I think our coaching staff has done a tremendous job of getting or guys in position, and now it's to a point where we have approximately 30 hours to get them to the game. Q. I don't think you've faced a tight end as good as Dwayne Allen since Nick Provo in the Syracuse game. Just wondering what you can take from that game in order to help you game plan for this one. COACH HOLGORSEN: Yeah, he's a tremendous football player. He's a guy that can‑‑ that does a heck of a job of blocking, but with the scheme that Coach Morris does, they move him around a bunch, and he's a guy that you've always got to keep your eye on. They're going to get him the ball. He's going to do a tremendous job of blocking. You know, you had to bring up the Syracuse game. That guy did have a good game against us, and if anything we can look back at that, and if he's an eligible receiver you probably ought to cover him, and I think we've got a lot of good work on that. Q. A little off topic, but the SEC once again is playing for a National Championship, and you played LSU this year. I'm wondering if you're tired of hearing about how great the SEC is, and what is it going to take for a team to be able to knock off an SEC team from winning a National Championship? COACH HOLGORSEN: Well, they've won six in a row; is that right? So if people are tired of hearing about it, somebody ought to beat them, I guess. LSU is a heck of a football team. They're the only team throughout the course of the year that has been able to win every game, which means they're probably pretty good. I mean, when they came up to Morgantown‑‑ I've got a tremendous amount of respect for Les Miles, one, for what he's done over the course of his career, and LSU is a program that does a lot of things right from a facility standpoint, from a support standpoint. The thing that stands out about that football team is how confident they are. You know, I know a little bit more about them than I do Alabama just based on playing them obviously. But when they came to Morgantown, we had as good of an environment as I've ever seen, and the people were rowdy and our fans did an unbelievable job of getting there early. I think two hours before the game it was packed, and it was crazy. We had a tremendous amount of support, and it didn't faze them one bit. They came on the field and they acted like they owned the field and played with a tremendous amount of confidence for the entire game, so they're a great football team. Q. One of the things coaches always talk about when you get to a Bowl game is just how the 15 extra practices or whatever it is, how that really helps your young kids. Is that somewhat overstated when you're in a BCS game just because you travel a lot earlier than a lot of other schools so there's a lot of other distractions or do you think the young kids really benefit from having all that extra time? COACH HOLGORSEN: If that's what your focus is. You can do it a couple of different ways. This is my 12th straight Bowl game, and we've done things right and we've done things wrong every year. One of the things that I think that we did a tremendous job of this year, and part of it was the circumstances, the one thing about when we found out that we were able to go to the Orange Bowl, the effort of our kids and the energy of our kids and the excitement level of our kids went through the roof. And so they were ready to do absolutely anything that we put in front of them because of the magnitude of the game, because of the excitement of the game, being able to play a great opponent, the only game being played on national TV on the 4th, I mean, it was a situation where our guys were just tremendously excited about it. So they went to class, they were early to show up for workouts, they were on time and in our building more than they've ever been, so we got a tremendous amount of work in. We got about eight practices with the young guys, which, one, allowed them to develop their skills, but two, it allowed our older guys to rest up and recover, which was incredibly important. And then when it was time to switch gears and focus all about the game, then we were rested up and ready to go. You can delete those eight practices and just let them rest if that's what your focus is, but that's not doing the young kids very much good. I really feel like we've made a tremendous amount of improvement over the last month as far as just moving forward with our football program. Q. I know you've focused primarily on Clemson's defense and what you guys need to do against them, but offensively what have you seen out of them? Has your opinion of them changed as you've watched more tape, and how have you guys prepared to handle what they bring? COACH HOLGORSEN: Well, my opinion hasn't changed. They're extremely talented. I mean, I waswatching from afar, which two months ago, who knew West Virginia and Clemson was going to play; nobody did. And watching those guys I think get up to 6th in the country or 5th in the country or whatever it was, they were on a roll, and everybody was taking notice of them. Tajh Boyd is a heck of a quarterback, and Sammy Watkins is a heck of a receiver, and then they've got‑‑ their running back is a 1,000‑yard guy. They've got guys offensively that are players. You know, shoot, that's going to be a challenge for us defensively to stop that, but part of the challenge is that that exists in a football game of this magnitude is you're going to play a quality opponent. And when you overcame as much adversity as we did throughout the year and figured out ways to win, that taught us some lessons not only in life but in football as far as just you've got to hang in there and you've got to keep playing. And if you get knocked down a little bit, you've got to get back up and keep playing. I would expect that Clemson is going to make some plays offensively, and our job defensively is just to keep playing. Q. It seems like you guys have comparable weapons offensively. Does it make you kind of sympathize with some of the teams that have had to go against the offense you guys have had this year? COACH HOLGORSEN: Yeah, our biggest thing as a football team is to figure out how to score one more point, and if they make a bunch of plays offensively, which we anticipate they will, we defensively need to line up and try to do our best to stop them, but offensively we need to counter with that. And we need to do a good job of taking care of the ball and getting the ball to Tavon and getting the ball to Stedman and getting the ball to guys that need to step up and replace guys that have made some plays for us this year. That's just the way the game of football works, and whatever you've got to do to stay in the game and make it competitive is what you need to do. Q. The last two BCS games yesterday, everybody talked about the offense, but it came down to either a kicking game play or a defensive play that won the game. Do you see that kind of thing developing when everybody talks about offense and offense is legitimate like it'll be in this game as well, that somebody will have to make a defensive play or somebody will have to make a play in the kicking game somehow to decide this game? COACH HOLGORSEN: I would anticipate that being the case, yes. Taking that game last night, which I watched pretty closely just based on being at Oklahoma State last year and coaching all those kids, and we're really excited for all those guys to win that Bowl game. My boss Oliver Luck probably wasn't as excited about it. But you're exactly right. I mean, there was a lot of offense in that game and a lot of guys making plays. It's a three‑sided game, and that's the one thing that we learned about a month and a half ago when we lost to Louisville. Our team came together, and on all three sides of the ball we figured out that if all three sides of the ball don't play together and pick each other up to try to be fighting for the same goal, then you're probably not going to win very many games. That's the one thing we did over the course of the last three games was play together. And in that South Florida game we scored a defensive touchdown, we made a field goal to win the game, and we had a drive offensively at the end of the game to get us down there in position to be successful. And then you take that game last night, Oklahoma State's defense stepped up in overtime and shut those guys down. It takes all three sides. In game of this magnitude on this stage, that's‑‑ you're exactly right; it's going to take all three sides. Q. Have you named a starting safety yet for tomorrow? COACH HOLGORSEN: No, not yet. You know, Shaq Petteway has done a good job, Wes Tonkery has done a good job, Matt Moro has done a good job. When you lose Terence Garvin, who was our leading tackler last year and has played a lot of football, you can't just replace him with one guy. And all those guys I mentioned are all new guys. Matt is a junior college kid first year, Wes is a freshman, Shaq is a true freshman. You've got a lot of guys that haven't been put in that situation. So what you do is you plug one guy in, see how it works, and then if you need to take him off and calm him down and put somebody else in there, then you need to do that. That's just how the game works. You never know how it's going to play out. Guys will get in there and if they're doing good and things are going your way, you need to keep him in there. If you need to mix it up by putting somebody else in there, then you will. Q. Just wondering, before the game you explained to them the dos and don'ts of being down here. Any problems with any of the kids being in South Beach, or how did that go? COACH HOLGORSEN: Yeah, it's been great. We all had our concerns with it just because of what the‑‑ it's a busy place, and there's a lot to do. I give our team a tremendous amount of credit. You know, we named captains in the beginning of the week with Geno Smith, Joey Madsen, Keith Tandy and Najee Goode, and then we talked to the rest of the seniors about this being‑‑ this is your team and things are going to‑‑ there's going to be situations out there to where you're going to have to make decisions on whether you do the right thing or do the wrong thing. That's no different here than it is in Morgantown throughout the course of the week. I just was really proud of how the guys handled themselves. The Orange Bowl guys did a heck of a job, and this is widely known as if not the best Bowl game out there, it's certainly in consideration to be talked about the best Bowl game out there for a number of reasons. So our guys were treated great. They had a great time at the Heat game last night, and two nights ago they went out and had a good team dinner and have really done a good job of enjoying themselves. When it's been time to do football, we've done a good job of doing football; when it's time to meet, we did a good job of meeting; when it's time to practice, we did a good job of practicing. Pat had a little jet ski incident with a couple of guys that's been riding jet skis their entire life. That could have happened at any time throughout the year. It's been good, and they've handled themselves well. Q. You mentioned you had made some mistakes or learned some lessons from past Bowl preparations that you applied here. Can you give a couple of examples? COACH HOLGORSEN: Well, geez, every year we kind of look back on it and what could we have done different from a scheduling standpoint. Like I remember early in the first couple of years at Texas Tech, we were all over the place with our scheduling and stuff. The routine throughout the course of the week has been such to where our guys wake up and understand what's expected of them. So I think the biggest thing is doing your absolute best of getting them into a rhythm, understanding the fact that this is a reward, and we want our players to have fun and enjoy it, but also understand that we're not going to occupy eight hours a day of football time. That's almost impossible to do. There's a reason the NCAA gives you 20 hours a week to prepare for a single game, so you don't want to grind them too much. You want them to have fun, but when there's opportunities to get off your feet, get off your feet. When there's opportunities to eat, you need to eat. When there's opportunities to enjoy each other's company, that needs to exist, but also understand what the goal at the end of the week is. Q. And whatever downtime you have in these last few hours before the game, what do you do? COACH HOLGORSEN: Well, like I mentioned earlier, it's about getting into the routine of playing a game. Our yearly schedule of what we've been doing the day before the game, we've played Friday games, we've played Sunday games and we've obviously played Saturday games. Well, whatever day that was, the day before is always the same. So we'll try to get this day today to be exactly like a day before a game as we possibly can. We'll have a walk‑through, we'll have a team dinner and we'll go to a separate hotel and we'll have a 10:00 meeting. We'll wake up and it'll all be about the same routine as we possibly can. We'll spend a lot of time together. Q. Several of your players deferred to you on this one: Can you explain the tee shirts that you guys have been wearing with "insanity," why insanity is before the "play hard, play smart and play fast"? COACH HOLGORSEN: Well, the play hard, play smart, play fast, that was the day I got hired a year ago is something that I talked about that quite a bit, just as far as what our‑‑ it's been my offensive philosophy the last four years, but it's the team philosophy, as well, just as far as‑‑ playing fast, you need to play fast. It's an up‑tempo game. It's turning into an up‑tempo game. And not only do we want to play fast between the whistles but everything you do just do it with a sense of urgency, and I think our guys are starting to understand that. Play hard, it's all about effort. You can't play with effort some of the time, you've got to play with effort all of the time, especially if you play a good opponent. And the play smart aspect of things, that's turnover margin and making sure that you're not penalized very much. Probably the biggest thing obviously if you look throughout the course of the Bowl games, the guys that get penalized a lot don't win, the guys that turn it over don't win. So that's been the common theme all year. The insanity thing is the whole definition of insanity. If you do things over and over again and you don't get different results, then you're not going to improve. So we've taken that to heart and just tried to get ourselves better. Q. Secondly, with J.D. Woods, what has he‑‑ how has he improved, I guess, over the last couple weeks leading up to South Florida and what has he shown kind of in practice leading up to tomorrow's game? COACH HOLGORSEN: Well, we gave him a chance. And one of the things that as a head coach you try to get your guys to be accountable for what their actions are, and J.D. wasn't doing a very good job of that from an academic standpoint to a workout standpoint. He thought a lot of stuff was optional, so he wasn't able to play very much. That was carrying over on the field. 11 games later he was functioning right. I guess he wanted to stay playing some football when we were playing in Florida. He's from Naples, so when we went to South Florida he had his best week of practice, we put him in there and he made plays. Then when we get to go to the Orange Bowl, I guess he figured he'd start practicing good again, so he had 15 good practices because he gets to play in Miami. I guess we'll play all our games in Florida and he'll come out and he'll practice well and do what he's supposed to do. Q. I think you have eight players on your two deep who grew up within a 20‑mile radius of this stadium. What would a win here mean from perception, advertising your program, that sort of thing? COACH HOLGORSEN: Yeah, it's a tremendous opportunity to be able to be down here, and we hope that the exposure that's existed, not only from a South Florida standpoint but from a national standpoint, the magnitude of the game, being the only game on Wednesday night, I mean, we all understand that it's‑‑ there's going to be a lot of eyes on us. So we hope that it cannot only advertise the program and the school but also continue to try to lead to as many South Florida recruits as we possibly can. Obviously there's people‑‑ there's hundreds of schools that recruit down here for a reason. We all understand that, and we've had a lot of success at getting some guys down here, so hopefully that will not only keep that going but hopefully improve it. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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