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BIG 12 CONFERENCE MEDIA DAYSJuly 24, 2012Dana HolgorsenDALLAS, TEXAS THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Coach Holgorsen from West Virginia. COACH HOLGORSEN: It's good to be here. There's excitement all over the nation. It seems like this is the week that it starts. But it's good to be here in Dallas. It's good to be a part of the Big 12 from a coaching standpoint, player standpoint, administrative standpoint, and a fan‑base standpoint. I can assure you everybody in West Virginia is excited about the opportunity that's in front of us. It's going to be a challenge. Nine of my last 12years has been in the Big 12 and had a lot of big games, played in a lot of different venues, and it's‑‑ we understand it's going to be challenging. But excited about the opportunity, that's for certain. DENNIS KRAUSE: Questions? Q. You mentioned you've been in the Big 12, you know about the Big 12. Talk about how you think West Virginia fits in the Big 12 and just how your experience in the Big 12 will be a benefit for this team. COACH HOLGORSEN: When we got the announcement back, I think, October that we were going to go to the Big 12, I mean, I obviously was worried about the season. It was a Friday. We were going up to play Rutgers. It was all over the media that West Virginia is going to the Big 12 and had to call a quick team meeting to get everybody together. And that was obviously not the time to talk about the Big 12. And we really still haven't‑‑ from an overall team perspective, we really still haven't sat the team down, explained what the Big 12 is all about. They watch the news and evolved in the media a good bit and understand what the challenges are that's going to be ahead. But the one thing that I've been going around the state for the last couple of months telling the people of West Virginia is what we're getting into is the same thing we got at home. And that didn't necessarily exist in the conference that we were in last year. It means a lot. The culture is there. The support's there. The fan base is there. We're going to fill up our stadium. Our team is used to winning, and that exists at the other nine universities in the Big 12 as well. So the best way I can describe it to the people of West Virginia and the best way I can describe it to the Big 12, everybody else, is is what exists in the Big 12 exists in Morgantown, West Virginia, as well. Q. When you were a coordinator, at least to us, it seemed like your whole world was just offensive football, how can I move the football and score touchdowns. Now you're a head coach. You've got to deal with all kinds of things outside the realm of offensive football. What's been your biggest adjustment or biggest challenge as a head coach and sort of expanding your role as a football coach? COACH HOLGORSEN: Well, obviously things. I'm still involved with what we're doing offensively. The best way I can describe it is is just paid attention to who I worked for. And I was with Mike Leach for eight years and saw how he ran his program, was obviously pretty successful and won some football games, and moved on and worked for Kevin Sumlin down at the University of Houston. And Kevin's approach was different. More of a CEO‑type approach and managed not only what we were doing offensively but special teams, defense, recruiting, media, alumni base, and did a great job of handling the whole scope of things. And then working one year with Coach Gundy there at Oklahoma State. I just paid attention to how all three of them did it and took bits and pieces from each one and developed my own way of doing things. So I think I can‑‑ we were successful last year, won a lot of games which is never easy to do, I don't care where you're at, but kind of attribute it to the people I've been with in the past 12years. Q. Coach, you mentioned the excitement of joining the new league. Was there ever any concern from your standpoint on where West Virginia fits in geographically in having the burden of longer road trips? COACH HOLGORSEN: Yeah, that's obviously been a big topic of discussion. And to me it doesn't‑‑ it's not going to affect us, I don't think. You've got to be smart about it. The travel comes up. Last year it didn't matter if it was, if we were getting on a plane and flying one hour and getting on a plane and flying two hours to Tampa, Florida. So basically the road games are going to be‑‑ it's going to be an airplane ride. So you're going to jump on a plane and fly a couple of hours no matter where you go. From there it's just all about routine. So from a travel standpoint, for us, anyway, I don't view it as being a big deal. And then the topic comes up from what about your fan base being able to travel. Well, I say how many fans come into Morgantown, West Virginia, from the opposing team? It's usually about 4,000 people because that's all the tickets that are available. So the days of being able to take 15‑, 20,000 people to different venues are just‑‑ those days don't exist in the Big 12 because everybody's the same way at home. Everybody packs their stadium and everybody gives the opponent about 4,000 tickets. So my suggestion to the people of West Virginia is is to make sure you come to every home game and then pick a road game and go travel once a year. Q. There's so much talent at the quarterback position in this league. You've got a great quarterback, Landry Jones, Collin Klein, there's five guys on the O'Brien watch list. How difficult is it to prepare each and every week for the kind of threat that you're going to face in the Big 12 on offense? COACH HOLGORSEN: Sounds like it's been the same way in the Big 12 for about a decade now. Been a whole bunch of good quarterbacks come through the league. Obviously last year with a guy that I followed pretty closely, Brandon Weeden, was in the league and Robert Griffin winning the Heisman Trophy. The league's been like that for as long as I can remember it. I've been fortunate to being at a lot of those games and coach a lot of those quarterbacks that existed. So it is how it is in college football this year. I mean, there's no give‑mes on your schedule, I can assure you that. You've got to be able to prepare for it. The one thing that I say is from a coaching staff standpoint we went out and hired some guys. Excited to have Joe DeForest on our staff, who has been in the league for the last 12years. Excited to have Keith Patterson on our defensive staff, who has been at Tulsa for the last seven years but used to being in that type of a game. When I was at Conference USA, it was a lot like the Big 12 is as far as what was happening offensively. So just hired some guys that understand what it's like, and then you've got to get that message across to your players. You're going to score points. You're going to give up big plays. It doesn't mean that the game's over. You just gotta keep playing defensively. But I think we've got some guys in place that understand that. Q. Coach, how has your offense evolved? Are you planning on rolling out anything new in the Big 12? COACH HOLGORSEN: Yeah, we'll probably put something new out there. I'm not going to tell you what it is. But it's evolved. I mean, obviously eight years in Lubbock working for Coach Leach, the offense was kind of set. And made the decision four years ago to break away from them, to go down to the University of Houston. And every time you change a job you gotta look at what your personnel is and you gotta try to tweak some things to fit what your personnel is. We tweaked it a little bit at Houston. Went to Oklahoma State. Tweaked it a little bit at Oklahoma State. And last year when we went to West Virginia, we tweaked it a little bit. Specifics would take a couple of days to get into. But I'd like to say we put our own spin on it and we're doing our best to be able to fit with what the players are. So we'll see what happens. Q. Dana, Geno Smith was Preseason All‑Big 12 Quarterback, and how big a compliment is that considering the quarterbacks that are already here, and what was his biggest progression from the start of the year to the end of last year? COACH HOLGORSEN: Well, it sounds like everybody in the room thinks that we're pretty good, or that Geno is pretty good. It's a compliment to Geno. I think a lot is based on what happened the last game of the year, which in all my years for 12 straight Bowl games, all my years of December practice time, I think we got better in the month of December last year more than we ever have. And it's just practice. It's a commitment to when we found out we were going to the Orange Bowl, it was a commitment on our coaches' and our players' standpoint to the point where they worked hard. They got better over 15days, went into the game with a little bit of a chip on their shoulder. He progressed and he's got a chance to be pretty good. He stacks up with a lot of the other guys I've had in the past. Ultimately it's how many games you win and him going into his senior year. He's going to be remembered for how many games you win. If you look back at some of the guys in the past, Graham Harrell back four years ago at Texas Tech was a good player but they won 11 games his senior year. Case Keenum last year, who was‑‑ fortunate to coach Case, and they won 12 or 13 games last year. Brandon Weeden last year at Oklahoma State. I think they won 15 games last year, or whatever it was. So ultimately he's going to be remembered for how many games he can win, and Geno's got the ability to make everybody else around him better. Q. You guys were picked number two in the preseason poll, three guys, rather, or two guys on the preseason team. How do you handle such high expectations coming into a new league, both to put wins on the board and for players to put up numbers and be successful? COACH HOLGORSEN: Well, you don't get ahead of yourself, I guess. It seems like I haven't seen these guys in two, three months. We can't work with them right now. So when we get back next week‑‑ I mean, we'll give them a week off, come back next week. That's what camp's all about. If you think a guy that's reading his press clippings, then it's your job as a coach to make sure you bring them down. I think we've got some guys‑‑ you mentioned Geno and then Tavon Austin is the other guy on that list, which Tavon is potentially one of the more dynamic guys I've been around. So he's got a chance to be good. What's awesome about the Big 12 as opposed to where we were last year is just the national exposure, and it's going to be West Coast to East Coast. And they're going to be putting some venues to be able to shine if they can handle that. And that's our job as coaches, to put them in those positions and make sure that they're prepared and then get them on that stage and see what they can do from there. So managing expectations is part of our job. It's obviously better to have high expectations than it is low expectations. Q. As a career offensive coach, a guy who had so much focus on offense, what do you think you've learned as a head coach about defense, whether it's being around the defensive coaches more or being around defensive players more? COACH HOLGORSEN: Just spending more time with them. Offensively, as a coordinator, you view yourself as the head coach of one‑half of the ball. And that's what your job is and that's what your focus is. As the head coach, you've got the whole team. So the day I got announced as the head coach my first objective was to sit down and get to know the defensive guys. You gotta get to know them. You've got to figure out what makes them tick. And you're not just talking to half the squad. You're talking to the entire squad. So I view it the same thing. There's just more bodies in the room. And you gotta figure out what makes them tick. You gotta figure out what motivates them. You've got to figure out what the pulse of the team is by identifying a couple of guys. Our challenge this year defensively is to identify who those guys are. I'm not sure I have it figured out who those guys are this year. Last year we leaned on Najee Goode, who was our Defensive MVP, he was a draft pick; Keith Tandy, who was a draft pick; Bruce Irvin, who was a high draft pick. Those were some guys that we leaned on last year. And through those guys I got the beat of the entire defense and we were able to win some football games because of it. So that's going to be our challenge now. And everybody's dealing with the same thing. Everybody loses guys and each year you line up and you get in camp and you practice and you figure out who those guys are and then you lean on them. Q. You mentioned earlier the fact that you'd been in the Big 12 for nine of the last 12years. Do you feel like that will help you recruit in Texas, and do you also think that getting your program into the state pretty quickly is going to be important in its development and its ability to compete in this league? COACH HOLGORSEN: The subject of recruiting came up a bunch, because of the move. When I first got the job 18months ago, we had already started recruiting a little bit, recruiting Texas a little bit. Got a great boss in Oliver Luck. Understands college football, understands geography. He had already expressed some interest in wanting to recruit some in Texas, because everybody else recruits in Texas. And Texas is obviously a huge college football hotbed. Yes, we will recruit Houston, we will Dallas. I think we've got to be careful a little bit about how much manpower we put here. Because it's so competitive. Like I said, everybody's recruiting this. I don't want to take away from what's made West Virginia West Virginia. Our surrounding states of Ohio and Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, Virginia all have pretty good football. So we'll continue to get the majority of our kids from that area. That's a very recruited area and there's a lot of DivisionI athletes that come out of that area. Florida's been fantastic for us. I think we signed 13 kids out of Florida last year. Our deal in Texas, which if in a perfect world would be the way everybody did it, but just recruit kids that become really good senior football players. If you look back my first year, we signed Dustin Garrison, an undersized kid that didn't have a lot of DivisionI offers but was the Houston Touchdown Club Player of the Year. He was state champion, 16‑0, and rushed for 3,000yards. Pretty good player. Ended up starting for us as a true freshman. Paul Millard here from Dallas didn't have any offers, he was an undersized quarterback, threw for about 4,500yards, 45 touchdowns, and five interceptions. Pretty good senior year. That's our approach with Texas, is to just make sure that we're getting good quality players that really have great senior years. Q. You've talked about a lot about the offenses in the Big 12, and that means you're going to play Oklahoma State. Does it concern you that their offense, obviously with some tweaks and changes, is the most recent offense of yours outside of West Virginia? As far as playing Oklahoma State, does that concern you that that's your most recent offense? COACH HOLGORSEN: It doesn't concern‑‑ every game is a concern, I can assure you of that. All nine games that we play in the Big 12 are going to be a tremendous concern. They'll probably know as much about us as we will of them. So we've got some guys defensively that come from there. Obviously we've got some guys offensively that come from there. It will probably be similar to the way it was back in 2000 when Coach Leach left Oklahoma and went to Texas Tech. You had two teams playing the same offense that knew a lot about each other. So I don't know if that will help you or if it will hurt you. Q. Given what's happening at Penn State regarding the players what's your philosophy in general about players who have the option to transfer to other schools, what is West Virginia's position on that as far as looking at those type of players? COACH HOLGORSEN: Well, we don't take a whole lot of transfers. I think the biggest thing, whether it's‑‑ you take transfers if you need immediate help. That's what transfers are all about. I think it can be beneficial if you identify what your needs are. We took a kid last year that transferred in as a graduate student from Wake Forest because we had a need at receiver. Other than that, I think what you want to do is you want to fill your team full of a whole bunch of high school kids and watch them mature over the course of four to fiveyears. Which is really what West Virginia has done for the last decade, is get a bunch of good high school coaches [sic] in them, put them through your strength and conditioning program and watch them mature. And then with stability of the coaching staff. I think that's important because they're being told the same thing day in and day out. So that's what you do. But from a transfer standpoint, shoot, I think if you have a need, that's kind of where you're going. Q. What are your expectations year one of offense and year two of the offense, and specifically year two with Geno Smith? COACH HOLGORSEN: Should be better. Everything is better the second year. It was evident last year with Brandon at Oklahoma State. His year two was more comfortable. It was very evident at Houston going from our first year to second year with Case. I was much more comfortable. You can just see Geno with a little bit more confidence right now. It makes more sense to him. So he's going out there in the summertime, a bunch of voluntary activities. But after having a year under your belt, it's easier to get a bunch of guys out there and practice on your own. So there should be improvement. If not, we're not doing a very good job offensively as coaches. But it's exciting right now. We've got nine starters back on offense. We've got 20 kids that played football for us on offense. So it's not only familiar with Geno‑‑ and I don't want to put a whole bunch of pressure just on Geno. We're not going to win‑‑ we're not going to win games with Geno and Geno alone. He's got to have a whole bunch of guys around him that make plays and that understand the offense, and that's how you get good offensively. But I feel good about it based on having nine starters back and 20 guys that have played ball. Q. Having spent so much time in the Big 12 and now at West Virginia, how would you compare the cultural differences between this area and West Virginia and how do you think it will fit in, compare and contrast, I guess? COACH HOLGORSEN: There's similarities from a program standpoint. Like I mentioned earlier, I mean, West Virginia's used to winning football games. There's a whole bunch of teams in the Big 12 that are used to winning football games. You fill your stadium up because it's important to the fan base. And everybody in the Big 12 fills their stadium up because it's important to their fan base. It's an exciting time for everybody. Differences is probably just region, geographically. The state of Texas and the state of Oklahoma do a great job with their youth. They do a great job with summer activities. High school coaches. There's spring football. There's plenty of opportunities to get better. From an East Coast standpoint, we don't do that on the East Coast. There's not as much spring football. There's not as much youth activities. And I think probably the differences are is from a skill standpoint, they may not be as developed yet. Now, with that said, we've had‑‑ we've been going through the practice time there for 18months. So I think we're at a point now where you understand what the culture is from a throwing the ball standpoint, understand what's expected, understand what it takes to be good. So it took some time to get to that point, but I do think we're better at that now. Defensively we're catching up just because of the guys we've got in place understand what the ball's like, and they're going to coach it that way. THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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