Post by elp525 on Sept 13, 2011 5:11:57 GMT -5
Tuesday September 13, 2011
by Mike Casazza
Charleston Daily Mail
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - West Virginia's third game of the season will be preceded by the first ordinary week of preparation.
The 18th-ranked Mountaineers played the season opener on a Sunday against Marshall and the 3:30 p.m. game ended seven hours later. WVU practiced just twice before Saturday's game against Norfolk State and trailed 12-10 at the half to the Football Championship Subdivision team.
The team will have the full allotment of workouts, meetings and practices this week before Saturday's noon ESPNU telecast game at Maryland (1-0).
"I'm a big routine guy," WVU Coach Dana Holgorsen said. "We'll try to keep as much the same as we possibly can. The routine through the week should be the same and Friday we'll do work here and get on a bus and go three hours and try to have the same routine over at that hotel that we did here (at Lakeview Resort)."
Maryland's first four games are at home. This will be WVU's first road game. The team is 7-8 in the past 15 road games and hasn't won on the road against a non-conference FBS team since beating the Terrapins in 2007, the last time the two teams played at Byrd Stadium.
Maryland also hasn't played since beating Miami, 32-24, on Labor Day. Holgorsen said making the most of the routine is "critical."
"Especially when you play a good football team that's going to have two weeks to prepare and is going to be familiar with what we do to the point we need to hurry up and play catch-up," he said. "Football is about routine."
* * *
WVU HAS won five in a row in the series after losing four in a row. Maryland Coach Randy Edsall was 1-6 as the Connecticut coach against the Mountaineers, with the win coming at home in overtime last season.
His defensive coordinator is former Pitt assistant Greg Gattuso, who was on the staff from 2005-2010, and a defensive assistant the final five seasons. The offensive coordinator is Gary Crowton, a former NFL assistant and college head coach (Louisiana Tech, BYU) who was with LSU the past four seasons and helped the Tigers beat the Mountaineers in 2010.
"We expect their best and we've talked about respecting the opponent every week," Holgorsen said. "That's a challenge at times and we didn't get that done last week. I don't think we had that in the first half, but luckily we had enough maturity in the locker room to be able to get it done in the second half.
"Whether we get Maryland or Norfolk State, it doesn't matter. Our job is the same. We have to try to prepare the kids be best we can."
* * *
THE ESPN networks exercised their option to wait until next weekend to announce a time and outlet for WVU's Sept. 24 game against No. 3 LSU at Mountaineer Field.
The game time must be announced by noon Sunday.
A variety of factors contribute to the decision to play at noon, 3:30 p.m. or 8 p.m. and on ESPN, ESPN2 or ABC. WVU also could be chosen for the first time as the site of ESPN's College GameDay show.
In addition to WVU's test, LSU plays at No. 25 Mississippi State on Thursday night. ESPN figures to keep an eye this weekend on what happens to teams involved in these Sept. 24 games: No. 8 Oklahoma State at No. 9 Texas A&M, Missouri at No. 1 Oklahoma, and USC at No. 22 Arizona State.
CBS chose No. 14 Arkansas at No. 2 Alabama as its SEC 3:30 p.m. game on Sept. 24.
* * *
THE MOUNTAINEERS met Sunday and watched film of the 55-12 victory over Norfolk State and had a light workout.
"We had a good day (Sunday)," Holgorsen said. "There were a lot of mistakes now, even in the second half ... a lot of mistakes. As coaches, what we try to do is identify them and try to get better at it. Some of the mistakes we made we worked on right away in practice (Sunday)."
WVU was off Monday, but players were responsible for thinking about what had been caught and presented on tape.
"The film doesn't lie," said Holgorsen, who didn't name anyone as the game's offensive champion because he couldn't find someone worthy of the award. "All three sides of the ball, when we're watching it and we see something good and something that's supposed to look that way, we bring that up. If we see something that doesn't look good, it's our job as coaches to point that out.
"There was probably more negative stuff than positive stuff, but as players, if you don't like that, you probably ought to put some more positive stuff on there."
by Mike Casazza
Charleston Daily Mail
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - West Virginia's third game of the season will be preceded by the first ordinary week of preparation.
The 18th-ranked Mountaineers played the season opener on a Sunday against Marshall and the 3:30 p.m. game ended seven hours later. WVU practiced just twice before Saturday's game against Norfolk State and trailed 12-10 at the half to the Football Championship Subdivision team.
The team will have the full allotment of workouts, meetings and practices this week before Saturday's noon ESPNU telecast game at Maryland (1-0).
"I'm a big routine guy," WVU Coach Dana Holgorsen said. "We'll try to keep as much the same as we possibly can. The routine through the week should be the same and Friday we'll do work here and get on a bus and go three hours and try to have the same routine over at that hotel that we did here (at Lakeview Resort)."
Maryland's first four games are at home. This will be WVU's first road game. The team is 7-8 in the past 15 road games and hasn't won on the road against a non-conference FBS team since beating the Terrapins in 2007, the last time the two teams played at Byrd Stadium.
Maryland also hasn't played since beating Miami, 32-24, on Labor Day. Holgorsen said making the most of the routine is "critical."
"Especially when you play a good football team that's going to have two weeks to prepare and is going to be familiar with what we do to the point we need to hurry up and play catch-up," he said. "Football is about routine."
* * *
WVU HAS won five in a row in the series after losing four in a row. Maryland Coach Randy Edsall was 1-6 as the Connecticut coach against the Mountaineers, with the win coming at home in overtime last season.
His defensive coordinator is former Pitt assistant Greg Gattuso, who was on the staff from 2005-2010, and a defensive assistant the final five seasons. The offensive coordinator is Gary Crowton, a former NFL assistant and college head coach (Louisiana Tech, BYU) who was with LSU the past four seasons and helped the Tigers beat the Mountaineers in 2010.
"We expect their best and we've talked about respecting the opponent every week," Holgorsen said. "That's a challenge at times and we didn't get that done last week. I don't think we had that in the first half, but luckily we had enough maturity in the locker room to be able to get it done in the second half.
"Whether we get Maryland or Norfolk State, it doesn't matter. Our job is the same. We have to try to prepare the kids be best we can."
* * *
THE ESPN networks exercised their option to wait until next weekend to announce a time and outlet for WVU's Sept. 24 game against No. 3 LSU at Mountaineer Field.
The game time must be announced by noon Sunday.
A variety of factors contribute to the decision to play at noon, 3:30 p.m. or 8 p.m. and on ESPN, ESPN2 or ABC. WVU also could be chosen for the first time as the site of ESPN's College GameDay show.
In addition to WVU's test, LSU plays at No. 25 Mississippi State on Thursday night. ESPN figures to keep an eye this weekend on what happens to teams involved in these Sept. 24 games: No. 8 Oklahoma State at No. 9 Texas A&M, Missouri at No. 1 Oklahoma, and USC at No. 22 Arizona State.
CBS chose No. 14 Arkansas at No. 2 Alabama as its SEC 3:30 p.m. game on Sept. 24.
* * *
THE MOUNTAINEERS met Sunday and watched film of the 55-12 victory over Norfolk State and had a light workout.
"We had a good day (Sunday)," Holgorsen said. "There were a lot of mistakes now, even in the second half ... a lot of mistakes. As coaches, what we try to do is identify them and try to get better at it. Some of the mistakes we made we worked on right away in practice (Sunday)."
WVU was off Monday, but players were responsible for thinking about what had been caught and presented on tape.
"The film doesn't lie," said Holgorsen, who didn't name anyone as the game's offensive champion because he couldn't find someone worthy of the award. "All three sides of the ball, when we're watching it and we see something good and something that's supposed to look that way, we bring that up. If we see something that doesn't look good, it's our job as coaches to point that out.
"There was probably more negative stuff than positive stuff, but as players, if you don't like that, you probably ought to put some more positive stuff on there."
