Post by elp525 on Sept 28, 2011 5:16:54 GMT -5
Wednesday, September 28 2011
Chip Fontanazza
Morgantown
One thing WVU head coach Dana Holgorsen wasn’t pleased about on Saturday was the way his special teams performed and he was still unhappy about that during his weekly press conference. WVU is ranked dead last in the NCAA with an average of 29.75 yards per punt and he is hoping to change that during this week’s practices.
Some of the mistakes that stood out to Holgorsen were a few muffed punts by punter Corey Smith and a 99-yard kickoff return by LSU’s Morris Claiborne. The first year head coach made it clear he is going to make some changes before Saturday’s homecoming game, but he doesn’t expect them to be significant. LSU didn’t demoralize the Mountaineers’ special teams, it just exploited a few areas the Mountaineers have to get etter at.
“We’re not going to hit panic mode,” explained Holgorsen. “LSU has been known as being as good of a special teams team as there has been in college football over the last decade. So part of the thing that was discouraging for everybody involved was the fact that they were far better than us in all four phases.”
“The only way to fix that sort of thing is working at it,” continued Holgorsen. “Our schemes are fine. It doesn’t have anything to do with our schemes, it has everything to do with trusting the people that are on those units and that’s the thing we don’t do that great of a job of right now.”
This week the Mountaineers will face another team that is good on both special teams and on offense. The Falcons are actually the top net punting team in the nation averaging 45.29 yards per punt and they run one of the most high-powered offenses in the MAC Conference.
On Tuesday, one of the first things Holgorsen talked about was how impressed he was with third year Bowling Green head coach Dave Clawson. He has had a lot of success at both Fordham and Richmond where he combine for a record of 58-49. Both of those schools don’t have a rich football tradition, but Clawson was able to bring success to those programs with his offense and coaching ability.
“If you look back at where coach Clawson has been for the last decade he’s been at some I-AA schools where he has taken them from being very average to being extremely good,” said Holgorsen.
“He’s an offensive guy,” continued Holgorsen. “He coaches the heck out of the quarterbacks. They’ve got a sophomore quarterback out of California that’s got a chance to be a really good player. Their most experienced position on the team is wide receiver. They have three seniors that have played a lot of ball and they can make plays.”
On the season, the Falcons have averaged 38.5 points per game and sophomore quarterback Matt Schilz is heading the offensive attack with 1,169 passing yards and 14 touchdowns. On the ground true freshman Anthon Samuel is averaging 107 rushing yards per game.
Bowling Green runs an up-tempo offense like the Mountaineers and Holgorsen knows the Falcons will come into Morgantown and will try and set the pace of the game.
“They’re going to run a lot of offense and they’re going to tempo you, they’re going to run motion, they’re going to get in the tight end sets and run the ball.”
The Mountaineers begin practice for this week’s match up on Tuesday and will work on improving their play on special teams and stopping the talented Bowling Green offense.
Chip Fontanazza
Morgantown
One thing WVU head coach Dana Holgorsen wasn’t pleased about on Saturday was the way his special teams performed and he was still unhappy about that during his weekly press conference. WVU is ranked dead last in the NCAA with an average of 29.75 yards per punt and he is hoping to change that during this week’s practices.
Some of the mistakes that stood out to Holgorsen were a few muffed punts by punter Corey Smith and a 99-yard kickoff return by LSU’s Morris Claiborne. The first year head coach made it clear he is going to make some changes before Saturday’s homecoming game, but he doesn’t expect them to be significant. LSU didn’t demoralize the Mountaineers’ special teams, it just exploited a few areas the Mountaineers have to get etter at.
“We’re not going to hit panic mode,” explained Holgorsen. “LSU has been known as being as good of a special teams team as there has been in college football over the last decade. So part of the thing that was discouraging for everybody involved was the fact that they were far better than us in all four phases.”
“The only way to fix that sort of thing is working at it,” continued Holgorsen. “Our schemes are fine. It doesn’t have anything to do with our schemes, it has everything to do with trusting the people that are on those units and that’s the thing we don’t do that great of a job of right now.”
This week the Mountaineers will face another team that is good on both special teams and on offense. The Falcons are actually the top net punting team in the nation averaging 45.29 yards per punt and they run one of the most high-powered offenses in the MAC Conference.
On Tuesday, one of the first things Holgorsen talked about was how impressed he was with third year Bowling Green head coach Dave Clawson. He has had a lot of success at both Fordham and Richmond where he combine for a record of 58-49. Both of those schools don’t have a rich football tradition, but Clawson was able to bring success to those programs with his offense and coaching ability.
“If you look back at where coach Clawson has been for the last decade he’s been at some I-AA schools where he has taken them from being very average to being extremely good,” said Holgorsen.
“He’s an offensive guy,” continued Holgorsen. “He coaches the heck out of the quarterbacks. They’ve got a sophomore quarterback out of California that’s got a chance to be a really good player. Their most experienced position on the team is wide receiver. They have three seniors that have played a lot of ball and they can make plays.”
On the season, the Falcons have averaged 38.5 points per game and sophomore quarterback Matt Schilz is heading the offensive attack with 1,169 passing yards and 14 touchdowns. On the ground true freshman Anthon Samuel is averaging 107 rushing yards per game.
Bowling Green runs an up-tempo offense like the Mountaineers and Holgorsen knows the Falcons will come into Morgantown and will try and set the pace of the game.
“They’re going to run a lot of offense and they’re going to tempo you, they’re going to run motion, they’re going to get in the tight end sets and run the ball.”
The Mountaineers begin practice for this week’s match up on Tuesday and will work on improving their play on special teams and stopping the talented Bowling Green offense.
