MORGANTOWN - West Virginia coach Bill Stewart proclaimed he is not a "dead man walking," while head-coach-in-waiting Dana Holgorsen said he might look at slot man Tavon Austin at tailback next season and added quarterback Geno Smith is progressing well from his foot injury.
"Offensively, we have a pretty good idea of where we are going to place people, but that is going to change," Holgorsen said. "The depth chart right now is a good place to start. Where we are at with the offense is pretty much the same thing as far as getting to know the kids right now. We are watching them in the weight room and in the morning workouts and trying to get a feel for who they are and what kind of work ethic they have.
"From an X's and O's standpoint, we are trying to get everyone on the same page."
"This is going to be a big spring for us defensively," said defensive coordinator Jeff Casteel. "Losing the caliber kids that we lost this year is big. When you look at who we lost and where at, it is spread throughout the defense.
"We have Bruce Irvin back who was everyone's hero,'' Casteel said of his defensive end. "He was my hero too, and probably the reason why we were second in the country in third-down defense. Our challenge there is to try to develop him into a kid who can play more snaps for us and not just be a third-down specialist. Bruce is willing to do what he has to do to help the football team."
WVU's spring drills will begin on March 28. The spring game will be April 29.
Reach Mitch Vingle at 304-348-4827, mitchvin...@wvgazette.com or follow him at http://twitter.com/MitchVingle.
MORGANTOWN - West Virginia coach Bill Stewart proclaimed he is not a "dead man walking," while head-coach-in-waiting Dana Holgorsen said he might look at slot man Tavon Austin at tailback next season and added quarterback Geno Smith is progressing well from his foot injury.
The Mountaineer football coaches met the media at a gathering Tuesday at WVU's Touchdown Terrace. A tentative pre-spring depth chart was released (see Page 2B). Stewart and Holgorsen attended, as well as the entire WVU staff. Among the highlight quotes:
"Our No. 1 objective is chemistry," Stewart said. "There are a lot of people out there saying I am a dead man walking. I don't agree with that. I think we are professionals here. I have a great staff and am very blessed with tremendous players, coaches and administration. Our chemistry has to be one of high value. Every football team has to have great chemistry. If you don't have that, nothing you do is going to matter.""He's good,'' Holgorsen said of Smith, the incumbent at quarterback. "He'll be in a boot for another couple of weeks. Then they'll take the boot off and he'll start doing some stuff. I suspect when he gets back from spring break we'll test him that Sunday night. How he tests out will determine how many reps he gets. There are two other kids there [Brian Athey and Paul Millard] that deserve a lot of reps too. You have to have a backup."Geno isn't expected to take every snap as it is. He may take 33 percent of the snaps. As the spring goes on, that may increase to 66 percent."
"The two tackles [Don Barclay and Jeff Braun], we're not going to be able to evaluate those guys in the spring [because of shoulder surgeries]," Holgorsen said. "That will allow guys like Quinton Spain and Pat Eger to get a bunch of reps, develop and [provide] competition in the fall."Holgorsen on whether he'd consider using slot receiver Tavon Austin at tailback:"Maybe. I might. We have to see what his skills are. He's done that before. We have a couple of guys we recruited [tailbacks Andrew Buie, Dustin Garrison] that are Tavon Austin kind of guys. They are light-on-their-feet kind of guys. We won't have them in the spring, but when we get them in camp, we'll be able to see."
"Offensively, we have a pretty good idea of where we are going to place people, but that is going to change," Holgorsen said. "The depth chart right now is a good place to start. Where we are at with the offense is pretty much the same thing as far as getting to know the kids right now. We are watching them in the weight room and in the morning workouts and trying to get a feel for who they are and what kind of work ethic they have."From an X's and O's standpoint, we are trying to get everyone on the same page."
"This is going to be a big spring for us defensively," said defensive coordinator Jeff Casteel. "Losing the caliber kids that we lost this year is big. When you look at who we lost and where at, it is spread throughout the defense."We have Bruce Irvin back who was everyone's hero,'' Casteel said of his defensive end. "He was my hero too, and probably the reason why we were second in the country in third-down defense. Our challenge there is to try to develop him into a kid who can play more snaps for us and not just be a third-down specialist. Bruce is willing to do what he has to do to help the football team."WVU's spring drills will begin on March 28. The spring game will be April 29.
Reach Mitch Vingle at 304-348-4827, mitchvin...@wvgazette.com or follow him at http://twitter.com/MitchVingle.
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