WVU primed to compete in 2016
Things haven’t necessarily come easy for West Virginia and Dana Holgorsen since making the move to the Big 12 Conference but according to the head man the football program is right where it needs to be entering the 2016 football season.
The Mountaineers struggled with building depth upon entering the league but now is to the point that there are players in the program that have been in it for several seasons.
“We won more games than the previous years in the Big 12. The schedule sets up a little bit better, a lot of bodies, a lot of returning starters so I feel like we’re where we need to be,” he said.
“I like where our team is at and I think we’re going to be every bit as competitive or more this upcoming year,” Holgorsen added.
West Virginia is coming off a strong summer where the football team was able to go through June and July with over 100 guys in the program, as well as 31 new guys that the coaching staff was able to get a head start on developing through the course of workouts. Only adding to the overall depth.
Holgorsen is focused on several items entering fall camp with the continued development of the young offensive tackles in redshirt sophomore Yodny Cajuste and redshirt freshman Colton McKivitz as well as developing timing in the passing game on the offensive side. Meanwhile, on the defensive side the main priority will be figuring out the situation at cornerback.
“We have a lot of bodies but it’s going to be coach (Blue) Adams main priority and coach (Tony) Gibson’s main priority so we can rely on those guys to do what we do defensively,” he said.
When it comes to being more efficient in the passing game, Holgorsen says that while consistency is the key it’s not as easy as just pointing the finger at senior quarterback Skyler Howard. The focus this off-season has been improving on the timing between Howard and his weapons and developing a sense of trust to help compliment the run game.
That means widening the pocket for Howard as well as building trust with his now experienced group of wide receivers in order to create more consistency in the passing game.
“Having a more comfortable pocket, having a good rapport with the receivers that were all young guys,” Holgorsen said. “Those two things are going to make a big difference.”
During the off-season West Virginia brought in renowned offensive line coach Joe Wickline to serve as the offensive coordinator and his job will be to help provide his expertise to the offense to continue to help Holgorsen transition the offense back to its roots.
“Maintain the run game that we did last year that allowed us to have the Big 12 leading rusher. Then we got to improve in the pass game. Averaging 35 points a game and being a top 20 offense isn’t good enough in this league,” Holgorsen said. “We have to move the ball a little bit more and score some more points if we want to be in contention to win it.”
The Mountaineers lose a total of eight starters on the defensive side of the football but unlike in previous years, West Virginia has a bulk of players that have been in the program for several seasons ready to step in and contribute in those departing players’ places. The defense is slated to have a total of eight fifth-year senior starters on defense and two juniors meaning that while there are new faces slotted to step in, they aren’t new to the defensive scheme.
But now comes the challenge of getting those players to play as a unit.
“We’ve got the bodies, got the players but I just feel like we have to get those guys to play together,” he said.