Breakdown Of The Media Luncheon
The coaches of West Virginia’s football program held a media luncheon to get everyone familiarized with each other on Wednesday. After reading up on the luncheon and some of the things talked about, I found what Jeff Mullen and Doc Holiiday discussed during the luncheon interesting. What I would like to do is give you a breakdown on what they had to say, along with the Q & A done with Jeff Casteel.
Jeff Mullen:
The offense will be running the option in addition to the shotgun attack. They want to make sure the defenses they play have to plan on the run, keep, and pitch with running the ball. In addition to that, they want to give the players a chance when running or throwing the ball if they have a defense facing them especially fully in the box to be able to stretch the field.
He mentions that the offensive line is the heart and soul of the offense, and that everything will begin with the line.
He believes it all boils down to the players. He says that it starts with getting good recruits and coaching them hard with the fundamental areas and demanding it from the players. The coaches will give them the schemes and the oppurtunity to win, but they will never sacrifice the players abilities with really smart ideas from the staff room.
Doc Holliday:
He breaks down briefly the areas of recruiting they have set. In addition to drumming the high schools across West Virginia for players and doing what they can to keep them in state, they will be hitting Atlanta, GA hard in their recruiting travels.
He believes recruiting in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, and Virginia are important areas of emphasis for the staff. They will be hitting those states hard as well which will have them working very hard to get kids to join the Mountaineers.
He states that they have some concerns in the tailback area with depth, mentioning the signing of Zach Hulce, as well as concerns with their slots and H receivers.
He mentions they are still pursuing a couple of prospects for this year’s recruiting class.
Jeff Casteel:
He gives a brief couple moments of preview of the defense. He says how excited they are this spring and mentions the turnover in staff for the first time in 5 or 6 years. He touches on the addtions of Steve Dunlap and Dave Lockwood and the process of meshing their ideas with what they have always done defensively the last 5 or 6 years.
He spoke of losing players on defense and that they were down to 5 or 6 scholarship players going into spring practice, and that they had signed on 5 or 6 more to add back to the losses of seniors and early draftees. It will be a big challenge this spring, but with the fact there are new coaches in place it’s a pretty good situation. The recruits will start fresh with unbiased opinions of the new coaches as well as the newer version of WVU’s defense.
He feels they have alot of players to fill spots for this years team, but until spring practice is full on then they can find the spots for the players that fit them best. He mentions that Zac Cooper is moving to the defensive line for the 2008 season, and that they don’t expect many changes in postion other than the obvious ones needing filled.
On Reed Williams: “He will not be in spring practice. We’re holding him out due to some shoulder issues that he is healing up from.”
The only thing I have to say about what is written above is: I don’t like the option run attack much because it gives the defense facing it a chance to cause fumbles if they get to the right spot at the right moment. It’s about timing. Facing a player who is skilled and seasoned on the field can very well cause the same problems that arise when you do reverses. The pro of it is that it does give us more of a chance to find a way to make positive yardage in gap assigments and in some blitz packages that will throw off the defense. But I’m pretty confident that come kickoff 2008, the staff will have the players ready and will be ready to run with the blue and gold for another chance at the Big East title.
ABOUT THIS AUTHOR
Reply