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With the University of Alabama’s first-ever meeting with West Virginia now in the rear-view mirror, Mountaineers coach Dana Holgorsen didn’t have to hold back anything when taking to reporters on Tuesday.
Here are some of the things he said that may interest Alabama fans:
On West Virginia’s rush defense: What we weren’t happy with was what Alabama did in the passing game. They did a good job of taking care of the ball. We needed to get there quicker, which we didn’t. Our rushing defense gave up some yards, but their backs were pretty good. I thought we handled it pretty well. There were a couple of times that wore us down. That’s what they did to everybody.”
On time of possession: “What’s more alarming than that is the amount of plays that they had compared to the amount of plays that we had. The amount of plays that we had were good for the amount of possessions we had, with the exception of the fourth quarter. We went three-and-out twice, and they were both in the fourth quarter. That quarter, offensively, was bad. The first three quarters, when we had the ball, we had sustained drives. We didn’t finish very well, but we had sustained drives … Time of possession isn’t alarming to me. Inefficiency on third down is alarming to me. The overall number of plays is alarming to me. That’s just what they do.”
On the offensive line against Alabama: I thought all five linemen played well. I thought we played well in the first half. We came out and played nasty. We had like seven knockdowns, and we were taking some of their guys and driving them into the ground. Second half, our guys got challenged a little bit. We did not have that production in the second half.”
On the run game against Alabama: “They’re just hard to run against. We had about 50 yards in the first half. We pulled it, and threw the screen passes, which technically is a run play. A couple of those plays down field were run plays – we just pulled it and threw it down that way. It wasn’t a winning performance, but it’s hard to line up an average five, six yards a play against those guys. They’re big. They’ve got great depth. They played 12 defensive linemen. They’ve got great depth, and they get off blocks. We could have probably called a few more run plays, but I was happy with what it was. It opened up some of the pass-game numbers.”
On West Virginia freshman safety Dravon Henry’s first game: “Good. He was a step slow at stuff. What I’m looking at is number 26 for Alabama (junior safety Landon Collins) who is an All-American, third-year starter. Watching him, he’s quicker reaction wise. He’s got a little bit more pop. Dravon had a good game. He played well. He was a little bit out of position at times. He was a step slow at times. He didn’t have as much pop. But the good news is what I look at from Alabama’s number 26 is probably what we’re going to see out of our number six here the near future.”
On Crimson Tide junior wide receiver Amari Cooper: “Number nine for Alabama (junior wide receiver Amari Cooper) might be the first overall pick in the draft. He was a really good player. He got his. He caught the ball, and he got open. Daryl (Worley) held his own. Daryl held his own, and Daryl is going to be a great player for us.”
On if Alabama played more zone defensively than what was expected:
“No. It was about what we thought. They’ve been doing the same thing defensively for about five, six, seven years. We were prepared for what they did. Good teams on defense don’t have to do a whole bunch of stuff. They just beat you with technique.”
Christopher Walsh has covered Alabama football since 2004 and is the author of 19 books. In his free time, he writes about college football.
