While Dana Holgorsen was in favor of an important nationally televised game to start the season he wasn't as excited about leaving his team with a short week going into the second game.
The East Carolina Pirates will visit Morgantown this coming Saturday with a noon kickoff.
In his weekly press conference Holgorsen addressed the tough loss to Virginia Tech in the opener. "In the locker room after the the game there was a lot of disappointment," he said.
"It was a heck of a football game. We're a good football team and Virginia Tech is a good football team," Holgorsen added.
Looking toward the second game the head coach felt the team had a good day on Monday as they went through film review. The team's goal this week is to get better and work on everything they felt was missing in the first game.
While Holgorsen recognizes that East Carolina struggled last year and in their opener, he feels they still have talent and have always put quality teams on the field. "My experience with ECU is from when Skip Holtz was there and I was at Houston. We had some wars.," he said.
"They've been known to take out Power 5 schools left and right," Holgorsen added.
East Carolina changed quarterbacks in the second half of their loss to JMU and found more offensive success. That quarterback, Duke transfer Thomas Sirk, will start this weekend against the Mountaineers. As if often the case, ECU has good receivers and they have the attention of the West Virginia staff.
"Defensively they've got really good looking guys running around everywhere. They're replacing some guys but losing to James Madison I discard that. James Madison can beat about anyone in the country right now," Holgorsen said.
The Pirates have several players on defense that jump out at you according to Holgorsen. He was particularly impressed with linebacker Jordan Williams and safety Tim Irvin, an Auburn transfer.
For West Virginia they're taking a slightly different approach in the short week. Rather than bringing the team in and going with a full practice on Monday the staff elected to spend more times in meetings. "To me the most important thing after game one is to sit down and watch the video, which is what we did yesterday," Holgorsen said.
The West Virginia support staff was an important part of the team's preparation for the first game and this week they are assisting the coaches with understanding the tendencies of East Carolina. Holgorsen said the technology they use allows the staff to see video of games for as many as five years and is makes the support staff an integral part of the program.
Looking back at the loss to Virginia Tech, Holgorsen addressed the idea that he needed to use more players in the game to keep them fresh. "We played 55, traveled 80. In a tight game 55 is quite a bit." he said. The coaching staff will use what they learned from that game and decide who needs more snaps in future games. He added that there were as many as 15 guys they could have played but they didn't feel comfortable using them in a tight game.
Holgorsen felt the teams were evenly matched and that the game played out as he had expected. "You know we had a chance to win there at the end and just didn't get it done," he said.
One player that stood out for West Virginia against the Hokies was receiver Gary Jennings but his showing came as no surprise to Holgorsen. "I just felt that he was ready to take the next step," Holgorsen said.
West Virginia was without the services of wide receiver Marcus Simms for the first week due to a suspension and Holgorsen was asked about his status, "he'll be ready to roll".
The West Virginia staff feels they desperately need speed at the wide out position and Simms and freshman Reggie Roberson give them that speed.
For the first time since being named head coach Holgorsen gave up the play calling duties. "I didn't know what to do for the first quarter. I was looking for someone to talk to," he said while laughing.
He added that he never felt the urge to intervene and thought they had a very good handle on play calling against the Hokies.
