COURTNEY MESSINGHAM, OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR
On Will Howard's throwing style...
"I think it's just getting comfortable because when he's in practice, you see the ball come out of his hand and you feel comfortable with it. I think he does throw a ball that's easy to catch, and I think our guys like catching the ball when he's throwing it as far as how it comes out. Obviously, we've been fortunate that we haven't been throwing into a bunch of wind here lately, so that's always good. He needs to get a tighter spiral to cut through the wind."
On the chemistry between Will Howard and the receivers...
"I think the chemistry part is big, but also Will's ability to go from A to B to C. I think we had seven or eight, maybe nine guys with receptions this past week. That's one of the things we want to do is that we want to keep everybody involved. We have no desire to have one guy have eight catches and nobody else have a catch. So, the more he gets comfortable going through his reads and getting the ball out of his hand, the more guys will keep getting involved."
On the contributions of wide receiver D.J. Render...
"We need to count on him the entire year. Now, some games he may play more than others. He had a big, big, big catch for us at TCU and has continued to come in and play a lot of snaps. I can't guarantee him anything, but we need to keep him involved and ready to play at any time."
On D.J. Render making the switch to receiver...
"When we first got here, he was kind of a little bit more of a receiver. There was a better opportunity on the defensive side. Then, as our fall camp was unfolding and then all the sudden we got into the season, the opportunity to have an opportunity to contribute really was on the offensive side, so then we moved him back over."
On D.J. Render's greatest attributes...
"His biggest attribute is that he's all in. He just wants to have an opportunity to contribute. It doesn't matter to him if it's on the offensive or defensive side or on special teams. He's all about trying to help the Wildcats win."
On the progress of the offense in the second half of the Kansas game...
"I don't know the exact stats, but we probably had more than half of our total offense in the third quarter. It came back to putting ourselves in manageable situations. We probably had 14 first-down opportunities in that third quarter, and it was guys making plays, not shooting yourself in the foot, having a false start or a holding. I don't know what our completion percentage was, but I felt like we threw it really well. We stayed on blocks, and guys didn't get tackled one on one. When you can do those things, you have a chance to be successful on offense."
On the progression of Will Howard in terms of reading defenses...
"Both the ability to read defenses, but also the ability to feel comfortable with his protections, knowing where his problems may be, knowing that I have the o-line going in one direction and if that defensive player blitzes, I'm hot. His understanding of those things makes him more comfortable in the pocket, and he's doing a good job with that."
On the West Virginia defense...
"Their d-line is the most disruptive d-line we've seen. From the inside guys all the way to the edge guys and outside backers, they all have the ability to get off blocks. They slant and angle. They're physical. They run sideline to sideline. They do a very good job with their front four putting pressure on the quarterback and tackling the football. That will be a huge challenge for us with their front four."
On having Skylar Thompson on the sidelines to help Will Howard...
"I think it helps him on gameday, but it's probably more important and helps him more on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday with Skylar's ability to sit in the meeting room having been there. Obviously, we watched last year's game with each opponent, and Skylar is able to point things out that he was able to see to help Will. He's done a great job of that. Skylar's done a great job from a leadership standpoint."
On West Virginia's front and the different looks they present...
"They're multiple. They're going to force us to block what I'd call an odd front, and they're going to have four down and be in a normal over and under type of defense. They're going to try not to give you a feeling of when it's happening. Using an example, there was one formation we broke down and looked at them. There were 15 snaps, and they played about 12 different defenses in those 15 snaps. Obviously, that's the front end. The d-line is changing what they're doing in the back end. They're going to be multiple and force you to communicate."
On offensive lineman Cooper Beebe...
"He's definitely meeting expectations. I really do believe that the longer the year goes along and more reps he gets, the more people are going to see what we see, and that's his ability to be an extremely good football player."
JOE KLANDERMAN, DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR
On the improvement of West Virginia Jarret Doege this season…
"I agree, yes it does. Where he is now as compared to a year ago when we played him – and we didn't know a lot about him, granted – at the same time he had shown up in a couple of games a year ago. He was kind of an unknown, but he's really putting the ball where it needs to be. He's extending plays, making the right reads. I would agree with the assessment, wherever he's ranked he's earned it."
On the sacks by Tyrone Taleni and Felix Anudike against Kansas…
"Football is about confidence and the more reps that you play, the more confident that you get. The more that you know, the more that you get. The more plays you make, the more confidence that you get. So, absolutely, I'm hoping that that just starts a snowball effect for these guys. They're both going to have great careers here, and I'm hoping that that's just the tip of it."
On the status of defensive back AJ Parker…
"We're still trying to figure that out. He's going to try to do some things today. We'll know more in a couple of hours."
On the running style of West Virginia running back Leddie Brown…
"Well, he's a powerful kid. I think that part of it is, he's kind of their Deuce Vaughn in the ways that they'll use him. They will get him out in space and try to get the ball in his hands as many ways as they can. He's a tough guy to tackle in a one-on-one situation. So, for us, we're just going to try to contain him and always make sure we've got an eye on where he is and try to get as many hats to that ball that we can."
On the improvement in the West Virginia run game this season…
"Well, I think in a nutshell, it's the same basic run plays. I think they've hung their hats on a couple of schemes, and they've had success in those schemes. I think where they're better is they're just better up front. I know that there is a couple of familiar faces there, but there's also a couple of new faces there. I think they're just understanding, probably, what they are doing in their schemes a little bit better than what they were a year ago at this point. Year two in a system that's going to happen."
On who will fill in at nickelback if AJ Parker is unable to play…
"Will Jones has started a game and played 60-some snaps against Arkansas State. He's played a significant amount in every game this year. He played 32 snaps last week, you wouldn't have even known who was in the game last week between him and AJ. Will's not far off. He's done a lot of good things, and he's improved. I think having AJ in front of him has helped him a little bit just to see some of AJ's process, to see maybe some of his movements, to see where he can be patient, where he has to be fast. I think that's helped him understand the game a little bit more. But, I don't fear Will being in there at all. He's a guy that's going to be, obviously, a big part of this thing moving forward and years to come. The other guys that will probably see some more time because of it – if it happens – would be Hunter Henry and Aamaris Brown. Those are guys that have gotten a lot of reps this week with AJ out of practice."
On the importance of tackling when playing against West Virginia running back Leddie Brown...
"He's probably the best player we've played so far, and I'll throw (Alec) Sinkfield into that too. I don't know if it's just something that, luck of the draw or whatever, but those are the guys that probably do the best job with their off-arm in terms of stiff arms, keeping people away from their body of anybody that we've played this year. Those guys are really, really good at that, and it's hard to tackle those guys from a side profile, which, in football, you get a lot of those side profile tackles. Those guys do such a good job of keeping you away from their body that they're difficult to bring down. I think the key to it is we have to get more hats to the party. Two guys tackling is always going to be easier than one. We're just going to try to keep that ball in the cup, as we term it, and just see if we can suffocate it."
On the challenges of going against a balanced West Virginia offense…
"Absolutely, and they have a lot of RPO things in their system too. So, it's kind of damned if you do, damned if you don't in some of these cases. That's where we just have to do a really good job with our looks. We have to do a really good job with getting off blocks in there. But, you bet, and they get it to him (Leddie Brown) in the open space in the pass game, too. They've had a lot of success doing that. It doesn't always have to be him involved in the run. Sometimes they use him as the check-down guy in the pass game, and he's just as scary there."
On if West Virginia is far off from the top teams in the conference...
"No, I don't think so at all. I think that they're really solid. I'm obviously not looking at the other side of the ball, but they're a solid group of front. They have a good trigger man, and they have really excellent skill players at every position. There's not a weakness on their team from a personnel standpoint. When they put it together, they're really good. So, that's going to be our trick to keep them off rhythm as much as we can."
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