West Virginia and Kansas are playing on Saturday for the first time since the Mountaineers moved into the Big 12. The game will be between two teams that have disappointed. Kansas is a pathetic 1-10 under first-year head coach Charlie Weis, while West Virginia plummeted to 6-5 after a promising 5-0 start.
Though the game seems like a dud on the sports calendar given all the big conference championship games taking place that day, matters got a lot more interesting after Dana Holgorsen’s teleconference on Monday. The West Virginia coach took the ultimate shot at Weis through some heavily sarcastic praise.
“They’re going to coach them up. We’re going to be at a major schematic disadvantage going against their coaches,” Holgorsen said of Kansas. “They’ve got coaches with a tremendous pedigree that have coached everybody in the world and coached for decades and decades.
“It’ll be challenging. You never know what you’re going to get,” Holgorsen said. “They kind of have a flavor of the week in the fact that schematically, you’re dealing with a group of coaches that understand football as good or better than anybody in the country. What we’ve got to do is we’ve got to figure out what their plan is going to be.”
Can you just feel the sarcasm in those comments? Yes, Holgorsen was saying that about a 1-10 football team.
Holgorsen, of course, chose his phrases carefully.
You may recall that shortly after at Notre Dame, Weis told his players “every game you will have a decided schematic advantage,” according to Sports Illustrated.
Holgorsen took note of that phrase and threw it right back at Weis on Monday. However, it’s not like he was taking an unprompted shot at Weis; that was his response to what he likely felt was disrespect from the Kansas coach.
Weis spoke before Holgorsen on the Big 12 coaches teleconference, and the West Virginia coach may have been listening when Weis downplayed Holgorsen’s coaching.
Weis was asked whether Tavon Austin’s touchdowns last weekend were just a matter of speed and gave the following response.
“He is faster than most people in the field,” Weis began, “whether they line him up in backfield or they motion him across the formation where they do that little touch pass they do where the shotgun snap goes to the quarterback and he doesn’t even keep it in his hands, just taps it forward to him — which counts as a completed pass, by the way.
“Just take two plays from that game last week, take the punt return and that little pass in the flat on the left-hand side where everyone had angles at him and he just outruns everyone. That’s not coaching now,” he said, per the Times West Virginian. “I’m sure everyone would like to stand in line and take credit for that. That’s just unusual talent and unusual speed. He’s just a very dynamic player, whether they line him up in the backfield and give him the ball or play him at wide receiver. No matter where he is, he’s a pain in the butt you always have to account for.”
So Weis fires a minor shot by saying Austin’s speed is “not coaching,” and Holgorsen responds by dropping a nuclear bomb. I can’t wait to see what that postgame handshake will be like. Weis was still bragging about his coaching acumen as of July, so I’m glad somebody finally put him in place.
H/T SbB Live
