A Different Kind of Bye Week

Fans often times look at college athletes as and their respective teams as being on specified regimens - following the same plans week in and week out. While a lot of that is true football teams (at all levels, actually), there is some variance due to differences in opponents.

Holgorsen says this week's practices will look more like spring practices.

And even when there's not an opponent, there's bound to be some change if the season isn't going as planned.

"We are going into our second off week. It will be a little bit different than the first one," said West Virginia head coach Dana Holgorsen. "The mentality is going to be a little different. It will be similar to a spring practice."

Early on in the season, practices consisted of a lot of scrimmages, letting the players get out there and play. After two straight losses by a combined 76 points, however, Holgorsen says it's time to get back to the basics and correct some sloppy play.

"This Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, we will get back to the basics out there," said Holgorsen. "Last off week, we put the ball down and played a lot, because it was so early in the season. (This week) we will focus a lot on fundamentals and on basic football."

While a lot of the blame from fans and media alike have fallen on the defense, who has struggled all season, the offense has come out flat, only scoring 21 points in the last eight quarters (seven came from special teams).

Naturally, Holgorsen says fundamentals will be the focus on both sides of the ball.

"Offensively, that will be tempo, our base plays, blocking and keeping the timing," he said. "Defensively, it will be proper alignment, technique, back peddling, breaking on the ball, run fits and making tackles."

The Mountaineer head man was quick to note, though, that the onus doesn't fall entirely on the players.

"Offensively, we need to do a better job of getting in the right play. Defensively, we need to do a better job of getting in the right plays," Holgorsen said. "We have to do our best as coaches and they have to make the play. We have to do a better job of that as coaches and as players."

Something else the coaches will be doing this week that's different than their typical game week is going out on a full recruiting blitz.

"We will focus on recruiting this week," said Holgorsen. "We've had four coaches out this week. We will have all of our coaches out this Friday and Saturday. We will try to find some guys that want to be Mountaineers."