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Upset over play that led to Grier’s injury, Holgorsen enters fix-it mode

COMMENTARY

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Dana Holgorsen isn’t calling plays but he is still calling the shots.

And his mood sounded more bent than Will Grier’s finger after West Virginia shuttered its home schedule by losing 28-14 to a pedestrian Texas team.

“We are in a bad spot on offense,” Holgorsen said. “It’s my responsibility to get it right. There’s been some things I overlooked. That’s not going to happen anymore.”

West Virginia settled for a season-low 295 yards, the by-product of Chris Chugunov manning the final 10 possessions after Grier lasted only three. Having recently teed off on backup QBs from Iowa State and Kansas State, perhaps this was karmic payback, though Holgorsen suggested the Mountaineers tempted bad luck by running Grier on a third-and-1 bootleg at the goal line. A bootleg that ended with Grier losing the ball at the pylon, West Virginia losing the nation’s top touchdown passer and Holgorsen losing faith.

“Why do you have to have the quarterback run all the way around the edge to be able to get the ball in the end zone? When the quarterback runs the ball, bad things happen.”

“Hand the ball off. Go that way,” Holgorsen re-emphasized, pointing dead-ahead. “Hand it off. I’ve got to make sure that happens.”

While he could have been roasting an offensive line that couldn’t budge Texas, it sounded like a burn on play-caller Jake Spavital, who spoke to media minutes after Holgorsen vacated the room. Spavital said his boss wasn’t involved in the actual play-call on which Grier was injured, but told him to consider this four-down territory.

“That’s a play we’ve seen Will Grier make many, many times,” Spavital said. “Our plan was to get Will on a bootleg, and if it’s not there, we’re going to punch it in on the next play.”

With every ensuing replay, fans watched Grier’s bobble become a turnover and his throwing hand brace against the turf. The middle finger emerged gnarled at the knuckle.

Grier’s day was finished, and you couldn’t detect any postgame optimism around him returning for next week’s trip to Oklahoma. A source told MetroNews that Grier was having surgery on Sunday and his prospects for even playing in a bowl game are questionable.

Even with Grier’s 10 full-functioning digits, West Virginia had not scored a second-half point the previous two games. So when the Chugunov-led unit produced one touchdown over the final three-plus quarters, Holgorsen let loose plenty of pent-up frustration.

“It’s not a very confident offense that, to me, looks like it’s getting worse. Critical downs are bad, not finishing drives, yards per play. Every statistical category that you can come up with offensively was poor.

“Is Texas a good defense? Yes, they are. But I don’t like where we are on offense. I’ve got to fix it.”

What exactly goes into fixing it? More input on game-planning perhaps, or mandating personnel moves, or perhaps a reshaping of philosophy. Back in July, when Holgorsen pledged not to meddle in Spavital’s heat-of-the-moment play-calling, he was offering a level of autonomy he enjoyed years ago as a coordinator. But where do the boundaries of autonomy shift when a late-season scoring slump creates a major strain?

As beatable as Texas was in many phases, it boasted the saltiest defensive front West Virginia has encountered all season, and those 1.9 yards per carry showed an inability to match the toughness. Chugunov, with only a fraction of the playbook at his disposal, desperately needed a running game to give him a chance. One never materialized.

“I said it last week — we are not very efficient,” the head coach repeated at the close of a losing Saturday. “Our third downs are horrible. We can’t finish drives in the red zone. Our completion percentage isn’t very good.”

The first-time football CEO faces a productivity problem and doesn’t sound intent on delegating solutions.

“It’s on me,” he said. “I have to fix it.”





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