West Virginia kisses and tells what it thinks of Crimson Tide
University of Alabama fans looking for bulletin-board material from West Virginia may have hit the jackpot when Clint Trickett met with reporters with Tuesday evening.
The quarterback who’s father Rick was once on Nick Saban’s coaching staff at LSU, admitted that his first kiss was with Saban’s daughter Kristen … when they were 6 years old.
“I don’t know if I should have said that,” he quickly added. “She’s actually engaged now. Coach Nick is one of the greatest there is.”
(She tweeted Tuesday night: “Haha our families have always been good friends. Looking forward to seeing them all again!”)
Kidding aside, Trickett has another unusual tie to someone on the Crimson Tide as like Jacob Coker he transferred from Florida State to have a better shot at starting. He said his former teammate has “one of the better throwers I’ve seen in my life.”
“When Clint Trickett played quarterback last year, I think that he did a really good job for them,” Saban said earlier this week. “He was able to throw for over 250 yards in several games. They were able to run the ball effectively on most teams that they played against. There’s a lot of challenges with the motions and run-pass screens, attack the perimeter in a lot of different ways.”
As for West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen, here are some of the things he said about Alabama during his press conference Tuesday:
“I don’t really need to say much about our opponent, as far as what they’ve accomplished over the last few years. We’re pretty excited to be in this situation – to be able to play a game of this magnitude. Our guys are thrilled with the opportunity to be able to go down to Atlanta to be able to play in this game. Coach Saban’s body of work speaks for itself. They’ve been playing at a very high level here for the last six years. I think he has lost seven or eight games over that span, so they’re an outfit that is tough to beat. Our guys understand that, and look forward to the opportunity to be able to get it on, on Saturday.”
On the Alabama offense:
“A lot has been made about their quarterback spot, I think too much has been made about their quarterback spot. They’ve got two guys who are going to be able to run their offense. To me, with Coach Kiffin – I’ve known Coach Kiffin for a long time – he has a great history of being able to coach some pretty good offenses. I don’t think what they do offensively is going to change a whole bunch. Coach Saban has an idea of what he wants to do on all three sides of the ball within in his program, and they have fantastic players around him. They have three running backs who they can go to each of them and have the ability to score quickly. They’ve got big kids up front, three of the five starters coming back. They say they’re starting a true freshman, then I figured out he was the No. 1 player in the country, and he was there all spring, so I really don’t consider him much of a true freshman. They’ve got big people up front. They’ve got an All-American tight end, three receivers who have played a lot of ball for them and can score. There is a bunch of talent around the quarterback spot. They will probably more than likely play both (quarterbacks).”
On Alabama’s defense:
“When you think of an Alabama team, and you think of Coach Saban, it’s going to be defense. Kirby Smart has been their defensive coordinator for a long time. He’s been with Nick for a long time. They do a great job of recruiting top-notch talent, big, fast, strong guys, some of the better players in the country each and every year. They lose guys to the NFL every year, then they just replace them with guys who have been in the program, and then those guys go to the NFL also. They have five or six starters coming back, and have a good nucleus of guys who have played a lot of ball for them.”
On Alabama’s special teams:
“Special teams has always been a huge emphasis for them. They’re probably just the opposite of what we are with their specialists. They’re replacing a punter and a kicker, but they have one of the best return guys in the country coming back in Christian Jones. He was an All-SEC, All-American kick and punt returner. They have more than him. DeAndrew White is one of their receivers who has the ability to score as well. They have a great return game.”
On playing up-tempo offense against Alabama:
“Yeah. Everybody has to deal with tempo. We have to deal with tempo. The opponent has to deal with tempo. Everyone across the country has to deal with offenses playing up-tempo. That’s the nature of college football. That is where everybody is going. People are making it a big deal about it against Alabama, but nobody is making a big deal about Ole Miss going fast against Alabama where they shut them out or some of the other games that they played. They face teams that have played up tempo, and nobody has ever talked about it because they shut them out. Against Auburn, against Oklahoma, against Texas A&M. Everybody is talking about that because they won those games, but if you look at what they did defensively, it’s not like they are giving up six or 700 yards. They were still holding their own.”
On preparing for Alabama’s two quarterbacks, Blake Sims and Coker:
“We have limited snaps to be able to gauge this from. Neither one of them has taken a bunch of snaps. They’re not the same quarterback. Sims has a little more athleticism to him, where Coker is a bigger, more pocket-type guy. Again, we have to be aware of who they are, as far as elusiveness of one, and, don’t want to say lack thereof with the other one. There is only so much you can prepare for. The flip side of that is I doubt they’re going to have two different offenses for those two guys. There is only so much they can prepare for, as well.”
On sophomore cornerback Daryl Worley lining up against Amari Cooper:
“We don’t have many choices. Right. I mean Amari Cooper is one of the best receivers in the country, so we are going to have to put our better guys on him. We are going to have to cover DeAndrew White as well. They have multiple options, and we have to be able to have more than Daryl Worley.”