West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen: Alabama's front seven is 'as good as it has ever been'

Head coach Dana Holgorsen and the West Virginia Mountaineers are looking to rebound this season from a horrible campaign in 2013 that saw them end up with a 4-8 record and just 2-7 in the Big 12.

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Well, their start to that rebound is anything but easy as they’ll face off against the Alabama Crimson Tide on Aug. 30 in the Chick-fil-A Classic.

Recently, Holgorsen appeared on Bruce Feldman’s podcast to talk about his team’s opener against one of the favorites to win the national title in 2014, and right off the bat, he applauded the vaunted Alabama defense.

“You’re going to look at the success other teams have had. The hard part is trying to duplicate it when you’re facing such a good defense,” Holgorsen said. “They obviously lost some guys like they do each and every year to the NFL but they do such a great job recruiting and have over the last five years or so. They’re just going to plug the same type of player, same caliber players in there. So it doesn’t make it any easier to prepare for that.”

Although the Tide did lose some key players on that defensive front-seven, as Holgorsen pointed out, they recruit better than anyone in the country, and the West Virginia coach believes that the team he’ll face to open the season has one of the best front-sevens that they ever had.

“They’ve got so much speed in the secondary,” Holgorsen said. “Their front seven is arguably as good as it ever has been. Their D-line is big physical guys, their linebackers can put so much pressure on you from so many different looks … Their corners are so good they make you match up with you and play in man coverage as well.”

It’s definitely going to be an uphill battle for the Mountaineers and Holgorsen in Atlanta at the end of August, if his comments are indeed correct.

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West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen: Alabama’s front seven is ‘as good as it has ever been’

By Jack Crosby | Jun 16, 2014