Quick Hits: Added Praise for Cam Torbor, Defense's Progression, Kicker Battle + More

West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez met with the media Friday evening and gave some updates on the kicker battle, how some intriguing youngsters are developing, and an early look at Coastal.

How punter Bryan Hansen has performed

"We wanted a proven guy, and he's proven coming from Colorado State. And he's just been booming the ball. I mean, even in the last week it's gotten amazing how he's been doing it. We ask him to do some different kicks sometimes, and he's very coachable. He's also an outstanding holder, so we feel really comfortable with that."

Any clarity on the kicker situation

"No. Probably Jack (Cassidy) and Nate (Flower) are probably ahead of Peter (Notaro). We did a lot of kicks today. It was good at times, and it was uneven at times as well. I think that battle, you'd like for somebody to emerge in the next week, but right now it's pretty close between Jack and Nate. Peter is still catching up because he was out for a little bit."

How the defense is coming along

"We're probably doing more stuff, and I've been around Zac a bunch of times. I think we're doing more stuff defensively than we ever have. And things that aren't working or things that our guys can't grasp, he won't put it in there. Most of it has been things we'll need all year, and he's got some stuff in for first game, but we do a whole lot. He's always done a whole lot. He's demanding of our guys from a schematic, understanding football standpoint. You'd like to just play this one front, one blitz, one coverage and be good enough to win games that way, but I don't know if anybody can do that nowadays."

Early thought on Coastal Carolina

"Yeah, you don't really know. They got a whole new staff. We know what that's like. They're going to have a bunch of new players, so it'll be a little bit of guesswork there. And then you can kind of study what that staff or those coordinators have done in the past. It's the first game of the year, so you're likely to see a whole bunch of new stuff. You can try to prepare, and it's like they can try to prepare for us, but there's a lot of stuff that we're doing in all three phases that we hadn't done before. The first game is the most difficult to prepare for from a schematic standpoint, so you got to be foundational and fundamentally strong."

Early evaluation of OT Jonas Muya and DL Emerson Joy

"Jonas, you can see his athleticism...golly. He's got a great career in front of him. Very eager to learn; everything is new to him. He's really raw, but he runs like a tight end or even a wideout. He's got great athleticism, so really excited about him. And Emerson, when we saw him, we were like, he's got great size, and it was interesting the first thing I said to him was, do you know we have four downs here? You got an extra down to get a sack maybe or something, so if it's third down, don't think it's all over. There's no fourth down there (in Canada). But he's been great. He's catching on quickly. He was late getting here, so he's catching up, but I think he'll be able to help us."

How LB Cam Torbor has played

"Cam Torbor was a great find for us, but we knew about him from out time in Alabama. I knew it then, and we were going to try and get him at Jax State, and I was like, I hope nobody else finds out about this guy, but if you're coming from the state of Alabama, people are going to know who you are. He's done an outstanding job. He's going to play as a freshman. He'll play on defense; he's going to play on special teams. I'm really excited for Cam Torbor. He's a great young man, too. He's got a great future here. He's big, and he can run. He might be one of the fastest backer we have. He's just a good football player. I could take a bunch of Cam Torbors; I can tell you that."

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