MORGANTOWN This is one of those good news, or maybe not, items from West Virginia football coach Dana Holgorsen.

Theres a chance this team could have as much talent as any team weve had since Ive been here, Holgorsen said, before sending his team out for its final full contact practice prior to Saturdays 1 p.m. Blue-Gold game that benefits West Virginia Childrens Hospital.

That certainly qualifies as good news, considering he had a team that won the Orange Bowl and last year had a team that won 10 games.

But there is a dark side to that, too.

I dont think that exclusively wins football games, Holgorsen pointed out.

Holgorsen understands theres more to assembling a winning team than just having talented players.

We still have to develop a lot of continuity in each phase of the game, Holgorsen said. Once you add 10 new guys in May, 10 new guys in June and 10 new guys in July, a lot of them who will be contributors, I dont think you will figure out the overall chemistry of the team until somewhere in the neighborhood of September.

And with as many losses as the Mountaineers suffered, from center Tyler Orlosky to quarterback Skyler Howard to running back Rushel Shell to eight defensive starters, the team must develop leadership and chemistry.

I dont like the chemistry yet, Holgorsen said. We got talent. We got older guys. A lot of our seniors last year were 5th-year guys. If look at our seniors this year, a lot are transfers. My job, more than anything, is developing those leaders and developing chemistry in a team that really likes each other and wants to fight hard for each other.

I think that is going to be huge in June, parts of July and a little bit of August. I just dont think we can do that right now.

Some good news for West Virginias football program this week, which actually allowed Holgorsen to talk about injuries.

Holgorsen said that he expects to get center Jacob Buccigrossi back in August.

The Mountaineers were counting on Buccigrossi as their backup to Matt Jones, who will replace All-American Tyler Orlosky, until he went down a couple of weeks ago with a knee injury that was thought could keep him out most or all of the season.

Hell be cleared in late August, Holgorsen said.

More good news, this from the defensive side where linebacker Brendan Ferns has returned from the knee injury he suffered last year and begun to do contact work.

He had his best day on Sunday in the scrimmage, defensive coordinator Tony Gibson said. He made a lot of tackles and is very active. Now he is starting to let loose a little bit and not be cautious. He is playing Mike right now.

That would put him behind starter Al-Rasheed Benton.

Sundays scrimmage produced a surprise star in Dante Bonamico, 5-foot-8, 172-pound safety from Bridgeport.

He was a kid in on some turnovers, made a bunch of tackles ... and hes the smallest guy out there. Hes flying around and doing some good things, Gibson said.

Linebacker Quondarius Qualls, a junior college recruit out of Louisiana, is a player to keep an eye on.

He is feeling his way through things right now, Gibson said. Were moving kids around. Its really important, though, that he have a good summer.

The reason? They have plans for him.

Hes a strong kid. I really like the way he can run. The biggest thing with him is hes going to be a guy were going to use in the third-down package, Gibson said.

Follow Bob Hertzel on Twitter @bhertzel

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Holgorsen says team chemistry a work in progress | WVU SPORTS ... - The Exponent Telegram (press release) (registration)