Rich Rodriguez press conference summary: 3-30
West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez addressed the media following spring practice and WVSports.com provides a summary of what was said.
–Rodriguez said the scrimmage was just O.K. The offense moved the ball some and made some plays, the defense wasn’t very physical and had some problems lining up so they could tell it was the first real scrimmage. The effort was O.K. but he doesn’t think everybody understands the program’s definition of playing hard. A lot of the new guys don’t understand what that is. That’s their job as coaches to get them there. It should be after the first practice and that’s his frustration with the coaches.
–Rodriguez some of what he knows right now is O.K. and some of it is to be determined. There has been some good stuff and there are some exciting players but there is some stuff there is a lot to learn. Some of the freshmen are supposed to be in high school so you have to have some patience with them but they aren’t treating anybody like they’re going to redshirt.
–Rodriguez can sees a lot of potential in certain spots. Some of the returning players have a good grasp of what they’re doing they’ve moved some guys around to different spots that were returning and it should be good moves for them. There is an urgency to find out who is ready now.
–Rodriguez was confident when he started the first practice of spring but seven practices in he isn’t going to have it sorted out but he said check back in a week.
—Scotty Fox has some experience, Michael Hawkins has picked up things quickly and he’s excited about his progress. Max Brown does some things well and he likes the young guys at the position, too.
–On the front on the defensive line and on the offensive line they’ve moved guys to multiple spots. Nick Krahe, Landen Livingston, Amare Grayson, Malik Agbo, Kevin Brown, just about all of those guys he is training at multiple positions. They weren’t able to do that last spring and this spring Rick Trickett has done a good job of moving guys around.
–Rodriguez likes the athleticism on defense and they have more length. It’s the second year, but it’s not for a lot of them so he’s worried about the fundamentals and trying to figure out how to win. They’re still learning about the competitiveness. He’s frustrated that they’re still learning how to practice and that’s on them as coaches.
–Rodriguez expected more progress but his patience runs really thin so he expected them to be further along in practice seven than they are right now. They shouldn’t have to repeat themselves, they’re going to make new mistakes but they shouldn’t have to address the same ones over and over.
–Rodriguez said it’s human nature to not think they have the fundamentals down so you always have to make sure that part never waivers. The fundamental part of football there are so many different fundamentals and you have to fix that.
–Rodriguez said guys are showing up on time and he doesn’t have guys that aren’t engaged in practice. There is some of that but he’s a stickler for that. There could be a bomb going off behind him but he’s worried about the next play. Having that singular type of focus is what they need to have. They have to grow to that and he has to keep preaching before he gets it.
—Cam Cook has been limited in live stuff because he knows what he can do but he’s got to be the alpha in the room.
–There is a lot of young new guys at wide receiver so he gets a level of frustration because it isn’t a complicated system. So he gets frustrated.
–Jaden Bray is the biggest and most physical presence out there last year and he is again this year. What Cook is to the running
–There is some skill in the secondary and he likes what they brought in at corner with the length and size. But there’s a lot of work to be done.
–Rodriguez plans to go live on special teams before the end of camp.
–The players know how important WVU athletics are to the state of West Virginia. He doesn’t even need to tell them. They have a sense of responsibility to do their very best. It’s bigger than all of them and the more they can tell the players it helps.
–Rodriguez said he wanted to do more team the second half of spring than first half but because the fundamentals are lacking they have to do half and half.
–The sense of urgency has always been the same for him it doesn’t matter if he’s in the first year or seventh year it’s going to be there.
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