Rich Rodriguez press conference summary: 3-9
West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez addressed the media Monday evening after the second spring practice and WVSports.com provides a summary of what was said.
–Rodriguez said that they moved around a little better today and will get on pads Wednesday. But until they get in pads and go live you don’t really know.
–It’s early but for the most part those young guys are who they thought they were in the first two practices. There is nothing to make them think what they saw in shorts won’t translate into pads. He told the team tonight that the practice intensity is always at a high level and it was today.
–There’s a lot of players that pass the eye test. Kevin Brown squats half the building and works his tail off, but a lot of those players have worked hard.
–Rodriguez said that it’s easier now for a true freshman because they can come in the spring and they can work with them in the summer now. Now, they don’t recruit any freshman with the idea that they’re going to get redshirted even the quarterbacks. They tell all of those guys that everybody has a chance to play. This freshman class is huge and he believes a lot of them will play.
–Rodriguez said if they evaluated right and they do what they think and have the resources to retain them they won’t have to replace 50 guys a year because of the freshmen class.
–Rodriguez said everybody is competing and has a shot, but they tried to identify guys that had production where they were before in the transfer portal to learn the stuff and try to plug them in and play. Every coach wants real competition. This time last year they had another transfer portal window, but this year they know who the team is and the competition is good in each spots.
–There’s so much to learn and they have to make sure as coaches they don’t overload them. They have some time for that and they don’t need to be ready to play April 18 and make sure they are getting better.
–Rodriguez said you always develop a relationship through your culture and how they coach one guy is how they will coach all the guys. Everybody gets an opportunity and he wants them to care about each others and the environment leads to that.
–Rodriguez gave a shout out to Coach Kellogg and the team for winning the Big 12.
–Big defensive lineman or offensive lineman and another running back they’re still looking at with those remaining spots.
–At the wide receiver spot they wanted to get bigger and faster. Jaden Bray is back and healthy, Cyrus Traugh is returning and he’s done a good job. Two days into it they’ve done a good job. You’d like to have six or seven in there. Rodriguez said that stats mean a little bit but they’ve never searched people for just stats outside of production from the Power Four level. If you are the leader in Division One rushing like Cam Cook that draws attention, but in high school and junior college they don’t look at it as much. The coaches also want to look at guys from a mental standpoint.
–Rodriguez paid close attention to Jacksonville State because he had close ties there. He paid attention and was able to see Cook. They went after him and wanted an experienced guy. This is Cook’s first time in the system and he is a fast learned and can help the young guys but right now he’s still learning it too.
—Amari Latimer is a big 230-pound guy that has great feet. Rodriguez thinks all of the running backs are going to play. Martavious Boswell and Chris Talley are fast guys and they have two guys that aren’t here yet.
–Rodriguez had some guys that were banged up this year they have intentionally targeted a lot of competition for that. But there are five or six guys that will all play at defensive end. Rodriguez wants the defensive ends to play both sides so they play both ends and bandit.
–Rodriguez had known the Latimer family for several years back where Geimere Latimer was playing for him at Jacksonville State. They are both really good athletes and they were targeting both.
—Matt Sieg is going to play a big role on defense, but they are still working him on offense as well. He could play running back or slot and even some quarterback stuff to him but you have to know everything.
–Rodriguez said all the quarterbacks have to have the ability to run and Sieg would run what the others would do if he would play any there.
–Rodriguez said that the staff has done a good job and he thinks this team is going to be fun to coach. Rodriguez said they had lots of loafs Saturday but he doesn’t think they were intentional they just didn’t know. He needs to learn to enjoy his job a little better but his happiness is based on winning.
—Brad Mossor had production and he’s a winner and he’s really, really competitive. He was trying to be the best on the field. He has something special and he has a desire to play at this level and play for the home state team.
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