West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez addressed the media ahead of spring football. WVSports.com provides a summary of what was said.
--Rodriguez said he has a lot of new guys and still learning all their names. A lot of wide-open competitions at every position. There are no returning starters on defense and only two on offense. He has enjoyed working with the guys and really looking forward to practice starting Tuesday.
--Because it's the first spring together there is always a little more evaluation. They have to do part of spring and see what they've got and then the teaching and fundamentals. The first spring is important. The roster could look a little different in May with another portal period and he's looking forward to seeing the team compete.
--Rodriguez said you used to be worried about schemes and now teams will see players in spring games. There is tampering and it's rampant. In college, you don't see anybody getting in trouble for it. If they don't direct tamper they'll do it through some other people like a high school coach. A true spring game probably isn't going to have that but they'll have a little bit of a scrimmage.
--Rodriguez said that he wanted to have a week of meetings before the portal opens. It originally was going to be April but he moved it back to April 5. There is likely going to be a reduction in roster size to 105 and you'll have to cut guys. He hopes they can grandfather that in and get to that number.
--Rodriguez said that with how they do things the installation process will be fast. They won't have longer practices to get it done. You can work with them in the month of June so the urgency scheme-wise isn't what it used to be.
--Rodriguez said he thought about how much things have changed since his first hired. He was still learning a lot. There are different challenges now. If the goalposts move you have to move with it. Every day whether it's schemes, recruiting or methods he tries to learn something new every day. There is a lot more knowledge and things but there are more challenges, too. Players are a lot smarter but he's not sure if they're as mentally or physically tougher. You can coach some of the sense of entitlement out of them. He still thinks they can get coached.
--There are moments when you have to play football. Sometimes you need to have them live just to see how they run.
--Nicco Marchiol in his opportunities he played really well. He has been pleased with him coming back and they think they have good competition in those rooms. He feels more comfortable with the talent that they have and their ability to run. Taking care of the football is important. The offense is quarterback-centric and they're going to play with 11.
--Every coach talks about culture and how important it is but do they live it and is it a standard? He rehired Mike Joseph as the strength coach and able to bring Parker Whiteman with him. He's been pleased with the workouts.
--Rodriguez is hesitant to single anybody out that has stuck out. The first couple practices will be shock to the system because it's different schemes and tempos.
--There are concerns on defense and offense. Rodriguez doesn't want to watch too much of last year but he watched cutups of Pitt and of Texas Tech until he got sick. He'll be watching spring practice very closely.
--Rodriguez said he didn't hire the former players for what they did in the past it's what they did now.. He confirmed that Chad Scott got the job at Texas.
--Rodriguez said he has agents and coaches blowing him up the last 24 hours since the word got out about Scott leaving. He'll find a replacement.
--Rodriguez said that his team needs to get faster.
--You have to have a plan on how to approach NIL. You have to spread out the money to certain positions like they do in the NFL. They have a model in place and some is already implemented and others will be once the revenue sharing goes into place. The NIL part will still be active but it will be better regulated. West Virginia is the only school in the state that's a power four school so that could help them.
--Spring ball still has importance but the fact they can meet with them in the summer changes that dynamic.
--This is the seventh different head coach job and every first spring was half miserable and ugly with new terminology. Every spring after that becomes a little easier. He has to remind himself that it's the first spring but they have to have urgency to get ready.
--You can win quicker or you can lose more. It's a different dynamic so you have to adjust to that. There's a sense of urgency that maybe they shouldn't have. Just because they don't have a lot of starters returning, that's no excuse not to have a good football team. Rodriguez didn't get hired for nostalgic reasons, he got hired to win.
--Those players that came from Jacksonville State have helped because they understand how they do things but they have to prove themselves all over again. They've seemed eager to learn.
--Nobody has any patience and they want it all right now. They've got a lot of work to do but every year it's going to be a different challenge. They need to win and they need to prepare to win and the coaches need to coach to win. But it's going to take a lot.
--Rodriguez didn't have a mentor who was a head coach who hired him as an assistant or a coordinator and he moved up. He had a different path and the one person that probably had a bigger impact than anybody was Tommy Bowden when they hired him at Tulane. He let Rodriguez run the offense and that propelled him to getting some of the big school jobs. Then 20 years later he's with Terry at Louisiana-Monroe. And he met some really good coaches with him and took them to Jacksonville State.
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