West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez addressed the media following the second practice of spring football . WVSports.com provides a summary of what was said.
--Second day in shorts was pretty good. They are going to get the turf at the stadium and practice field replaced so they're looking forward to that. But today they got some good work done.
--Rodriguez said that playing really hard is an ability. That is a certain type of ability so they want to a certain skill set with size, strength and speed but you hope the playing hard part is a given. There is a difference with guys and their vision of that and the coaches so you have to make sure that's the same.
--The progress of the quarterbacks has been good to see. They have three quarterbacks that are good to see. Rodriguez still thinks they need to get more depth at wideout. The offensive line is all new. The whole starting unit and half the second is gone so they're starting over.
--The worst part after spring is going to be letting guys go. He said after the Big 12 call the roster limit is going to go to 105 and he doesn't like that because it will cut out opportunities for walk ons. They will need to cut a few more to fill certain positions like wide receiver.
--When you start evaluating a program you have to have quarterbacks that can throw and pass rushers. A dominant corner next. Pass rush is something they needed to address in recruiting and he believes they did but stay tuned because they haven't been in pads.
--Rodriguez again talked about the need for cross training with the 105 limit at certain positions. They have to have all the wide receivers play multiple spots and they can't make it too complicated for them. They can't make sure they aren't doing too much where that guy that can help you does have the ability to step up.
--Rodriguez has always said you need to have a system that is freshmen friendly. You better have a system like that, but that doesn't mean experience can't help. They're trying to have the freshman friendly system with all those guys.
--Your first and second quarterback aren't live during the season so you don't want to get them hurt. He has to figure out how to evaluate quarterbacks from the run standpoint but also don't want to but them too much in harm's way.
--Rodriguez said if you're good enough to win they'll play them even at quarterback. He hopes he has three or four quarterbacks that are good to win with and give him a comfortable feeling if they're in the game.
--Rodriguez said that he likes having backups as starters on special teams because they are fresher and take more pride in that. He'll make exceptions, but typically he takes guys that are in the rotation that are maybe a backup.
--The goal posts have moved so you better move with them. All the methods and core parts are the same, but recruiting and how you build a roster has changed and you have to learn to grow with it. There's a whole lot that's happened in the last three years so even at Jacksonville State he got to see a whole different scope of building a roster.
--Rodriguez said he's smarter and has a bigger staff than his first time in his first year at West Virginia. And there are things that helped you build a roster quicker like the transfer portal now. Most of the transfers are grown men. You can fix stuff quicker.
--Your linebackers on defense have to do a lot of stuff and are under stress. Rodriguez said it isn't hard offensive line wise but the pace is different. It drives him crazy watching the NFL games because they run the play clock down to get in the perfect play.
--The tempo and some of the quarterback read and run stuff was so different. If you run a play to one side most defenses would fit the run on one side and the backside would chase the ball, and avoid the cutback. Now, defenses will fit it one way to one side and another on the other side so it's become more complicated with possible quarterback runs. They try to make everybody defend the whole field.
--Rodriguez said they had to evolve. You're seeing more athletic quarterbacks and you're seeing them run the ball with the quarterback at the NFL. He's had really fast guys and power runners at the quarterback spot.
--The GPS thing has been great. The biggest measurables and what he gets from it is the yardage they can. Most of the skill guys were getting 6,000 yards and the lineman were getting 5,000 yard. One lineman had 8,000 and he joked he must have kept it on when he went home. Rhett Rodriguez has been the guy talking to the quarterback on the headset and it shuts off at 15 but they're snapping it before then anyways.
--If you have guys that are playmakers you find a way to put them on the field. That's what their evaluation is in the spring. They have enough variety in their system to put them in spots.
--Rhett Rodriguez and Pat White know the system. They also played in it. It's a team game but the most important position is the quarterback. They need as many eyes as they can. He knows the system and how they want to implement it. Rodriguez also says he needs somebody that had a calming personality as well and Rhett Rodriguez has been working for this opportunity.
--Sometimes when you get to jobs at this level a lot of coaches or staff members get territorial and try to protect themselves. They want to make sure they look good more than the team or winning. Everybody is going to have pride in what they do on the staff, but you can't be territorial. Everybody has to be willing to help everybody.
--Jeff Casteel and Travis Trickett have been coordinators at previous stops. They got to hire another coach or two. Rodriguez said there might be another volunteer coach that comes and helps out. Everybody has a little bit of ego and believes in what they're doing but you like to hire people that have great ideas that are smarter than you.
--It used to be zone read and read the end but now you have true RPOs. What they ran before was a run option with a bubble screen tagged onto it now you have true run/pass options reading second level and third level players. The threat of the quarterback running is still a big part of what they do. They like to have three options, he's handing it off, running it or he's throwing it.
--Jacksonville State went from FCS to FBS. They were at 72 scholarships the first year and they had to manage their roster and see the quality of their walk ons. The FCS model where guys are partially packaged so they might be at an 85 equivalency. His experience will be able to help to get to 105.
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