West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez addressed the media after the third practice of spring football . WVSports.com provides a summary of what was said.
--First day in pads and you can learn more. He saw some periods where he saw an edge but others where they need to get tougher.
--It usually takes a whole spring to evaluate. The first spring is always the hardest and they'll have some fun and engage with the fans at the end with the showcase.
--Players have to learn to do a thud practice. Playing football and staying up high but not taking guys to the ground. They still have to learn when they're doing thud that it's not half speed. When they scrimmage it's live.
--Jahiem White is a proven guy and Rodriguez thinks he's going to have a great year he has a great skill set for what they do. Diore Hubbard is going to be a good player. He wants to have three guys ready to roll. Tye Edwards is a big guy.
--Football up front where it all gets started it's a game where big people are trying to move other big people against their will. There are times they did that today and he likes the approach the offensive line coaches are doing but there is a lot of work to be done up front on both sides. He didn't see the movement that he wanted to see.
--Rodriguez said there are four or five centers getting snaps. You can never have too many there. They had two bad snaps which isn't too bad for the first day.
--Landen Livingston, Robby Martin are working at center. That's the hardest position to play.
--Rodriguez said that he just wants to get the best players they can get whether they have one year left or not. You have to be able to have that one year or two year guy to help you. Get guys that can play and execute.
--Rodriguez thinks it's there with the team to work hard but if you're soft mentally or physically you're not going to make it.
--The secondary play was not good but the guys that were coming back hopefully they'll get better and they brought in others to increase the competition. It's a whole new system. The competition is pretty good right there.
--Derek Carter and Fred Perry played with him at Jacksonville State and they have time with Zac Alley. They know their mentality and they have a little bit of an advantage because they know the expectations. You have to coach them.
--Those familiar will say that there is some method to the craziness and he wants them to get coached. He doesn't want to say it's all bad because they have some good kids. You have to have all of the players playing hard at all times.
--Leadership is the coaches job but you need leadership when the coaches aren't around like summer and off-season.
--Rodriguez had to remind them today and sometimes they don't even realize it. You need to point out when guys are playing with a hard edge and when they aren't. Rodriguez has learned that guys have changed.
--They don't do the kickoff and kickoff return in spring but they do punt, field goal and field goal block and punt return.
--Rodney Gallagher is back there, Jarod Bowie is back there, Oran Singleton is back there as a punt returner. The punt period got him fired up the most
--As coaches Rodriguez has to explain what not being soft is and teach them. He wasn't happy with what he saw today, but it's nothing that can't be corrected.
--Rodriguez said that today was clean with officials there was one holding penalty.
--The most dangerous play in football is kickoff. Having a kickoff guy that can kick it out is really important. That's why they recruited Ethan because they thought he could kick it out based on what they've seen on film.
--Rodriguez said all people have faults. But he's going to be better next week and some of the keys for the success they've had was because they learned, grew and got better. If he expects the players to do that, he and the coaches better do that. If they're keeping score, you always have something to prove. And if you get to the point where you don't feel like you don't have something to prove you're not going to get better.
--If you circle a three hour drive area those are going to be the ones you don't miss on too much in recruiting. Rodriguez wants his coaches to recruit areas that they know. If they got ties do that. They'll go down to Florida and down south but there's a lot of good players in local Ohio, Western Pennsylvania, DMV. The formula has changed because half the time you're looking at portal guys and half the time high school guys. They have a whole recruiting staff and you have to recruit every day.
----------
• Talk about it with West Virginia fans on The Blue Lot.
• SUBSCRIBE today to stay up on the latest on Mountaineer sports and recruiting.
• Get all of our WVU videos on YouTube by subscribing to the WVSports.com Channel
• Follow us on Twitter: @WVSportsDotCom, @rivalskeenan, @wesleyshoe
