West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez addressed the media after the latest practice of spring football. WVSports.com provides a summary of what was said.
--Today was a productive day and he felt they bounced back after a bad day Saturday.
--Rodriguez got a call that Preston Fox wanted to come back and he said sure. He came over and met and they'd love to have him and all his teammates love him. He is a guy that can help at all of the wide receiver positions.
--It's good to have Larry Porter on board with the running backs. He wanted a veteran presence and he has a lot of experience.
--Tye Edwards has made a big step since the first practice at running back. LJ Turner is a new young guy that has made some flashes. They may get Jahiem White back for the last parts of spring practice.
--Everywhere at every position they need to get faster. Wide receiver, running backs, and football speed that are fast. It's a miserable feeling on defense if you can't tackle them or catch them. They got some guys that can run and sometimes he has to reserve judgement because if they're thinking too much they aren't playing as fast. Some of that is due to learning but once they get that done they can play faster.
--Rodriguez said he has a little bit more patience for the true freshmen that enrolled in January. They are ahead of the schedule for coming but this is their first time in college ball.
--Rodriguez feels like the quarterbacks have gotten better each day and are working all six of them. He wants to get it down to four guys by the end of spring. There is legit competition in that room right now. Nicco Marchiol and Jaylen Henderson have done a good job and Max Brown has done well. Rodriguez has been really impressed with Scotty Fox and he has a bright future.
--Rhett Rodriguez was like a player coach when he was playing because he knew the system so well. The biggest thing that's new is the recruiting aspect, the evaluation and recruiting. He spent a couple years in the business world trying to get people to spend big money on his company so this is probably a little easier to recruit a quarterback.
--Rodriguez recalled the first time he got onto Rhett when he was playing and he started laughing and while it wasn't the response he expected he said he knew it was coming.
--Rodriguez said that coaches kids will do more outside of what is required of them because they know what needs to be done.
--There are parts of plays that quarterbacks can adjust to. The coaches call the plays but there is a lot built into every play where the quarterback can adjust the play. He wants them this spring at some point where he will let them call the plays so they can feel that and it will help them grow and learn. That opportunity will be there if he trusts them but he wants to get to the point where they can anticipate what's being called or what check is coming.
--Rodriguez always felt that Rhett would be a natural coach and his demeanor is better than his and he isn't as angry. He wanted to try his own thing in the financial world and he was doing well but Rodriguez would always poke at him to get into coaching. He has really jumped into recruiting and Rodriguez knew he would be good at it.
--Rodriguez said it's still coming with the coaching staff pointing out players being soft. He believes that he sees things quicker and he's been doing things so long he knows what it looks like and sometimes he doesn't give a coach a chance.
--Rodriguez said he doesn't have a social media policy, he just banned players from dancing on TikTok because that's not hard edge type of look. Football has to be on the team. He banned dancing on TikTok.
--Everybody has to have the ability to recruit. Which ones take a lead or go on the road, but those will be the 10 guys that hit it the best. Evaluation has always been important in recruiting but more important than ever. It's not the ones you don't get in recruiting, it's the ones you take that can't play. One or two isn't bad but 10 or 12 will kill you. You better hit it on the quarterback and you can't have too many misses.
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