West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez has been in the coaching industry a long time.
And with that, he’s seen plenty of changes over the years not only with the game but the players that he’s coaching. In the past, Rodriguez could simply tell his players to run through a wall and they would do that but it isn’t as easy of a sell in today’s climate.
“Now they’ll still do it, but they want to know why? And if they don’t give the right answer they’ll say, well that isn’t what it says on Google right here,” Rodriguez said on The Triple Option podcast. “The damn guys are smarter than us.”
Today’s players are more informed than ever, which requires coaches to be prepared to understand and how to communicate the why when doing anything.
“You better know why this is the why. And so, I’ll tell them, so this is the why,” he said.
Now Rodriguez still coaches his team hard, like he has over the course of his career but there’s just more explanation needed than in the past.
Still, even with those minor adjustments, there is no room for sacrificing what’s important.
“I tell our coaches if there’s one play in practice or a game but in practice, especially, because that’s where football teams get made, where a guy is loafing or he’s soft and you don’t say something when you see it immediately you’ve created a problem,” he said.
And that correction must be immediate in order to drive home what Rodriguez wants out of his team.
“I say it when I see it. I say it, then it’s over with,” he said.
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