Speed is the name of the game for Rich Rodriguez.
That’s not only in the type of players that he brings into the West Virginia football program, but the tempo that his offensive units play with at any given time.
“The core of what we’re doing, the tempo part of it, I still think is non-negotiable. We’re going to do that. The most overlooked factor in football is conditioning and we want to make it a factor in every game,” Rodriguez told The Triple Option podcast.
When it comes to his overall offense Rodriguez has made some tweaks over the years but it’s still many of the same concepts and the same spread elements that he used during his first successful tenure in Morgantown from 2001-07.
But one difference outside the increased use of 11-personnel is that the tempo is actually faster than it was in the past.
“We’re faster than we were five-years ago and 25-years ago ago by far,” he said.
Rodriguez believes that using that tempo is a good way to keep teams off balance in large part because teams simply aren’t used to playing against it.
“We want to go as fast as we can for three quarters, have a two score lead in the fourth quarter then we’re going to milk it,” Rodriguez said.
That element will never change with Rodriguez and in-fact he’s looking at ways to increase it even further as he continues to develop the offense.
“Every day I think of how we can go faster,” he said.
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