West Virginia is committed to being a highly successful Power Four program. And head coach Rich Rodriguez only knows how to go about that one way.
With a trademark toughness and edge that defines his football teams. It’s an approach that’s become known as hard edge throughout the career of Rodriguez.
“People talk about competitiveness or whatever. If we’re keeping score, we’re trying to whip your ass. That’s kind of the way it is,” Rodriguez said.
It’s an approach that is mandated from the top down and is a requirement to play for Rodriguez. Quite simply if they don’t have the same type of mentality, they aren’t going to last in the Mountaineers football program.
“Guys that are non-competitive, they aren’t going to make it. That doesn’t make them a bad person, but I want guys that will crawl over top of people to win. If you’re not a competitive guy you’re going to stand out in the wrong way,” Rodriguez said.
The toughness is something that Rodriguez makes sure is a critical part of his teaching and it requires players to live by it at all times. That doesn’t mean bringing it one day and then deciding that you’ll see how you react on the others but understanding what is being asked and making it part of your approach as well.
There are no playing favorites or coaching players differently, it’s about buying into the message at large.
“Once you get it you get it. And you have it. And when you don’t have it and everybody else around you has it then you stand out in the wrong way,” Rodriguez said.
Now, while Rodriguez won’t sacrifice the culture, he does believe that schematically you must build your plan around what your players can do best. Still, the mentality remains the same.
“Good players want to be coached and we’re going to coach them,” he said.
It’s something that was the fabric of his teams during his first stint in Morgantown where he led the program to three consecutive ten-win seasons and has been at every other stop along the way.
“When we had success here, wherever it’s because we had really good players that had that kind of competitive hard edge mentality and once they get it they kind of have it forever,” he said.
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