Rod West wanted a clean slate with his position room when he took the cornerbacks job at West Virginia.
So, as part of that, the assistant tried his hardest not to watch any film from what unfolded last season because he didn’t want to hold anything against the players from what happened in the past.
There are a number of reasons for that as they might have been taught something different than what the new coaching staff teaches or might have been asked to do different things in the previous scheme.
“I didn’t want to go down that road,” he said.
The message from West has been simple and outside of the physical requirements of the position, he has placed an emphasis on what he refers to as the “three c’s,” of playing corner.
That starts with being confident every time they’re on the field and believing that they’re going to win every single matchup. Secondly, composure is critical at all times, whether the player makes or gives up a big play, they must be equipped with a short memory and move onto the next one. Finally, is a constant willingness to compete and to give maximum effort and outwork the competition every snap.
“Those are things we try to stress in all our habits all the time. Obviously on the field you have to be able to make plays but that part will come. That’s why I’m here to develop the on the field component but more than anything, before we can address that, our habits off the field and how we address our work day-to-day I think is the area that needs to be stressed first,” West said.
Some of that comes naturally for players at the cornerback position as it takes a different kind of chip on your shoulder and accountability to effectively play the position.
“If anybody else on the defense makes a mistake, it’s going to be a first down. If we make a mistake, it can be a touchdown. To wake up and understand that I’m going to be put in some one-on-one situations and I’m expected to win every one takes a certain caliber of individual,” he said.
The West Virginia cornerback room looks almost completely different from a year ago but West doesn’t believe that is necessarily a bad thing.
The position coach likes the potential out of his group through the practices to date and they understand that in a league like the Big 12 Conference they’re going to be challenged down the field. Couple that with how coordinator Zac Alley is going to put the cornerbacks in some one-on-one matchups and it takes not only confidence, but buy in with the scheme.
“I think the guys so far have bought into everything we’ve tried to teach them. They’re trying hard. We make mistakes, but we tell them to just make new mistakes,” he said. “Every day is a learning curve, just don’t make the same mistakes from practice one to practice two.’
West’s job hasn’t been necessarily focused on unteaching what was learned before, but instead keeping an open line of communication to show why players will do certain things in the new look. All of the players in the cornerback room are skilled, but it’s about explaining the differences in technique and getting that aforementioned buy-in from the group across the board.
West Virginia has a total of 10 cornerbacks working during the spring and West believes that each of them is working as hard as possible to be a part of the eventual 105-man roster.
And while West declined to name if any of the players are standing out, he did say that guys have done both some good and some bad things but it’s about how they continue to grow.
“They’ve done everything I’ve asked them to do or tried their hardest,” West said.
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