West Virginia is currently in the midst of a spring break with students leaving campus which opens up some windows for the coaching staff to focus on a number of items.
One of those is simply what needs to be accomplished on the field with around two weeks of practices remaining ahead of the April 5 Gold-Blue Showcase.
“That will be part of my time while the guys are gone on break to see what do we really need to get done in the last handful of practices,” head coach Rich Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez has been doing this for so long he knows that the first spring at every stop on his career has always looked ugly but there is certainly time to address that with the remainder of the practices then into the summer and of course fall camp leading into the season.
On top of getting the current players ready, there will be a focus on what needs to come next with the second transfer portal window set to open April 16.
Rodriguez believes that the Mountaineers didn’t get all of their needs addressed in that first window, so finding those missing pieces will be critical as well.
“In the second portal there’s less available but there’s still going to be a handful we have to try to get to get some competition and address where we’re a little bit lacking in depth,” he said.
And outside of the quarterback position, every spot on the roster remains wide open.
“Everywhere,” Rodriguez said.
The personality of a team is something that takes some time to form, and Rodriguez doesn’t believe that it necessarily occurs in the winter or spring due to the changes with how much the roster makeup will shift. That’s complicated even further by the fact that West Virginia is likely going to need to trim their numbers even more to meet the 105 total once the House Settlement is approved.
That means that likely isn’t going to occur until the first two weeks of fall camp.
“We’re still not sure who the whole roster is going to be until mid-summer. It’s starting to form now and be finalized in the summer,” he said.
On top of developing a personality, Rodriguez also wants to see certain players emerge as leaders who can teach on top of the coaches in each of the position rooms on the roster. That’s difficult now with it being new to basically all of the players but can and should form over time.
“In other words, they’ll tell them this is where you line up, this is what the play is, this is what your assignment is and you like to have one at every position that it helps the coaches,” he said.
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