West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez has made some changes since his first stint in Morgantown.
The former head coach roamed the sidelines from 2001-07, but after 17 years away he outlined some of the adjustments he has made as well as what is important to him on an appearance on 3 Guys Before The Game.
“We’re still going tempo. In fact, we’re probably going faster now than we have. Everything you learn, coaches all copy, right? You see somebody else do something you say that’s really good we need to see if we can do that. But there’s other things you hope to or think you are unique that gives you a little bit of an edge,” he said.
And Rodriguez is thoroughly convinced that playing with tempo is one of those things that he won’t sacrifice.
The veteran head coach also made it clear that since he was last the head coach of the Mountaineers he has used more 11-personnel with a tight end than he has ever done. In fact, that total is upwards to 75-percent and Rodriguez even uses 12 and 13 personnel with multiple tight ends in the formation.
One thing that hasn’t changed is that Rodriguez still plans to play with all 11 on the field on offense which means that the quarterback will be utilized in the run game. Now, Rodriguez clarified that you don’t need to be Pat White or Rasheed Marshall fast to be a dominant quarterback in the scheme and pointed to his signal caller last season in Tyler Huff who was timed at around 4.8 in the 40-yard dash.
Yet Huff still rushed for over 1,300 yards and 15 touchdowns.
“The fact you’re willing and that they know he has the ability to keep it. We’ll do that and all the quarterbacks we have now have that,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez also made it clear that there is a lot more variety in the quarterback run game than in the past and when it comes to the position he’d like to come out with two or three that he can win with this spring.
“With the quarterbacks we have on the roster, we have enough talent there to find three we can win with,” Rodriguez said.
In terms of markers, Rodriguez wants to hit 25 first downs on offense as a way to show that they are controlling the tempo on that side of the ball. Meanwhile, on defense, the magic number is six three and outs.
Rodriguez also revealed that the annual Gold-Blue Spring Game would be on April 5.
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