Rich Rodriguez press conference summary 11-25
West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez addressed the media in his weekly press conference Tuesday and here is a summary of what was said.
–Rodriguez offered his condolences to the family of Philip Weser.
—Diore Hubbard is out for the season and Curtis Jones will do more and Cyncir Bowers will have a chance. They’ve battled injuries and will get it out of the way this year. Clay Ash will be able to practice this week and will be able to practice. Tyler Jacklich has a chance to play this weekend.
–The transfers from Texas Tech on the defensive line are dominant at the Power Four level. They play really hard and those guys have all proven themselves again. They beat West Virginia pretty good last year and they’re better this year.
–It’s an opportunity for his team but this game would be a disservice to the seniors to not try to win the game. They’re going to do everything they can to win the game.
–Texas Tech linebacker Jacob Rodriguez is one of the best in the country and is the best at punching the ball out. He is very athletic and he is deserving of all the accolades he has been getting.
–Some of these seniors have only been here six months or less. He is really proud of the class because there has been some tough moments and not everything has worked out but they have hung in and battled and been good for the program. They have worked really hard to get the program where they want to. They’re a long way from getting there but this senior class has helped them establish the culture.
–Rodriguez said with the microwave type of thing college athletics is in you have a tendency to move on quicker but it dismisses what the players mean to the school. He wants the portal guys to appreciate the school and the state. And for the most part this senior class has. They coach them hard regardless of their standing and try to get them all to fit in the way they need to fit.
–Rodriguez would like the CSC agreement to come into play to make it fair and equal across the board like a true salary cap. But if he’s one of those schools that has more and can do more he can see why they would be against it. From a fairness standpoint having a true hard salary cap and not having $20 million more in NIL money from the same teams in the league is a little bit challenging.
–Rodriguez said they’re studying teams that are doing well and why they are winning and spending such as Texas Tech. There’s a reason you have so much success and look what they’ve done with it. They evaluated the right guys and he doesn’t know what they’re getting paid but they distributed it in the right way and all of their guys play really hard. It didn’t affect their culture and there’s a lot to learn from studying it. You have to be fortunate because there’s always a little bit of guesswork and they have to stay healthy.
–Rodriguez said that the dynamic as changed and young men are different than they were 20 years ago. It’s a pro locker room with quarterbacks making more money than wideouts. He still thinks in football where it requires so many people to have success the team aspect has to be at the forefront. Football is not an individual sport although there are individual stars.
–Junior college guys there are less getting opportunities because of the transfer portal. The junior college has become more like the high school guys and they will sign them on Dec. 3. It is a different dynamic and there are some that would have gotten offers before but because there are so many transfers those guys are going to junior colleges for opportunities. All the dynamics have changed and they had to change with it. They have to find out the solutions to win and what they learned from this year moving forward.
–Rodriguez is still against the roster limit and doesn’t see why they can’t have a roster limit of 120 instead of 105. It’s prevented a lot of the walk-ons from coming here and they’ll go to a smaller school or junior college and it delays their ability to prove themselves. Rodriguez said some won’t graduate until May but if they’re a good player they’ll take them then. Most of them will enroll in January but now-a-days most high school guys are graduating early and enrolling in January.
–Rodriguez said they’re on the look out every day for guys. They’ll sign guys next week, sign guys in February and another dozen in the portal or so. They want guys that can compete right now. Rodriguez said they did a little bit of evaluation last week but they had a lot of meetings about the current roster. They’ve had the last 14 weeks to do something so they’ve got a good evaluation on the current players.
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