Rich Rodriguez press conference summary: 8-14
West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez addressed the media Thursday and WVSports.com provides a summary of what was said in the press conference.
–Rodriguez said that he took a break and had a kicker Ethan Head try a 38-yard field goal and if he made it they got half the practice off and he made it. Rodriguez said they do that in camp, but jokes that maybe he was a little soft.Tomorrow’s practice will be in shorts and will have the biggest scrimmage of camp Saturday.
–Rodriguez said there are still so many questions. They have some older guys in the secondary and they have progressed well. The deepest position group they’ve got is quarterback and they continue to progress. Offensive line has a lot of new players.
–West Virginia targeted pass rushers in the transfer portal and that got a lot better over the last five months.
–To get a transfer up to speed that arrives they throw them in. They don’t have classes right now but they have plenty of time to meet with them. There’s always the possibility of one or two more additions but there has been some interest from some guys that can help them. If you’re bringing them in now it’s a necessity to see if they can compete and see if they can help them win. School starts in six days and they have six more days to add to the roster.
–Jaden Bray works really hard and with the GPS monitors he is 1, 2 or 3 in terms of yards run in each practice.
–Rodriguez believes they’re going to find out a lot in the first couple games of the season on top of the scrimmage. He isn’t one that believes he is an average practice player but a gamer because that doesn’t go over well. But there are guys that don’t get nervous and are ultra competitive and you can see a little bit in practice but when you’re playing against somebody else that gets heightened more.
–Rodriguez said they keep score in practice.
–Rodriguez recalled being dropped off for his first move in day and said he got dropped off on the wrong side of the stadium and then was pointed in the direction of Towers. He didn’t know anybody and they didn’t know him. He remembers coming from little Grant Town and how it was a big stadium.
–They have more offense in for the second scrimmage and he’s going to direct the coaches to be less involved with instructing the players. He wants to see much the players can grasp on their own.
–Discipline and turnovers are critical in operating the offense. They have to do a better job getting positive yards and keeping the ball so they can’t score. The closest one they had to a perfect game at Arizona in 2013 they were playing Oregon at home and they had one five-yard penalty and one -1 yard run and no turnovers. It was the cleanest game he has ever coached from an offensive deal.
–In August at Arizona, they worked on fumble recoveries and if the ball was going out of bounds and throwing it back onto the field to a teammate and the first play of that game against Oregon.
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