Rich Rodriguez press conference summary: Houston
West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez addressed the media following his team’s 45-35 win over No. 22 Houston and here is a summary of what was said.
–Rodriguez said it was good to have a happy locker room and he was proud of his team. They played hard and kept working at it. He said ‘where has this been?’ but it’s been there they just haven’t put it all together. It was a great win against a ranked team on the road and they’re going to enjoy the heck out of it for 24 hours.
–Rodriguez said they talked all week about coming off the ball and they know they’re capable of doing it and they did it. To end the game with getting a key first down when everybody knows you’re going to run it embodies what they want up front. He wanted to see if they could make a first down when everybody knows they’re going to do it at the end of the game and it sealed the game.
–The freshman quarterback Scotty Fox is growing up and was really poised. He saw things well out there and Diore Hubbard ran his tail off. He challenged him to run hard and make them tackle you and he ran possessed.
–Rodriguez said that it’s been frustrating because they’ve started so slowly but their practices were better and he felt they would come out better. Sometimes it’s confidence but they came out with confidence today and there were a couple new things they did but for the most part they just executed better. The defense made some big turnovers and created some points. It was a great team win.
–Fox took care of the ball, didn’t throw into harms way and was seeing the field. The quarterback makes so many decisions that you’re not going to be 100-percent but for a young guy he was solid and ran the ball well. He’s got next level arm talent and you can see that. There is no a throw that he can’t make and he made some phenomenal ones today.
–Rodriguez said when you’re struggling at times you can look at the scoreboard and say ‘woe is me,’ but there wasn’t any of that today. When Houston came back there wasn’t any panic anywhere and that maturity in the game situations is what they’ve been wanting all year and they got it today against a good team.
–The biggest key on the opening drive was getting the first two first downs and getting five to six yards on an inside run because that gives you a lot of confidence. There were a couple new things they put in and they used those on the first drive but they came off the ball better and they needed to.
–On the 34-yard touchdown run on a quarterback draw by Fox they have different variations of it and it’s one of their RPOs they use. He read it right and they lightened the box up and doubled the wideouts and he made a great decision there.
–The defensive score was a huge pick but they had other opportunities. There were a couple times that they were close to sacking the quarterback and they didn’t get it but they got some pressures without blitzing. They were able to get pressures with the defensive ends. Jimmori Robinson showed up today and had a better week. He made an impact out there and it was good to see because he has a lot of talent.
–All but one or two of the kickoffs were touchbacks and that’s been a big worry for them but Nate Flower answered the bell and he negated some of that.
–When Houston got behind they abandoned the run some. It wasn’t their best defensive game overall but from an intensity standpoint and creating turnovers they kept fighting. There were a couple he felt they had them off the field but he needs to watch the film on the pass interference stuff but that was very frustrating.
—Tanner Koziol made a lot of plays and they tried to force them to throw it. They were close to getting a couple sacks and they got to finish that off but they played hard. West Virginia football’s playing hard has to be different than anybody else’s version of that.
–The Houston quarterback has some experience but they had some different coverages and he held onto the ball a little bit but Jordan Scruggs play was big and they got a lot of pressure and he had a great break on the ball. They got the win and you can’t beat a ranked team on the road without turnovers.
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