Rich Rodriguez press conference summary: post UCF
West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez addressed the media following the 45-13 loss to UCF and here is a summary of what was said.
–Rodriguez said that his team stunk in every phase and in every way. He said he’s done this a long time and felt the guys were ready to play but they didn’t do anything well. They looked slow and out of position, missed tackles, didn’t block and had two holding penalties on draw plays and that should never happen. They were poorly coached, poorly executed. They had two young quarterbacks but that doesn’t explain everything.
–You have to give everybody a shot based on what they’ve done in the game and what they’ve done in practice and the two young guys were the only ones that were healthy at quarterback. Scotty Fox got the first shot based on what practice was like the last two weeks but it’s a lot on them and more when the pieces around them aren’t helping and they have to figure out a way for that to happen. If you got a young quarterback and you can run the ball or don’t have to get rid of it so quick every time you drop back it helps matters.
–Rodriguez said that on the offensive line if they felt a changeup would be better they would do that or try to do that.
–Rodriguez said there is more to unlock for a lot of guys. Diore Hubbard and Cyncir Bowers competed but they’re not getting a lot of push like they need to. They’re having to rush things a little bit but some of that is the quarterbacks rushing things, too. There is a multitude of things that they’ve got to fix and that falls on the coaches.
–Three UCF drives started inside the 10-yard line and they missed tackles, looked slower and weren’t playing as fast as they needed to on defense. The execution part, the scheme part they’re going to have to look at it. It was not a good effort on any facet.
—Khalil Wilkins said he just got hit in the ribs and knocked the breath out of him.
–Rodriguez expected UCF to go for it on fourth down a lot because it’s what everybody does. He said his team values possessions so much because they’re not stopping anybody. For them to play like they need to play they need to win first down and get three and outs. He knows what they need to do to get it fixed.
They need to do everything they can to fix what they can fix right now and fix things later, too. There is stuff they need to fix right now and that’s where the focus will be.
–Redshirt senior running back Tye Edwards is done for the year with a hip injury.
–Rodriguez said their three older quarterbacks are all injured. The two young quarterbacks are competitive guys. But he felt they would have played better and the team would have played better.
–There are going to be some things on film where they felt it should have worked but other things they need to do better to make a play.
–Rodriguez felt they didn’t sustain blocks as well in the second half. They got off blocks better than West Virginia’s defense did. He doesn’t believe they challenged them as much from a scheme standpoint like they need to.
–Rodriguez has to find out why UCF had so many guys so wide open. One time they were supposed to have a deep safety in the middle of the field and they didn’t, he believes it was the second touchdown. That should have never happened and there were some breakdowns. They played really poorly and it was as poorly as he’s had a team play defensively in a long, long time. Some of it is getting guys in the right spots and not making mental mistakes but that comes back to them as coaches to get them comfortable where they can do their stuff.
Offer Alert
Fall camp is here and there’s no better time to sign up with us to get all your WVU intel! Sign up today – $1 for the first week, plus a complimentary year of access to The Athletic included. Join – http://gowvu.us/Join
__________________________________________
• Talk about it with West Virginia fans on The Blue Lot
• SUBSCRIBE today to stay up on the latest on Mountaineer sports and recruiting
• Get all of our WVU videos on YouTube by subscribing to the WVSports.com Channel
• Follow us on Twitter: @WVSportsDotCom, @rivalskeenan
•Like us on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok
