Rich Rodriguez press conference summary: Robert Morris week
West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez addressed the media ahead of the season opening matchup against Robert Morris and here is a summary of his press conference.
–Rodriguez knows that the players are excited to finally get to play and there are a lot of guys anxious to prove themselves.
–Rodriguez said they are still waiting on Jimmori Robinson. The other three players are practicing but he has not. They are still interpreting the ruling with their general counsel. There is no clarity for when the uncertainty will clear up.
–There’s a lot of unknown on both ends when you are playing teams with a lot of changes. Robert Morris has three different coordinators. For his own team, Rodriguez said that the game is managed a little different and he has tried to prepare them the best that he can.
–Zac Alley is going to be on the field. Pat Kirkland will be on the field and Rodriguez will be on the field. Rodriguez said he will be talking on the headset with Travis Trickett and Rhett Rodriguez who will be in the box on the offensive side.
–Rodriguez said they try to get crisper every year and they have a lot of guys that have deserved the opportunity to play. Zac Alley has different packages on defense with different personnel so they worked on substitution in the Beanie Bowl. It’s work time and they’ve got to be focused on every play that’s going on.
–It’s more on the assistants to manage the players and who’s playing but Rodriguez will speak up when he has certain packages that he wants to find a guy in there.
–Robert Morris has the same head coach so the culture is the same but three new coordinators so it’s a lot of guesswork. They have a lot of new players and West Virginia has 79 new players.
–Everybody has so much transition so it makes it a little difficult when it comes to trying to scout for an opponent in this new era.
–It will be a little surreal when he goes out there for the first time on the field. He doesn’t want it to be about him though, it’s about West Virginia. He is grateful for the opportunity to be back here and the staff. It’s been phenomenal to be back and feel the support for the program and what they’re trying to build here. Rodriguez said that there are still as many or more nerves in this first game than others. It’s OK to be nervous because it matters to you but you have to be focused, too.
–Hope is eternal and if there is no hope it’s hard to think about the positive things. The staff has done a good job and the players have adapted.
–It’s not a strategic plan to hide who’s starting and when they release the depth chart it’s truly -or- situation at all of the different positions. That’s the other side of having new players in such a limited time. You don’t know a guy may come out and play so well and prove he’s ready. And sometimes you might think a guy is ready and he is not quite ready.
–Rodriguez remembers the excitement of playing Oklahoma and beating them. He had a memorable first-game experience playing here.
–Question Mark would be the experience playing in the system, it’s a completely new system for them. The exciting part is football is a practice sport and you’re hoping all of the work they put in at practice they are able to go and enjoy it.
–All of the guys that were away from the team they worked on their own. They are not totally new to everything and they’ve been around long enough to understand the culture.
–It’s not like they’re trying to play games with the players when it comes to a depth chart. They have guys that are rotating now more than ever before from scout team to travel squad. He’s never had that many and it’s because a lot of them have not separated themselves enough. It’s truly pretty open at a lot of spots.
–When you have a defense with a variety of blitzes and a new offensive line learning the system there is more risk for quarterbacks. So they didn’t go live nearly as much as they normally would have done in fall camp but he doesn’t question his quarterback’s toughness and willingness.
–You’ll find out the first game on special teams but that’s always a concern.
–Rodriguez looks at each game as a performance standpoint not a record standpoint. He lives and dies with each play and when that’s over he looks at the next one. Everything is evaluated. He wants his players to enjoy playing and he thinks that they will. Today is going to be a physical practice.
–Rodriguez was happy to be on the travel squad and be on special teams in his first game on the road at Oklahoma.
–It’s the first game of this new staff and the first game for a lot of players but Rich Rodriguez said the nostalgia part was four or five months ago. This staff, Rodriguez and players he wants to have a certain work ethic and commitment to the program that the fans will appreciate.
–Rodriguez doesn’t look past the first quarter or second quarter, he doesn’t look past the next play. When Rodriguez was at Jacksonville State his players wanted to prove something.
–They will have 10 or 12 plays scripted but the down and distance will dictate things.
–Offensive line probably has the least experience of all the position groups so they had the furthest to go and they’ve done a really good job.
–Every year, every team is different. He’ll learn something from today’s practice that they’ve got to do to be better tomorrow. You can become too stubborn and not willing to adapt.
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