Rich Rodriguez Radio Show Summary 10-13
West Virginia head Coach Rich Rodriguez held his weekly radio show Monday night and here is a summary of what was said.
–Rodriguez opened up the show being asked about playing on different days of the week and how it provides exposure.
–Rodriguez said the team practiced Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday with players having Friday and Saturday off. They did a little more for a Sunday practice because he wanted to make sure they sweated a little bit and kept in shape. They do the stadium on Sundays because it’s easier to go from meetings to there so he doesn’t have to waste time. They did some tempo stuff against the first team offense and defense. Coaches were on the road recruiting this weekend as well.
–Every home game they have will be important for official visits. The last bye weekend will be another big official visit weekend for them as well. There is an early signing period in December and then another period in February then the transfer portal will open from Jan. 2-16. January will be hectic and November will be hectic for them and they will sign around 35 high school kids. Rodriguez said it’s recruiting and retaining the ones you want to retain, then signing high school kids then signing portal players are the three periods that coaches have to deal with now. Rodriguez said it’s not hard to figure out what you need to have but it’s different that you can do everything right in recruiting and still can’t get players because you get bought out. Now, a lot of times it comes down to the money and that’s made it a little more unique than anytime before so they have to play the game the best they can.
—Nicco Marchiol is out for the year, Jaylen Henderson is doubtful for this week. Max Brown is probable for the next game. Landen Livingston should be back. Tye Edwards is seeing a specialist in Alabama and he really wants to play but his hip causing him so much pain. Ashton Woods is out for the season and will need shoulder surgery which should happen tomorrow.
–Rodriguez said that Wilkins and Fox will take the majority of the reps this week if Henderson is indeed out. The key part is you have to learn from everything you do and Wilkins will and same with Fox. You have to be patient sometimes because sometimes they don’t know what they don’t know but the games will be unique. If you don’t have the experience going against that it will surprise you.
–Wilkins didn’t explode as much as they thought he would in the run game. You have to be decisive and sometimes that comes with experience. Those two young guys playing is new to them so they will continue to get better and better.
–Tony Caridi said that UCF head coach Scott Frost said during his press conference today that he got an envelope full of hand-written cards and notes of sympathy on the passing of Shawn Clark which is all he needed to know about the people in Morgantown. Frost said that he views Rodriguez along with Chip Kelly and he doesn’t know if they get the respect they deserve because they changed offenses in college football.
–Rodriguez said going in the shotgun when they did it in 1991 at Glenville and going no huddle. They did the zone read with Shaun King at Tulane. They were running the whole offense out of the shotgun and the pace is a little bit different than teams were used to. Everybody that came in to learn things, Rodriguez said he wanted to learn something from them, too.
–Rodriguez said he knew it would be a problem up front when they lost their top eight offensive linemen and some others entered the portal. They aren’t nearly where they’re going to be in the next year or two.
–Frost is an offensive guy and has been a spread coach. He won’t use as much tempo as they used to but they will use an athletic quarterback in the run game. They are in a spot where they can recruit a lot of fast skill guys. Most of the transfers that UCF got were at other power four programs that wanted to go back home to Florida. They run the same offense no matter who plays quarterback. They run the same offense although Cam Fancher is a little bit more of a scrambler. West Virginia hasn’t done a good job getting pressure on the quarterback like they need to and that’s what they need to do. If you have a chance to get them on the ground, they need to do that.
–Rodriguez felt they had a really good summer in recruiting. They got a lot of commitments and feel good about them but are continuing to recruit. They feel they’ve been able to identify guys that can not only be great players here but fit what they do. You establish your culture before the recruits get here, but you want them to enhance it. They’re maybe half way done in recruiting.
–You hope you bring in older transfers that have more than one year. If you get an older guy in to make an impact they’ll get 10-12 of those. You want guys with more than one year so they’ll grow up in the system.
—Jimmori Robinson is still getting into game shape but he needs a good week of practice. When you’re hurt, they lose that time of conditioning. They have ways to get guys in shape that aren’t fully healthy but you miss those mental reps so they have to teach them and get them ready to go as a staff.
—MarShon Oxley is another guy that’s been banged up and hasn’t been able to play to his full potential.
–Rodriguez said you don’t want to totally forget what’s happened to date because you need to learn from it. But the guys haven’t sulked or put their heads down. He was really mad after the last two weeks.
–Rodriguez said that he doesn’t know if giving up on a coach half way through the season such as what is happening at schools moving on from coaches sends the right message to the team because it’s almost like you’re giving up on the season.
–Rodriguez gets players suggested to him that are perfect for his program given how he coaches and what he looks for and he said its often former players doing it or now even the kids of his former players.
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