Rich Rodriguez radio show summary 10-20
West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez held his weekly radio show Monday night and WVSports.com provides a summary of what was said.
–Rodriguez said it was terrible against UCF and they stunk and did not play well on any side of the ball. They want to get back to winning. They’re going to be alright. The growing pains are more than they thought but they know exactly what to do. They evaluate everything and he’s done this long enough that he knows how to fix it and they will.
–Rodriguez said in 2016 at Arizona they lost four quarterbacks and five linebackers. He thought that would never happen again, but it’s happening again but they have other guys to play and it’s time for them to step up and give the other guys a chance. He doesn’t know why they made mental mistakes they haven’t made all year against UCF on defense. He was completely shocked after the first two series of the game but they’re going to fix it. He said they can still go to a bowl game and some of those will be nationally ranked. It’s going to be a good home atmosphere and everybody will be evaluated. He believes his guys have enough pride but they have to prepare better and do everything they can to win.
–The things that should never happen are players being lazy, soft or undisciplined. It creeps in over time in the season and if you see it one time it’s too many. In that game they had instances where that happened and as coaches they failed because they allowed that to happen. Rodriguez said that you can’t go comparative game wise because different guys in different roles and they’re not as healthy roster wise but they didn’t play with the type of urgency that they did in the Pitt game. He read the room wrong with their sense of urgency. Rodriguez said he thought they were excited to play, but it was perhaps their focus wasn’t as good so they failed as coaches to get that accomplished.
–TCU is really athletic defensively and have really good ends. Bud Clark is as good as anybody in the league and they have a good program. They’re going to have a good team but West Virginia can play a lot better than they have been and he said they can’t play any worse.
—Khalil Wilkins and Fred Perry are questionable. It’s just bad luck of the draw. With everybody getting evaluated, it means other guys get opportunities. What can they do to get better? There isn’t a lot of stuff that is going to happen that he thinks they’ll be doomed because he’s done this a long time.
–Both of the young quarterbacks are really competitive but they are just playing in a new environment. They did some things positive, but both of them will be really good players eventually.
–Rodriguez said that him and Sonny Dykes go back before they played each other at Arizona and Cal. He’s known him for a long time and they’ve kept in touch throughout the years and he’s done a great job at TCU. California is a very tough job and at the time it was different than it was now. It was hard to recruit to and a different atmosphere. It’s a perfect fit for him at TCU.
–The first thing you’ll point to is the offensive line when you’re not running the ball well but assignment wise it hasn’t been that bad, but physically they aren’t getting as much push or absorbing as much on pass protection. On the offensive side you can point to everything when it comes to the struggles.
–Rodriguez said they’re hoping Max Brown will be healthy enough to go and Scott Kean may take some reps as well. Max Brown has a great future. They’ve got to protect better and get rid of the ball quicker and part of their deal has been the quarterback run game and the injuries have limited that.
–Rodriguez said there is still a lot out there and they’re barely over half way through. They have not played their best game yet so it’s out there. They are practicing pretty well, but the way they started this last game is not with the intensity the program should have and that was the most disappointing part and that needs to get fixed.
—Donovan Haslam will get more reps and Malik Agbo should get more reps on the offensive line.
—Scotty Fox can make all the throws and is a great athlete. That room needs to be deep and they’re going to recruit some more guys there.
–Rodriguez doesn’t feel like this team has an identity yet and it needs to have one. They don’t have one on offense and when they get to where they want to get to they want to run the ball against anybody with some measure of success. Rodriguez has run the quarterback more than he’s run the quarterback this year and they’ve played every game so it’s been bad luck with the injuries.
–The defensive staff it was frustrating because if you have one guy wrong it costs you a touchdown. They were getting 90-yard drives. There is a lot of things to fix and the defensive guys are frustrated too because they felt good with the plan and it didn’t work. He has complete faith in Zac Alley and the staff.
–Rodriguez said he owes it to the fans and the players. He wants to keep the same routine over what he wins and loses.
–Rodriguez said you still have to have your rules with the culture and with your program. You have to make them fit the culture and if he doesn’t you have to get them out. You have to coach it every single day. It’s immediate and that’s the hardest thing that most young coaches struggle with. He doesn’t mind being the bad guy because he’s used to it, but he doesn’t always want to be the bad guy.
–Rodriguez said they won’t have to do what they did last year to fill out the roster. They missed on some guys, but they hit on some well. He said 35 high school guys and maybe 15 from the transfer portal but he doesn’t ever want to turn a good football player down. From a mental standpoint they have to be coachable. His days are over when they tell him how to coach but you have to treat them fairly.
–Most high school kids now graduate early. Around 17 of their current commitments are set to enroll in January. They’ll have 10-12 practices in the spring and 10-12 in the summer due to the rule changes. They’ll have to get 10-12 transfer portal guys to get some grown men in the program, too.
–Rodriguez said that the difference is they will be in better position financially than they were a year ago when it comes to recruiting. There were a lot of holes they had but didn’t have the resources to do it. They are in a different place and have an athletic director, a board and supporters that know what needs to happen and they’re in a completely different spot. The pieces you’ve got to have beforehand are in place now, but if they want to get so many million on top of the resources they already have. They have a chance to evaluate better as well. They rushed on some of their evaluations because they didn’t have players at spots. They were a little late to the party and he used the offensive line as an example. Next year you’ll find out some of these players are going to be a lot better with a year in the program. They’ve had time to get really good high school players and evaluate the portal and they now known what their true issues are so it’s a whole bunch of things. The reality is the longer the staff is here the better they’ll be when it comes to filling the roster out.
–Rodriguez said he is a pretty good fund raiser but it’s a small state and his goal is if they have $13 million in revenue sharing, if they get $10 million above that they’ll be OK. You have to have a lot of loyalty and people that want to invest in the program and student athletes. They’re going to go about it aggressively. They have a pretty good plan but that doesn’t mean they aren’t going to look in the mirror and self evaluate to see what they can do better. Every game goes on his record so he takes it a little more personal. He wants them to go work and he hired the right people, but he doesn’t want to pass too much judgement on guys that have been here one year.
–The biggest difference is defensively what you’re seeing is teams are more multiple than they’ve ever been. Everybody does everything and you’ll see it this weekend. The old way of watching old football film has completely changed and that’s why it’s harder now than ever to be an offensive lineman or a quarterback because there is so much thrown at them.
–Today you can have those type of athletes like the old Miami teams, but any team that is close in talent will beat you. You have to be more prepared to do different things. Veteran quarterbacks will eat up defenses that say here we are and come get us. Rodriguez said they try to limit what defenses can do with their pace, but it means that your guys have to be able to register things quickly too. The quarterback has to see things quicker than ever before, too, so that’s where experience helps. The quarterback if he has experience can anticipate the check and know what’s coming and if something goes wrong he knows what was the reasoning for that.
–The virtual reality stuff is really good to help with preparation. They can put up the opponents offense or defense and lineup with it and see what unfolds on a projector. Rodriguez said they will try every method to try to help the quarterbacks learn.
–Rodriguez said everything has been pretty positive and most people understand what they’re going through in recruiting. Transfers guys are opportunity to play and money and high school guys are mostly about the right fit. He feels really good about the high school guys they have committed but there are still more that they are aggressively recruiting.
–Rodriguez said that if it’s group of five or FCS level they want to take guys that want to challenge themselves, but you have to kick the tires and find out why guys are at a Power Four school and not playing because he doesn’t want their backup he wants starters. They have to do a great job. If they make a mistake they’re living with it for the whole season so they have to make sure they kick the tires enough. The goal posts are going to keep moving but what do they have to do to win with the rules the way they are right now?
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