Rich Rodriguez Radio Show summary
West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez had his weekly radio show Monday and here is a summary of what was said.
The Mountaineers are coming off a season-opening 45-3 win over Robert Morris and will travel to Ohio for the second game of the season this weekend.
–Rodriguez felt that the effort and intensity were pretty good in the opener as well as assignments but they have to clean up the fumbles and penalties. It was there for the most part with intensity but not where it needs to be. The fumbles took away about 20 some plays and he was perhaps more bothered with players not going full speed behind the ones who fumbled in order to be in better position to recover. On the autopsy of the fumbles, Rodriguez felt that one of them Robert Morris caused and the other ones they simply didn’t carry the ball high and tight with the right type of security. It will be an emphasis this week as well as the effort to chase every play until the whistle.
–Offensively when West Virginia was going tempo there were times he could see it all coming together and what it looks like. It will continue to get better and once they start to trust the plays and what they’re telling them to do that will be fun. The pace will be better when they execute.
–Rodriguez said that they wanted to play at least four quarterbacks more plays than they did but he was happy he got them in there. Nicco Marchiol managed the game well. Each of the quarterbacks executed pretty well when they got in there and he wanted to see them live.
–You have to call some plays that you’re going to call against anybody so you can see how the quarterbacks can perform but they also held some things back. There’s a lot more than they did not do and are going to need to do moving forward.
–Effort was good on the offensive line but they didn’t get as much push as they needed to at the start of the game but it was better in the second half. That’s a good group and they’re very conscientious.
–The defense wasn’t challenged much but they did a good job. They played pretty hard, but he felt that they tackled well but they didn’t have anybody that could really challenge them there. But this week will be a whole other challenge with the quarterback that Ohio has.
–Fred Perry plays hard all the time and loves football. You never have to worry about him playing hard and it’s been a year since he’s played in Zac Alley’s system so he had to relearn that. Hammond Russell has played well and was one of the guys that sort of held the team together when Rodriguez first got here. Linebackers played really well. The Mountaineers didn’t get tested enough at safety and cornerback last week but they will get tested this coming week.
–Rodriguez said that they want to get their kickoffs a little deeper. Ethan Head has been kicking around 50-percent into the end zone and he didn’t do that against Robert Morris.
–Rodriguez said he would like to start a tradition with the fans with a clap on kickoffs with the Billy Squier song The Stroke playing.
–Today was a prep day with coaches watching four or five hours of film. Tomorrow is the most important practice of the week and it will be physical. Football is a practice sport, you practice so much to play 12-games so the practices are very important. When game planning you look at formationally, down and distance and a lot of other things put all together.
–It was a neat moment singing Country Roads. It’s a lot easier to go through the Man Trip when you haven’t lost a game but it was a great experience. It should be more enjoyable when you win, but it’s really more relief. You exhale for a couple hours and then get back at it.
–Scotty Fox is a really talented guy and he’s a big guy with a bright future. He has one of the quickest releases Rodriguez has ever seen and he’s going to play a lot this year. He loves all of the quarterbacks in that room with an open competition and they’ve all handled it really well.
–Nick Krahe played really well with no missed assignments. Rodriguez said that PFF is an organization that hires people throughout the country that evaluates the film. It’s like having your own staff outside of your own but you don’t know who’s evaluating them so you can’t take put too much into it. There’s some merit to how they do that, it isn’t 100-percent but it’s more than 50-percent.
–West Virginia took three walk-ons from the tryouts. They’ll probably have a bigger one in the spring.
–Parker Navarro from Ohio is athletic. He is a willing runner and hard to catch. He is a righty and can throw it to both sides. He was a highly recruited guy coming out of high school and he’s the best quarterback in the MAC. Rodriguez said that they played Ohio in the bowl game and while he wasn’t the coach, Jacksonville State used a lot of the game plan. It’s film for West Virginia to learn from and for them. It’s seeing them play a similar system and it will help both teams but probably them more than the Mountaineers.
–They had 25-30 guys on campus for unofficial visits. They did a quick tour of campus, go in the building and the coaches talk to them. Some of the guys go to a bunch of games and some of them are just happy to go to a game. They come on the field pre-game and then go in the stands for the game.
–This year they already have 25 or so high school guys committed and they’ll take another 5 or 10. They’ll still need transfers guys but it will be heavier. One they can develop them over years from the high school level and two it’ll be cheaper.
–Rodriguez said they need to clean up their mistakes from this week and don’t repeat those. There will be more issues that crop up this week playing a better team.
–Rodriguez said he’s been on the field and in the stadium and it was different. That was their first game for the around three-fourths of the players. It was the first time experiencing that game. He wanted them to be a little bit nervous but that part they’ll be able to overcome a little bit quicker.
–Rodriguez told his team that Ohio is going to make it very uncomfortable for them. And he wants them to be uncomfortable so they’re prepared for Saturday.
–Saturday night after wins are golden so Rodriguez was able to watch some college football.
–Most important part is that your messaging and your standards don’t change, now the physical part can adapt throughout the season. There is a tendency as the season goes along for guys to relax so you have to as a coach make sure the standards are kept all the time.
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