Rich Rodriguez Radio show summary
West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez held his weekly radio show Monday night and here is a summary of what was said.
–Rodriguez said that Jahiem White is having surgery in the next couple days and will be out for the season. He has worked hard and had a great enthusiasm about him. Wide receiver Jaden Bray had the same injury with his foot he had a year ago and he has to have surgery to get that fixed again and also will be out for the remainder of the season.
–Rodriguez said that he was disappointed but not discouraged by the performance. He felt they played hard but this is a chance for them to bounce back this week.
–Rodriguez is telling his players to stay on the process. They had to fix what they have to fix and it’s going to be a work in progress with the injuries and other things they have to fix in all three phases. But that’s the job of the coaches and they have to do that. He hit on the fact that it’s good that people care about the results and it matters at West Virginia a lot.
–On the offensive line they didn’t get as much push as they needed to but they don’t have a lot of experience and some of that was what Ohio was doing. They will get better as they play more.
–At quarterback you’ll have players that do some things better than others. Rodriguez hints that he almost put his third in Saturday against Ohio and he might have to look at giving others an opportunity. The competition should continue.
–Pitt is a very good football team and some of the folks that follow them believe that it’s one of the best football teams they’ve had in a while. It’s going to be a big challenge but they’ve got to stay up for the game. The Panthers play a very aggressive defense. And they’ve run a similar system for many years and will press in coverage and try to take away the run game with the safeties coming down. If you miss an assignment they will make you look bad for tackles for loss in the run game. They can’t afford those tackles for loss and they have to stay on schedule with their down and distance.
–On offense, Rodriguez remembers recruiting Desmond Reid. He is one of the best returners in the country. Eli Holstein is very talented and they have to get some pressure on him and can’t let him get comfortable. They have to make sure they get a lot of pressure on him.
—Parker Navarro was able to cut it up inside with his athleticism and made some jump passes. They know they have to play better but they realize what they need to do but the hard part is they haven’t done it altogether before and that’s a process they are going through with the players. West Virginia didn’t give up any big plays, but had they done anything on offense they could have won the game.
—Chase Wilson was playing well but he got banged up and was limited so hopefully he’ll be ready to go. This is a whole different challenge this week but they can play and coach a whole lot better.
–Up front Rodriguez felt they played hard up front but there was a couple mistakes that they hadn’t made in a month that they did. They had eight total penalties and they can’t afford to play anybody and have penalties and win.
–Rodriguez said it looked like a catch to him on the Cam Vaughn play late. But they had opportunities outside of that. They didn’t generate any big plays which was disappointing.
–Ohio got 24 first downs and while they were keeping them contained from scoring they kept the ball a lot longer than they need to have a chance to win.
–Rodriguez felt they had to correct the mistakes that can be corrected on the mental side. They have to get ready for a whole different system and a whole other level of players. They’re going to have the scout team penetrating and putting a different level of pressure on them.
–Rodriguez said he likes to put his team in stressful situations.
–Rodriguez believes if his team doesn’t know how important this game is they’re living in a cave. They were breaking down to saying negative things about Pitt during camp. They understand the importance of the rivalry but it is different if you have a new team.
–It’s never been smooth, smooth with a transition but if it was his first head coaching job it would be more difficult. He still feels the same after every loss and it takes a part of his soul. It’s miserable but at the same time you have to look forward to the next one.
–It shouldn’t be that way that you just feel relief for victories and he wishes he could handle it better.
–You can usually tell on the first couple of series if it’s a scheme thing or an execution thing but sometimes you just need a spark and it can take off. They never got that spark but it was a weird game. On the sidelines, they knew what was going on they just didn’t make it happen. You can try to get a spark play wise or personnel by switching players in. Figuring that out is the hardest part in the first year.
—Jeff Weimer will be getting reps. Justin Smith-Brown will have a great opportunity. Preston Fox will have a chance. And they’ll need to play more of their slots to replace Bray. At running back there is a bunch of them and those evaluations will be ongoing.
–The players were attentive after the loss and they had a bunch of guys in the building today on their off-day. If they want to come in and watch film on their own they can do that on their mandated off-day which is Monday’s. He likes having Sunday where they talk about the last game and having corrections done and move past it. They lift for an hour and meet for an hour on Sunday then have a 45-minute walk-through. The biggest corrections on offense were a couple things in the pass game where the routes weren’t there they were supposed to be. In the run game there were one or two breakdowns. The good part is there were moments they could have been more physical up front with more push. Rodriguez thought it was pretty bad himself and he wasn’t happy after watching the film but it’s not catastrophically bad but there are feelings where he doesn’t know if they can do certain things. If they try to make the players do things they can’t physically do that’s on the coaches, but if they can they need to do that. They choose the players to come here but they still have to get them right and figure out what they can do.
–West Virginia knew that Ohio was good enough that you can’t make a lot of mistakes and beat them. They didn’t play well and it starts with the coaches and they evaluate everything they do every single day.
—Noah Braham is playing on some special teams. Tyshawn Dues is probably going to be redshirted. Robby Martin is coming along but has a long way to go and he thinks he’s going to have a bright future.
–This is going to be one of the biggest recruiting weekends of the year with 20+ commits and 15-20 offered guys and 2027 guys. They want to build through the high school and add some transfers. You have to retain players. They had to pick up transfers just to build a roster this year. They got more seniors than they wanted to but they had to in order to put the roster together.
–Rodriguez said all the coaches wanted a one-time period. January is the best time because after spring ball you know who’s on your team in the spring semester. If you need a guy or two out of the portal there will be some in there and that month of January will now be crazy but not as much as it used to be.
–Rodriguez wasn’t pleased with the tempo Saturday and it was silly stuff that cost them from getting first downs. In order to win this week they have to control the tempo. They have to use conditioning to their advantage. They will spend more time correcting mistakes Sunday and if it’s a major mistake they have to figure out where it comes from and correct those throughout the week.
–Rodriguez felt that his guys weren’t that tired but they didn’t put any extended drives together. He felt the defense held up well and did some substitutions. Tuesday and Wednesday they will get conditioning in at practice and go at their pace.
–Try to create a big play on special teams and not allow them to do it. In the kickoff, Rodriguez said that if you kick it short with not a lot of hangtime you have to bring it out. They had one penalty on a kickoff return.
–You can have official visits which they have a couple official visits but the vast majority are unofficial visits where they will bring them to tour the facilities and talk to the coaches. When the game starts they go into the bleachers. June is where you’ll get most of the commitments now in recruiting. There wasn’t a day in June that they didn’t have recruits on campus and do something with recruiting. They got to hang onto them though and they have a couple kids committed that other schools will frankly try to buy. They’re hearing that from some of them that are getting offers every day and that’s part of the game they’re playing now. Especially during the season free agency is open year around and you have to have those conversations all year around. The commitments are good but until they sign they don’t really count. He’s glad they got the commitments they’ve got and they’re going to hold onto them.
—Logan Ramper is getting better and better. Jeff Weimer is playing in the rotation and with Jahiem White getting hurt Diore Hubbard is going to have a chance to get reps.
–Running backs have to be able to do it all that includes running the ball and protecting. It’s crazy because typically there isn’t pressure put on practice but they have to generate some pressure to see who can perform in the game.
–West Virginia built the plan going over the plays they want to run in certain situations and watched a lot of film on Pittsburgh from last year and this year.
–Rodriguez has gone against Narduzzi a lot in his career. They want to take away the easy stuff and want to press and take away the run game. They are a penetrating team and do a lot more slanting a pressure oriented stuff when they know you’re going to throw the football. They want their defensive linemen to get up field. They are going to out number you and try to get teams off schedule.
–The Pittsburgh front is really athletic and knows what they do. They need to have a good plan for them as coaches and go out and execute. West Virginia is capable of playing a lot better.
–Rodriguez gave his hardest workers to White and Bray. They will bounce back and be better than ever and still be supporting the team.
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