by: Brandon Walker
After concluding spring practices on Saturday, WVU football coach Rich Rodriguez
acknowledged that his team has made some strides since starting spring practices in February.
However, he still doesn’t think the team is where it needs to be. One main reason for his thinking is that there were several pre-snap penalties that occurred on both sides of the ball.
“We take great pride in not having self-made mistakes. We’ll get that fixed, but I think the guys
did what we asked them to do,” he said.
However, this is a standard statement for a new head coach to say after a session of team
activities in the process of a roster overhaul and implementing a new system.
“But I thought the guys got better. Fundamentally, we got a little better. Understanding the
schemes and terminology—that’s all new. Think they got better at that,” Rodriguez said after
spring practice.
West Virginia’s Gold Blue Showcase featured a 90-play scrimmage on Saturday where they
emphasized the high-octane tempo that Rodriguez wanted to use. It featured quarterbacks Nicco
Marchiol and Jaylen Henderson wearing the black tag jerseys and taking the majority of the
snaps on Saturday. West Virginia mostly accomplished what it needed to on both sides of the
ball. Still, Rodriguez didn’t want to put much on just Saturday’s
showcase either positively or negatively.
“There’s a lot that we didn’t do and a lot more we’ve got to be able to do moving forward,”
Rodriguez said. “I wouldn’t take a whole lot into anything that happened today, whether good or
bad.”
Rodriguez, in the immediate future, will stress the fundamentals such as blocking, route running,
tackling, and pre-snap procedures. As far as how he feels about the current roster, he continues to not speak on that until after the second transfer portal window. He does not want to risk his players getting poached by bigger schools. After the portal window, he will also have a better gauge of where his players are. Rodriguez did say, however, that he has had fun coaching the players this spring.
“When they change the portal date, I’ll be talking about every guy and every strength and
weakness. Right now, I’m not saying squat,” Rodriguez said. “Got some hard decisions to make,
but it’s been a fun group to coach.”
Photo Credit: WVU Athletics
