By: Jonathan K. Martin | WV Sports Chat
Morgantown, W.Va. – West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez met with members of the media following the fifth day of fall camp.
WV Sports Chat provides “Quick Quotes” to provide you with the highlights on what was said. If you’d like to watch the entire press conference, visit Gold And Blue Nation – HERE.
Opening Statement
“Practice five in shells, the last day we have to be in shells. I thought we got a little better today, a little more competitive. Tomorrow will be the first day in pads so as I told the team sometimes, we might look a little soft in shells because we’re not sure how to thud. It’s not really live tackle to the ground so hopefully tomorrow we get that taken care of. But we took some steps. There’s a lot of healthy competition I think at a lot of spots.”
What is the hardest part of installation and what could take the longest
“The hardest part is in the first year you’re still trying to figure out what your guys do best on both sides of the ball, particularly quarterbacks.”
If he’s figuring out what players do best
“I think we’re trying to make them do all of our stuff because we’d rather everybody fit into certain kind of play sets. Defensively, we do a whole bunch. And on offense, there’s a whole lot we can do but inevitably I don’t do because this is who we’re going to be this year, and you focus on that.”
On what caught his eye after the fifth practice
“I think at the end of practice was a little bit more competitive when we went team. We kept score.”
His thoughts on the progression of QB Jaylen Henderson
“I’ll have to look at his weights. He looks kind of the same to me. I think he’s in pretty good shape. All of our quarterbacks have run it pretty good, and all are in pretty good shape.”
On how special teams have changed over the last 20 years
“Like everything else in football, I think the biggest difference is it’s more complicated. The punt team everybody used to be in tight and now everybody does spread formations and unbalanced formations. I don’t think kickoff and kickoff returns have changed too much.”
If all the running backs were back for the fifth practice
“No. Hoping that we might get one guy and we’re still working on maybe one or two coming in”
On the four players waiting for an NCAA waiver filing a lawsuit
“Outstanding”
On possibly getting those players back
“I’m hopeful. Those guys have been around they have to work out on their own. Obviously, they can help our program, and I know they have attorneys we’ll see where that goes.”
