West Virginia Football Head Coach Rich Rodriguez spoke to the media following the Gold- Blue Spring Showcase at Milan Puskar Stadium Saturday afternoon. Read more: Coach Rodriguez Holds Press Conference Following Gold-Blue Spring Showcase.
Coach Rodriguez opened up the press conference with a satisfied tone by stating that his team has “wrapped up a solid spring.”
Read: Kresser, Bassinger star as WVU baseball wins sixth consecutive game in 6-4 win over Utah.
Rodriguez would go on to say that although his team got better fundamentally throughout the course of the showcase, he was still disappointed with penalties that were racked up during the scrimmage. Coach Rodriguez emphasized that his team takes great pride in not making mistakes that costs them yardage and vowed to clean up their play.
“I was a little disappointed today at some of the penalties, I mean we had some not very smart penalties at times and that hadn’t shown up too much, you know procedure, you know pre-snap penalties, we should have none of those. I mean we take great pride in not having self mistakes, self-made mistakes, so we’ll get that fixed.” – Coach Rodriguez
Coach Rodriguez went on to applaud his defense, particularly the play calling from defensive coordinator Zach Alley.
“Yeah Defensively we do a lot of stuff. I mean Zach does a whole bunch of stuff, and it was limited today because Zach would put in 15 exotic blitzes for a spring game if I let him, so I have to tamper that down a bit. But it’s a lot and I thought our guys did a good job for the most part handling it.” -Coach Rodriguez
Coach Rodriguez On His Quarterbacks Performance During Showcase
Coach Rodriguez would offer praise to his quarterbacks during the press conference, labeling them as “ultra competitive.”
“I’ll probably judge better watching film. I thought they ran pretty well, I thought they were, you know I think we need to get rid of the ball quicker at times, there were a couple of throws we missed, but it’s a very conscientious group overall, everyone of them, they want to be good, they’ve learned a lot in a short period of time.” – Coach Rodriguez
“I really like their skill set and their commitment”- Coach Rodriguez
Coach Rodriguez Evaluating His Team’s Showcase Performance
When asked about the success of the run game, Coach Rodriguez said he “wouldn’t take a whole lot into anything that happened today” given the experience gap between players on the field.
“Some of us are like ah this guy looks great, well he was going against a true freshman that’s supposed to be getting ready to ask his girlfriend to go to prom this weekend, so does that really count?” – Coach Rodriguez
“The things I try to take more of like we’re doing stupid penalties, are they doing the right you know, technique, blocking the right way, running the right route, the things that irregardless of what the guy across from you is are we doing that part right?”- Coach Rodriguez
Rodriguez On WVU’s Defense’s Physicality
“Eh, couple times good, couple times eh. Same as the blocking, sometimes it was good, sometimes it was eh, you know, it can’t be eh. Looked like we was going in slow motion, I don’t think we took the field like we owned it sometimes.”- Coach Rodriguez
Rodriguez On Country Roads
Coach Rodriguez showed emotion during the playing of Country Roads at the conclusion of today’s showcase and shared with members of the press what the great West Virginia tradition means to him.
“When I told the players afterwards, I said this is personal to me this whole thing is. I played here, coached here a couple times, and I think our guys understand that.”
-Coach Rodriguez
WVU’s Upcoming Matchup Vs Robert Morris
The Mountaineers will continue to shape their roster before their next matchup when they welcome Robert Morris to Morgantown on August 30th.
