Rich Rodriguez Aug. 14

Well, Rich, I guess the obvious ones that you know, the announcement of two new players are additions, not necessarily new, but what can they provide to you? First player coach since Dusty Jacob or what? Well, Jacob is just he's he decided he just wants to be a coach. He's going to be a coach now, so he's not going to be first player coach since Dusty Rutledge. So but he's also part of the decision was, you know, be able to pursue his master's degree and go that way. So it's going to be good to have him on the staff. And and I think our tire tight end is going to be pretty solid once we get everybody healthy. And Jason's been good. He's he's slowly getting into shape. And I don't know when. I don't know if anybody knows if that's going to hold up next week. I hope everybody gets some clarity on on on the eligibility of all those guys, but we'll find out next week. They're eligible, which I know isn't it? But I mean, can they can they help you? They don't. Yeah, I mean, Jason was a starter last year for us and is a good football player and he's in pretty good shape. I mean, he's obviously missed a few months with our strength staff and all that. But he's he's a smart, competitive guy and he's played a lot of football. So he certainly could help us if that if we're willing comes out that way. Yeah, I mean, got another good player. Yeah, I don't know if you over oversee it or not. I mean, we got 120 guys and and bring another good player, a good guy to the locker room. Yeah, we have a I like like where we're at with our I think our players respect each other and they all know the situation. You are right now with your position battles. And do you like the competition you had between what you're dealing with right now? I think it's pretty good. We got a couple of scrimmages or team periods that we got to really kind of solidified. I told the coaches, well, we look at the depth chart every day. But after tomorrow's scrimmage, we're going to take a hard look at it Sunday. Evaluate where everybody's at. And I don't I'm not really that concerned about who's one and who's two. I'm more concerned, I guess, that is this guy ready to win with or is this guy ready to win with? And you hope to have to at least at least two in every position. It's good enough to win with. I do think there's a lot of competitive battles like who's going to be the starter. And I don't mind the guys, you know, the players understanding that. But as the coaches, we don't like you're either one or two. Now you just get as good as you can get and get ready to win with. This is between your backups in terms of talent and gap. Or is it closer, you think? Yeah, I think. Well, I think there's more guys that probably that we can prepare that we can win with. Yeah, I mean, again, I don't like this is between one and two. I said I just look at as far as easy. Is he good enough to win with or is he not? And part of that plays on the player. But a lot of it plays on coaches, too. Can is he talented enough if we teach him and get him get him ready that he'll be able to play? I said, you know, I have a goal to play the most players in the country, but I won't play him just to reach that goal. They got to they've got to earn that success. And I really think we are more competitive at. All positions probably, I would say, than we were a year ago, which we should be. We'll be more competitive a year from now than we were this year. Out there, just give me a look at the tight end position. What do you think? Yeah, Ryan Ward's a solid guy. He was having a great summer. He's a little limited, but he'll be back here hopefully in a few days. Campbell got nicked up a little bit, but he's a transfer. We got in it. We really like what they're looking at. I don't want to leave anybody off to this fair. Josh Sapp was a veteran we brought in. And and Josh's is like the last couple of days. And he's been in his best practices. He's gotten better and better every day. And he's a guy that's played a lot of football when he was at Clemson. And then we got some young guys in Kate Bush and Xavier Anderson, Carter Zuliani. Ryan, Sam Hamilton are all going to be really good players. Kate Bush, probably of all the young guys, freshman tight ends is take the biggest leap in the last week or so. And so he's he's putting himself with with Carter and Ryan and Cam being a little nicked up, has given all those young guys a lot of reps. And Kate has kind of stepped forward a little bit with that, too. So he's look like he's got a chance to play some. Rotation there. I mean, he's three at times. Yeah, there is there. I want to have at least three that we feel good that we can win with. And because of our personnel groupings. And I think we'll get to when everybody's healthy. I think we'll have that. I didn't have to do so many things like one of the different slots block all that, but just what values being able to find one guy up in three or four different locations and the same player have different action. Yeah, it was changed. Even in 37 years of running this offense, we started off with 10 personnel all the time and then we would do some 20 personnel, two bags and all that didn't have probably used a tight end much for the first 10 years of the offense. And then then it started to evolve where you get those guys, like you said, the tight end that you line up out in space. He's good enough to run routes out there, but he's also big enough to get in the core and do some blocking. And so this gives you a lot more variety offensively when you have a tight end that can do what we ask them to do is like play out space and also play in the box. And so we're a lot of 11 personnel, like just about everybody else. But we're we'll dabble in some 12 and maybe even some 13 stuff, too, where you got three tight ends out there. So it's been that position has evolved into being a very, very important position. I think at all levels, people are using it in a lot of different ways. Three weeks from opening season, you have a scrimmage. What are three things you're looking for for come out of the scrimmage like that? First, the football is such a technical game from the standpoint of every position is unique. It's not like you like maybe basketball, for instance. Everybody's got to learn to dribble. Everybody's got to learn how to shoot. Everybody's got to learn how to pass. You know, football, the O-line got to be perfected at their particular skills. The D-line at their particular skills, quarterbacks. And so with all those things is those guys fundamentally getting better. But also, you know, we got to have a game plan starting here in about a week. And so being able to to run our offense, run our defense, run our our schemes that we have in offense, defense and special teams combined with still getting better. You know, but I got plenty of coaches and I got I really like our staff. We got a really good staff that I think recognizes how we do it and and having a sense of urgency. But I told the staff that we got to have a sense of urgency to get these guys ready, but we also got to understand we got eight straight weeks, no open dates, and that's going to be a good grind. So we better get a lot of players ready as well. So that's kind of the challenge that we have really now and and for another week. And then in another week, we start game plan and we got to be ready to go. We've just seen some leagues are increasing the size of travel rosters. Yeah, they should. They should in our league. Is the Big 12 talked about that you guys talk about in the coaches meeting? Is that something that increased a little bit? Also, 74 now for me, Raquel knows. But I saw somebody went to 80, maybe was. That's where it should be. I mean, but it also may I think it should be as many as you want to take. If you don't want to take a hundred, don't take a hundred. But if you're at home, you could dress a hundred. So why would a visiting team have the same amount? Not that you're going to play that many, but I think that should be the discretion of the school. You know, I mean, that was made. The decision was probably made as a financial decision. I mean, are we are we kidding ourselves? I mean, what are we? We're spending the millions of dollars on players and all that. But no, we don't. Don't let that guy get on that plane, that extra seat on the plane or that bus. Don't give that guy a cheeseburger on the road because we can't afford it. What are we doing? Let let the let the team and I'm not going to take a hundred guys on the road. I like take 80. But you're going to tell me we can't do it because. You know, we can't afford an extra cheeseburger. You know, you think schools in our league are, you know, I'm not going to give any names. They're going to say, no, we can't afford to go five more guys, six more guys. I mean. You know, all the eighties out there, they hate me for saying that. I don't care. It don't make no sense. You know, the quarterback's similar enough where you don't have to, like, change stuff when quarterback goes in. Fair question. They are, yes, but they are also all pretty unique in their own way, too. You know, the and it's not just to think of which guy runs better than which guy throws better, whatever. It's it's some of it is which plays that certain guys are more comfortable with. And that's sorting it all out. We got to have enough right in offense that they got to be able to run everything. But inevitably, they all probably have certain plays that they're that looks like they're more comfortable with. And so that's part of us sorting it out, too. But all of our quarterbacks can run and they all are. The arm strength of our quarterbacks is is really good. There's not a core. Our younger guys are still growing stronger, but all of our older quarterbacks can make all the throws with ease. So that's a good thing. Can poke at running back. What are your thoughts on the rest of that room? The importance of that room? It can't just be chemical. Yeah, it's you know, they're Cam's experienced guy. Now the rest of him played, you know, so it's all new. And he makes you really nervous. But I really think Jay's done a great job with him in the last few days. It's been really good competition. I mean, the big guy, Marty Latimer, is what we thought he was. Is he a 230 pound downhill guy? But he's a really good football player. So we knew he was going to play when we signed him. And he's had a really good camp. But all the rest of the guys, Tally, Divine, Autry, showed some things, Boswell. I mean, Darris Moran, all those guys have shown a little something. And then we got Cowboy, too. You know, Cowboy Caden Luke, that's what we call him, Cowboy. You know, he's back here as kind of a lone fullback. He might be one of like the ten fullbacks in college football or something. There's no fullbacks anymore. We still have a fullback in Cowboy Luke. So I like the room. And hopefully we stay a little healthy where we were last year. But you found out, we found out last year, you better have a bunch of them ready. Going back to the quarterback for a second, the baseball team got a lot of left-handed hitters. The other team might try to get a left-handed pitcher to throw against them, or need a defensive catcher, you know, at times against some teams that run. So is there any thoughts ever come into your mind that this quarterback is better against this team and this quarterback is better than that against that team? Or is playing every week more important? Yeah, not so much which guy's better against which team. But I've had two quarterbacks that had different skill sets and ran different plays better. And used two quarterbacks. A lot of times I've heard the old thing. It sounds just somebody made it up. And so everyone wants to repeat it. Say, if you have two quarterbacks, you don't have none. You know, you got two. You know what I mean? So I disagree with that. If you got two guys ready to win with, I mean, that's a pretty good thing. Now, if a quarterback is a starter and he's hot, I'm not going to take him out of the game. But I don't look at it so much as like, oh, that quarterback, say he's winded and ran a couple runs in a row and all that kind of stuff. And I got to take your time out for him. If I got another guy that's pretty good, I just let him get rested and put somebody else in there and let him go in there. I don't treat it that much differently in practice either. So they rotate it. But quarterbacks, none of them want to ever come out. It's like a pitcher, right? He don't want to come out. But. Yeah, there's. Well, if they're if they're highly skilled more than the other guy in a certain situation, like you're throwing a deep ball and this guy's the best deep ball thrower you got in your roster. Would you put him in there? You know, you think about it, but then eventually like, hey, every time that guy's in there, they're throwing a deep, you know what I mean? So you got to have a little bit of that. But we have all of our quarterbacks run all our plays. And then we'll do this for another week. And then probably like two weeks before the first game, we'll start thinking, OK, this is what this quarterback does. Well, this is what this quarterback does. Well, and we hope it's all the same. But if it's not, we got to have a big enough menu to accommodate them so we're better at. Come down to, like, what are the things? What's that? Who I think is the best quarterback to give us a chance to win and break that down further, like in terms of like that's coach Rob with Coach Ross feeling at that particular time. I mean, what do you mean? I know we're not going to get it like, OK, this guy's the best guy. He starts. That guy's the second best guy. He's he's a second. What does that tell? Whatever I think is that's the best about, you know, like, let's start over like, oh, I'm not into feelings. You know, I'm not into like, you know, what everybody I don't care if anybody else. I don't need to tell anybody. In fact, I think it's kind of intriguing that people want to know, like maybe you want to find out who's going to start by a ticket and come to great Mountaineer Field. You could tailgate the blue lot. What time's the first game? Noon, you could tailgate to twelve fifty eight, but make sure you get in time because at one o'clock we might be kicking off or kick off a turn and we'll see who runs out there. I'm going to know before then. I may know before I tell the coaches and quarterbacks. I may know right now. Probably do. And I knew guys won't have a scoop, but and I like you guys. I really do, but I ain't giving you a scoop. So, yeah, keep coming back. Come back to the next media opportunity and you still won't know. Can you talk about some of the reasons why you don't like to give that scoop out? Like in terms of like. Telling people like you to ask the question. I want I want it to bother you. I want you to stay up at night. Well, Coach, you're not going to tell me today because if you don't, my my my life is miserable. But if he tells me today, I will sleep so much better. Oh, that just gives me reason. I'm not meaning to torture you, but that's OK. I give you more reason not to tell you. No, it ain't. It's not really. It's not. I mean, people say, oh, you know, this quarterback is. I mean, obviously, if they're completely different guys, you prepare defensively, probably different. But when they're all of our guys, like I said, all of our guys run all of our plays and they're very, very similar and just about everything. It doesn't make it make a big, big advance. So like you said, like, oh, so don't make a difference. Why don't you go ahead and announce the guy? I don't feel like it today. In the kickers yet. No, I mean, it's all it is kind of that's one one position that we're still. I mean, you talk about legitimate, legitimate competition. You know, Big Jack's got the strongest leg. But now they're fair. He's done a great job. He's been really consistent. And Peter is the new guy. He's been he was banged up most of the summer. So he's kind of catching up. But he's he's competing with the two. But, you know, it's probably right now. Like if you would ask who would kick the the thirty five yard field goal right today. I'm not being coy, I really don't know. I mean, it's one of the three. It's wide open competition. So I'm trying to going to try to put them under some maybe a little pressure situations the best you can in practice. And this is what I'll do. I'll have them all have a competition and you guys will be tied to one of them. And whoever the loser has got to do push ups or up downs or something. Then you'll be like, don't start this guy. You maybe do 10 push ups. Like I can't move for a week. Are there any others that you're still looking at? Or there are others that if the transfer thing comes through and, you know, you didn't have to be in the portal or what have you. There's a couple others that have played at other teams that are potentially eligible. But we really haven't pursued it much because I think it's just so much gray area. They may they may approve the guys return to their previous school and not the transfers. But I don't know. I think there's something that might be ruling it ruled on the 17th, which is Monday. So maybe we have some clarity then. We have a spot for, I think, one or two spots open. We also I mean, you guys, but yes, we also will probably have if we don't fill that spot, a student body try out. You know, West Virginia University, so many of our student bodies out there. We might be a spot on the team. And we'll let them know next week and they may come try out. I've had guys have done. I've had guys have stood by trials, wind up starting. What was the guy from Michigan? Right. I think I had a guy that came to student bodies throughout and wind up being a starter. So you have an opportunity. We'll let you know that pretty soon. Class is coming up on Tuesday. Are you going to keep them in camp mode or are you going to? Yeah, best we can. I said Saturday is going to be, you know, we'll scrimmage a little bit. We're going to have a little family picnic, invite their families. And we might be feeding 450 people because so you guys are invited. You know, we can't afford it because, you know, we might be adding guys on the travel squad. But so we're going to have a big family picnic. We're going to take a team, you know, a big team picture with everybody in the uniform Saturday. So it'll be a long day. And Sunday will be, you know, kind of nothing day for them. A little recovery or or something in the training room. And then Monday will be our last day of camp, I guess. We'll have a morning practice and then on out. We'll start in the afternoons. You have older quarterbacks who've been around, you have a number of younger guys. And I just wonder if the nature of that position, sometimes younger guys can just maybe fade a little bit because they know there's traffic ahead of them. Like look at last year where Scottie Stark and where he is now. Is that a lesson for younger guys, like maybe newer? I think it's natural for everything for the younger guys because it happens so fast. I mean, it's not they can learn it and know what to do. But the speed of the game happens so much faster than any even for the best high school programs in the country. That that that's the part that they have to adapt to. And once you go through it once, you know, like I used to give guys. I used to tell coaches, I give them kind of three sessions to figure out, not just quarterbacks, but anybody else, a fall camp, a spring camp and another fall camp. After that third camp, you can pretty much identify is that guy caught up to the speed of the game, not just a quarterback, but any position. And so but it's hard to do that with just if this is just their first session. Most of our quarterbacks have been here at least since January, but it's still just their second session. So that's the hard part for any position. But especially quarterback, everything's happened so fast. You can't stand back there and hold the ball. And I've been probably yelling that as much as anything, like take off and run or throw the ball, because inexperienced quarterbacks have a tendency to just stand there and wait, wait, wait, wait. And that that can happen. Change the way you treat like depth of that position because the turnover there is so high, but you want to have as many good ones as you can. Yeah, it's hard because a lot of guys vain plan. They leave. Right. So, you know, holding on to your your second or third or fourth quarterback is is a bigger challenge than before. But if they if they like their system, they like what they're at. I mean, they've got a great place. So they they all love being here. And obviously, if you can afford to keep them, that's the hard part. They sometimes it's hard for you to afford to keep your backup second team or 13 quarterback because somebody's going to pay him a whole bunch of money. You know, that part could always be a challenge. But our guys seem happy. They I think they see the the, you know, we recruited them because we thought they'd be great fits in our system and have a great career here. And that hasn't changed. If anything, all the guys that we have, our thoughts haven't changed on any of them right now for that. Thank you.