Rich Rodriguez TCU preview

So, obviously the hat, Rich, you want to start out talking about Ike? Yeah, yesterday was a very sad day for us here at West Virginia football, I think for the state of West Virginia. I mentioned it yesterday that Ike Morris was the most influential person in my life. 1990, the first year I met him, I went to Glenville State, and ever since that day, there's not a person I looked up to more and got closer to than Ike Morris. And everybody that lives in or has been around Glenville understands that he is Glenville. Glenville wouldn't be there without Ike, but it's been so much more than that. I mean, support of here, West Virginia University. I've been in so many places with him where he did things for people and nobody knew about it. And he's not the type to, you know, ever say anything about it. And not only that, his personality. I think Travis said something yesterday which kind of epitomized, you know, You might not remember what people did for you or favors they did, but you remember how they made you feel. And anybody that was around Ike Morris, he made you feel a certain way. He could dine with presidents and kings and just the same as the people that made the food and cleaned the tables up. I mean, he was that person. And, of course, I talked to him Saturday after the game, and we were in good moods. And I know his health had started to go down a little bit. So when Doug, his son, called me yesterday morning about 5 a.m., as soon as I saw the call, I knew something probably wasn't good. His wife, Sue, daughter, Shelly, son, Doug, and everybody that's all of our friends that are close to Ike, it's been a tough, tough day, a tough couple days. I'll be down there Thursday the pallbearers for the service. no easy transition, but you know just the importance of getting enthusiasm back with a victory. How big is that for the team? Yeah, it was uh you know it was a strange game i think i've had a whole bunch of games in my career and i don't remember ever having one where it's like six times it was tied and they got a lead, tied and they got a lead and they got a lead it was like six different times where they took a seven point lead and we had to come back and i don't know if i've ever had a game where it's been that many i mean iowa state was a little bit like that but never had one like it was like six straight times or something like that and so i give our players credit for hanging in there and keep battling back you know hawkins mike was phenomenal our guys you know offensively kind of answered the bell you know defensively made a stop when we had to but we still continue to struggle and and trying to sort that out because you know you're normally not going to win a game that you give up that many points and yards so we're we got a lot of work to do but i thought our crowd was fantastic again helped us when we really needed it and it was almost like at the end came and like even when jack made the kick and there was some celebration but there was some a lot of guys that kind of stand like did this really over you know what i mean and probably some of the fans were the same way it's like that happened fast like okay we won so it was kind of a later reaction to the victory but any win's a good win challenges with with TCU defensively best sunny yeah best best defense in the league I think statistically they're number one in most of the categories. Very athletic. They know what they're doing. They play hard. Andy does a great job with their defense. Been there for a few years. Don't give up anything easy. Baylor's got a really good football team, and TCU controlled that thing from start to finish. So that'll be our, you know, probably to this date, maybe the best defense we've played so far. And so we got that challenge. And offensively, they've got enough athletes that we've got to play better. We've got to find a way to play better defensively because we won't be able to score 45 points and all that kind of stuff. So this is going to be a big challenge. With their defense, obviously all levels are good. Would you say exceptional up front? Yeah, as athletic up front as anybody that I've seen in the last couple years. Very athletic and can make you look silly. So you've got to stay on third and longs. you know, that's when they do a lot of their stuff, you know, their different blitzes and their different games. And so you got to stay out of the third and longs, you know, we got to be able to run the ball better than we ran it Saturday, but that's going to be the challenge because they're pretty stout against that as well. So got a big week to get ready. Rich, last night you were talking about how the defense doesn't have an identity right now. Is that something at this point, do you force or are you just kind of still let it happen? That's a fair question. I mean, how do you, you know, typically you find your identity in the first couple weeks of the season, right, or even during camp. And I don't know if that's, like, the core problem, but it is a something. Like, you have to have something, like, you can hang your hat on, like, okay, if nothing else, we'll go to this. And, you know, they may score, but it's not going to be all those big chunk plays or something. And that's, I think, part of the reason we're searching a little bit is we're trying to find exactly what our guys can do and who we're going to do it with. But as I told the staff this morning, the defensive staff, I said, we've got good enough players. I mean, we may not be overloaded at certain positions with guys, but we've got better players in what we're playing than what we're showing, and we've got better coaches than what we're showing. I mean, those guys are pretty sharp. You know, Zach Alley and those guys have been in some big games and made big calls and done well. And so it's a little perplexing how poorly we've struggled. But we can't stick our head in the sand and say, well, everything's all good. It's not. I mean, you're not winning games as bad as we're playing defensively. So we've got to – everything's got to be on the table. And we can't be insane and expect a different result. So that's kind of where we're at. In terms of the identity, is there a difference or how do you even evaluate the defense? Because everyone can throw yards and points. But when you're playing like this, how do you evaluate a good performance versus a bad performance outside of just shutting out a team? Yeah, just getting some stops. I mean, it's almost the frustrating part is that you're almost like you're waiting for the other shoe to drop every time you score a touchdown and get back up. And, you know, there's no – to our players' credit, there's no like – and people sometimes will probably say, like, gosh, aren't your offensive guys getting frustrated or doing whatever? That ain't the way we operate. I mean, we're all a team. Does everybody realize that we're struggling defensively? Sure. But is our offensive guys over there like, you know, yelling at them? No, they better not do that. They're not going to be doing that. Everybody's got to do their job. And we've seen our guys on defense play good against our offense. So there's moments there. It's just we have to figure out a way to what our guys can really execute. And every week is going to be a different game plan. And then kind of go from there. Yeah, and you can say wait until the open date because these games come so quickly. It sure would have been nice to have an open date last week or the week before or the week before, but that ain't the way it rolled. We got one after this game, and so we'll have a little bit more time to kick the tires around after this game. But we got to do everything we can to win this game, so that's where our focus is. Rich, on the long pass to Prince, the first long pass to Prince, it looked like they were just trying to make sure you didn't run or do anything short and underneath. But all your routes went deep, and it kind of caught them off guard. I'm just curious, what were you thinking they were thinking? It was the simplest play call in our offense. We had seven-man gap protection and three guys locked on vertical. And just give it, you know, for Mike, it was just like, don't overthrow it, give us a shot. Because we've got big wideouts. And that's what he did. You know, he gave him a shot. Prince made the catch. You know, the protection was going to – I didn't think they'd blitz on that deal, but we wanted to have max protection. And so once we got that, then it's okay, now let's try to get in field goal range. I just didn't want to punt it from back there and give them the ball on our side of the 50 to win the game. And so once we got that first down, the mode was like, okay, now we've got to get in field goal range. But it was, you know, somebody had to make a play, and Mike made the throw, and Prince made the catch, and that was it. The simplest play there, because that's like a high degree difficult play. There's no thinking. Like, the protection up front wasn't like, you block this man, you block that man. It's just pure gap. I got A gap, B gap, C gap. And the route wasn't like, okay, if he's deep, I pull up. If he's short, I go deep. It's just go as fast as you can vertical. So it's really, you know, sometimes the simplest plays are people don't call them because, you know, they're simple. Sometimes the simplest plays are the best plays as long as you can execute. And we hadn't thrown that. We hadn't run that play, even though we usually run it in every game. I don't think we had run that play the whole game. And we didn't max protect because I didn't think they'd blitz, it was third down and 10, you know, way backed up. I just wanted to make sure we could throw it and give our wideouts a chance. Tight ends were pretty heavily involved Saturday. What allowed for some of their success and continued going forward. Yeah, I think the way they played us, I mean, and we didn't really run the ball that well. It was okay. but if you are a good running team, your play action is going to be good, and that's what we'll have. Ryan did a great job making a couple guys miss. I mean, Josh got the touchdown. That was a wide-open deal. Both guys were open. But, you know, our tight ends are, you know, Josh and Ryan. You know, Cam got in there for a few plays, but really it's been Josh and Ryan the whole time, and they're pretty athletic. They got good ball skills, and, you know, we probably could use them more. But it's like DJ Epps. I've been talking before. Or DJ's catching the ball, but we're not really doing anything after the catch. And then in that game, he did everything after the catch. I mean, it's five guys missing one play. So sometimes the guys just need an opportunity to show what they can do. So Mike's had a great year so far, had an historic game. His numbers are right up there with anyone in the country. Is there any sense for you that maybe he's even underrated? I mean, there are some that argue that maybe he'd be in the Heisman race if you had a different record. You know, I don't know. I mean, I'm obviously very pleased with him because he's a first-year starter and he's still learning. You know, he's playing for a first-year guy in the system. You know, I think he's playing really good football, and he was really decisive in that game and made some big plays on some scramble stuff, and that was good. And he's going to keep getting better because I think, you know, one, he's going to still keep learning, and two, we can still grow the pieces around him. But, yeah, I thought he was the difference in the game, frankly, the way he played and some of the plays he made. The exciting part is that he'll continue to grow, and as he continues to grow and learn our offense, we can expand. It's not just him that we can expand with, it's the other guys as well. So that'll be a lot of fun. How many games does it usually take for you to feel comfortable with the plays that you're calling for your quarterback? Do you need a couple? Well, I mean, typically it used to be, you know, hey, the guy comes and he gets redshirted and then the second year he's, you know, he's pretty comfortable and then after one year as a starter and one year as a redshirt, by the third year, I mean, he's ready to rock and roll, right? You know, and there's no red shirt here for Mike Hawkins. It's like you're in it and we're doing it and we're going. And so, you know, he's – and Rhett's doing a great job with him. You know, Rhett's on the headset with him and helping him. But Mike's a conscientious guy. He's kind of quiet, but he's – you know, he listens to everything and he wants to learn everything. And he's – whatever we call, he's good. You know what I mean? Mike's not a guy like, gosh, I don't want to do this. I mean, he'll want to do anything. It helps to have Scotty Fox in that room because Scotty's a good player and has played, and so I like our quarterback room. I think those guys have continued to get better. The demeanor of your quarterbacks, we don't know the guys non-West Virginia, but they all seem calm and sort of cool, collected. You're fiery, but they often aren't on the field. Is that something you like out of them? That's a good question, Greg. I never really like, like for anybody on the team, I said they got to be who they are. Now, they all got to be team guys, and the team's got to be more important than the individual. But I never have asked, I don't want somebody to change their personality. Some people say, well, your quarterback's got to be, you know, the rah-rah guy and get everybody juiced up and fired up. And I'm like, yeah, I think that's got to happen naturally. I don't want to tell that to be him. That's not who he is. You know, they'll kind of grow into that role. you know some quarterbacks i've had have been more vocal some been quieter i just want them to they got to be who they are they got to be able to lead and there are times where that leadership means you got to be a little bit more vocal or what have you but uh i just try to you know we just try to teach them to be a good quarterback and understand the whole game and part of what we do is different where our quarterbacks are in are is involved and in tune with the run game as much as they are in the pass game because we're playing with 11 on every snap. So that's a little bit different where a lot of times in the run game, the quarterback is just handing it off and standing there. For us, there's none of that. I mean, the quarterback is not just ever handing it off. He's doing something all the time. So this makes it a little bit different. Moved some guys around on defense and looked at different options on personnel. Is there more of that you can do? Yeah, there's more of it. We've got to do. Yeah, I mean, it's out of, like I said, it's just definition of insanity. And you can move guys too much and keep moving guys, and they're not good at anything. So we don't want to do that. But by this point, we should really know this is the position where he should be at, and let's keep him there and get him better there. And so I'm kind of in that mode right now. Go ahead, Ted. Go ahead. You're good. Prince, what stood out to you about his growth and development since he's come back from that injury early on in the season? Well, Prince is a big physical guy, and we brought him here because we wanted to have a couple big guys on the outside. He's got, obviously, a great catch radius, whatever you want to call it there, too. But he's a really conscientious guy, too. I mean, I think a lot of our guys are. But when he was hurt and banged up, it really bothered him because he knew he could help us. And, you know, he knew he hadn't really had a chance to show what he can do. And he didn't get a lot of catches, but, boy, the ones at the end were huge for us. And, again, he's playing for the first time in our system, so his best football, I think, is still out there, too. It's the effect of Mike Morris' passing kind of plays out publicly because he's a public figure and, you know, obviously very close to you. But I'm sure you've got a bunch of other players, staffers, whatever, that go through things like that during the season. How does behind the scenes having the football family or whatever other support services you have help in getting through those things? Yeah, for me it's you know I have my son and daughter on the staff and so they obviously we're close with Ike as well you know I think being at West Virginia helps all of us because that's what in my opinion what West Virginia is it seems like everybody knows everybody you know we're such a small state and you know everybody in the state of West Virginia you know if you're in business or education you know who Ike Morris is but I think that's a lot for a lot of folks in our state I think that's what makes us so unique and so special that in our state that it's a small state but there's a lot of great people and it seemed like we all know each other you know in the state and and we're all uh rooting for West Virginia and West Virginia people to do well and Ike may have moved here from Oklahoma when he when he started his oil and gas company Waco and I know the whole story why it was why it was called Waco and all that but he could have when he was having success. He could have lived anywhere in the country. And he had a little place down in Florida, but his residence was always West Virginia and he always paid taxes in West Virginia. And I know people would ask him, he says, well, you know, you could go anywhere and you don't have to pay as much taxes. Why wouldn't you do that? And he said this a hundred times to people. He said, I make my money. Babe, I've made my money and my life in West Virginia. I'm going to pay West Virginia taxes. And that kind of just shows you who he is. I mean, and there wasn't, I don't know if anybody if I've ever been around, whether it was schools or charitable service or something, that they wanted to get a hold of Ike and wanted something, and he didn't do it for them. I mean, it's just, I think there's a, if you had a Mount Rushmore, people that had impact on the state of West Virginia, Ike Morris would be one of them. I had a transition again. Your opinion on the proposed expansion of college football playoff to 24 teams? What do you think? Word against it? What do you think? You know, I don't, I really didn't want to have strong feelings one way or another. I knew it was going to head that way because of money. Every decision is made about money. So I don't think it's a terrible thing. I don't think – does it diminish the regular season a little bit? I don't know about that. I just – the sad part is I think it's kind of like some of the leagues are going away with no more conference championship games. And I liked – I always thought your first goal every year was to win your conference and have a conference championship game. And I hate to see that go away because I think conference championship games are fun and exciting, and I think the fans love it. And so that, to me, is the downside of that, is that if we're sacrificing the conference championship game for 2014 playoff, that's kind of sad. But it's headed that way, and I didn't think it would happen this quick. I guess it's happening next year now. So if you don't make the playoff, it's a bad year. I understand that, too. That's the way everybody's going to look at it, but I understand that part, too. Rich, you guys have Cassidy right tackle to Racco. was that just you started casting I'm sorry Agbo would tackle was that injury or performance yeah Carson wasn't 100% but and I thought Malik played okay but Carson I think he should be healthy here this week and if he is he'll be back at the starting spot look for a guy see from a guy who doesn't start the game maybe he hangs his head because he can't go but then all of a sudden he's in at the end of the game you guys have to pass protect yeah hell it shouldn't matter if a guy doesn't play at all but plays one play in the last play of the game the expectation is that Whatever you're in there, you're ready to go. You know what I'm saying? That's what I'm saying. If anybody pouts because they're not playing, well, then they should have done something more during the week. I don't think we have any powders. There could be, but, you know, if they're going to pout, they better hide it. You know what I'm saying? Thank you very much. Thank you.