MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Three weeks of spring practice remain for West Virginia, over which time head coach Rich Rodriguez hopes to discover much more about the Mountaineers.
With Rodriguez preparing for his second season in his second tenure as head coach at WVU, he identified several positives to this point.
“It’s a little early. I think we’re athletic. More athletic at most positions, including quarterback,” he said. “All the quarterbacks can run pretty well. We’re going to be a little deeper probably at wideout than we have been. I think we’re going to be deeper on the o-line.
“I like the freshman class we signed. There are going to be some really good players there. Defensively, there’s a whole lot of new guys. We do a lot of stuff on defense, so it’s going to take a little while. Their attitudes have been great. Our strength staff did a great job. They tested well a couple weeks ago. Now it’s learning how to practice.”
The last part, perhaps as much as any, has the full attention of Rodriguez.
He’s often noted his desire for practices to be tougher than games and they’re designed for players and coaches alike to develop a better understanding of one another and a fast-paced system.
“We’re not probably a whole lot different than other people, but I want everybody that’s in our program staff and player wise to be totally engaged in every play at practice like that’s the most important thing in the world to them at that time,” Rodriguez said. “I hate to go to practice and watch coaches, staff members or players not know the down or distance, see somebody do something good or bad and they don’t correct mistakes. My message was if one guy is getting coached, they’re all getting coached. I’ve seen practices where people in the program aren’t engaged like they should be. That bothers the heck out of me. If you’re a part of our program, you’re engaged in every play in practice like it’s the Super Bowl. We’re still learning to do that.”
With significant roster turnover the new norm in college football and the case at WVU, creating consistent habits is something Rodriguez stresses as many players learn a new system under different coaches in a setting they’re not all the way familiar with.
One of those players is redshirt freshman wide receiver TaRon Francis, a transfer from LSU who was listed the top wideout in Louisiana in the class of 2025 by 247 Sports.
Combined with the addition of Troy transfer DJ Epps and the return of Jaden Bray, who missed most of last season after suffering an injury at Ohio, the Mountaineers hope to be able to get vertical more often.
“We’re playing him both in the slot and outside,” Rodriguez said of Francis, who returned to practice Tuesday after being injured. “He’s a big, physical guy with great running skills. We’ll try to find ways to get him the ball. It helps to have Jaden Bray healthy. We thought was going to be one of our best guys, but he got hurt. He’s kind of a leader in the room. DJ Epps and some of these other guys that have been productive somewhere else has helped. We had some guys banged up last year, but the competition in that room is a whole lot better.”
In an effort to continue creating competition and game-like atmospheres, Rodriguez has pegged April 7 as a day the Mountaineers will conduct a draft and split the roster into two teams, “so the first game we play is not next September.”
“We can’t really compare what we have to someone else until we play them. I usually wasn’t worried about it. Now I’m like we have to find out before the summer some semblance of a depth chart,” Rodriguez said. “It doesn’t have to be set in stone, because you can move up and down the depth chart in the summer and in August. We will have a depth chart after April 18. It can change a little bit, but we have to develop that depth chart in the next two-and-a-half weeks. Having a true game and draft and the competitiveness of that is going to accelerate that process.”