MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Among the primary goals for Rich Rodriguez this spring is to discover far more about West Virginia’s personnel and develop a better idea of what players give the team the best opportunity for success come September.
Because the majority of the team’s roster for the 2026 season is on campus already and partaking in spring practice, the Mountaineer head coach has noted there’s more urgency in developing a depth chart early.
To this point, that hasn’t progressed the way the head coach hoped for, perhaps explaining his disappointing tone after the team reached the halfway point of 14 practices in advance of The Gold-Blue Spring Festival on April 18.
“I expect more progress quicker. I don’t have a lot of patience,” Rodriguez said. “It’s not a very good trait. I need to have more patience. My patience runs really thin. I would expect us to be further along in practice seven than we are. But I’d have probably said that last year, two years ago and 10 years ago. My point is we shouldn’t have to repeat ourselves. We’re going to make a whole bunch of new mistakes the next practice. We shouldn’t be having to correct the same ones over and over.”
The Mountaineers conducted a scrimmage Saturday in what marked their sixth session of spring.
Rodriguez felt the offense showed it’s further along than the defense.
“The scrimmage was just OK. The offense moved the ball some and made some plays. The defense wasn’t very physical and had some problems lining up a little bit,” Rodriguez said. “A lot of new guys in a new scheme, so you could tell it was the first real scrimmage from that standpoint.
“The effort was OK. I don’t think everybody understands exactly what our definition of playing hard is. The program has one way of playing hard and a lot of our new guys especially don’t understand what that is yet. That’s our job as coaches. Players won’t understand until we emphasize it.”
Consistent maximum effort level is something Rodriguez and his staff are still working to instill, but it hasn’t been all negative.
“You can see a lot of potential in certain spots and that’s encouraging. There are some really talented guys and not just freshman, but some of the guys we brought in,” Rodriguez said. “Some of the returning players have a pretty good grasp of what we’re doing and we expect better play out of them.”
Along the offensive and defensive fronts, Rodriguez noted, the Mountaineers have had several players cross-train at multiple positions.
“We’ve moved some guys around to different spots that were returning and I think that is going to be a good move for them. There’s a lot going on, but there’s probably more of an urgency that we have to have to find out exactly who is going to be ready now as opposed to August,” Rodriguez said. “Normally, I would say let’s wait until August, but there’s more of an urgency to at least find out where we were in two and-a-half weeks.”
It’s especially been emphasized by new offensive line coach Rick Trickett, who held that role during the first stint Rodriguez had as WVU head coach, while the pair also worked together more recently at Jacksonville State.
“Just about every one of those guys he’s training at multiple positions. That’s probably the biggest progress we’ve made so far,” Rodriguez said. “We weren’t able to do that last year. It was the first year for everybody. This spring, Trick has done a good job of moving some guys around for us to try and find our best eight to ten there.”
On the other side of the ball, Rodriguez believes the unit isn’t entirely comfortable in defensive coordinator Zac Alley’s system.
Alley wants his unit to be comfortable bringing pressure from unexpected places, meaning exotic blitzes are a critical component to success.
“We’re athletic. I like our athleticism. We have more length in the secondary,” Rodriguez said. “I have to remind our coaches that even though it’s the second year, it’s the first year for a lot of them. I’m more worried about getting better fundamentally and trying to find out who is going to be able to help us win.
“I like their competitiveness, but they’re still learning how to practice, too. I get frustrated. Sometimes it’s tag, sometimes it’s thud and sometimes it’s live. Learning how to practice is an every day thing. We’re still learning how to practice. That’s why I’m frustrated today. That’s not on our guys. It’s on us as coaches.”