Rich Rodriguez doesn’t plan for quarterbacks Scotty Fox or Michael Hawkins to be full go Saturday when West Virginia brings a closure to spring practice with the Gold-Blue Spring Festival Game, slated to take place from noon-1:30 p.m. inside Milan Puskar Stadium.
Otherwise, the Mountaineer head coach is eager and hopeful to discover more about a largely new-look roster being broken into separate teams for what’s estimated to be a 90-minute scrimmage.
“We’ll probably go more live than I would traditionally, because we have so many new players,” Rodriguez said. “If we had a seasoned team of 18 starters coming back or whatever, I probably would have those guys not take a lot of reps and we wouldn’t go as long in the scrimmage. But because I’m still evaluating and we’re still trying to figure out who’s what and where, it’ll be a little bit more competitive than traditionally what we have done in the past.”
Rodriguez noted Fox is battling what he described as a minor issue to his hamstring, while Hawkins, an Oklahoma transfer, will likely be restricted from contact as well.
Otherwise, all remaining available players are expected to be full throttle.
“We have so many new guys again this year. The No. 1 thing is obviously teaching and developing our guys, but close behind that is an evaluation like who’s going to be ready to play? That evaluation piece has been really critical for us this spring and we’re not completely done with that,” Rodriguez said. “It’s going to go through summer and August camp, but we’ll have a pretty good evaluation and then meet with players next week and tell them where they’re at and what they need to do.
“Saturday is the final piece. It’s not the end all or be all, but it’ll be another piece of that evaluation, especially the format and the way we have it set up.”
Rodriguez and fellow staff members will evaluate everything closely, including seeing what players best limit mistakes and display an effort level the staff has spent much of the spring harping on.
“Hopefully not have mental mistakes. That’s probably going to happen a little bit, but I just want to see a certain level of competitiveness that we kind of stress, whether you want to call it hard edge or whatever you want to call it,” Rodriguez said. “Everybody is playing hard and competing, nobody is loafing and they’re enjoying playing the game in front of a good crowd. That’s one reason why we did Blue-White to try and make it some kind of competitive situation. When we had a scrimmage the first time, I was pleased with it, because the intensity was what I thought it should be. Certainly it should be that way Saturday.”
The competitive part is something Rodriguez is hoping has hit home over the last five weeks.
“We meet all the time and the depth chart is ever-flowing,” Rodriguez said. “It’s not nearly set in stone right now. You have to live in a constant state of competition. I’m sure everybody loves to do that, but if a guy doesn’t love to compete, I don’t want him in the building.”
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A number of fan-friendly events are lined up for Saturday, including a Jake Owen concert in the South end zone from 2:30-3:30 p.m.
Additionally, a T-shirt will be given to the first 2,000 fans at the North Gate, a WVU Gear Sale starts at 9:30 a.m. in the Diversified Energy Terrace and an Almost Heaven Village at the North Lawn will be accessible from 9:30-11:30 a.m., that includes food trucks, inflatables, a photobooth, caricature artist, balloon artists, face painting, tattoo artist, sponsor activations and appearances from the WVU spirit squads and mascot.
“Hopefully we’ll have a nice crowd. The weather is supposed to be pretty warm,” Rodriguez said. “There’s a lot of stuff going on and a great concert afterwards. Saturday is going to be a fun day for everybody.”