MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Two weeks removed from their first practice and with 16 days still ahead on the calendar before the season opener against Coastal Carolina, Rich Rodriguez stepped up to the microphone Wednesday evening following WVU’s 13th practice of the preseason. According to Rodriguez, it was a practice that didn’t quite match the level of intensity put on display in a scrimmage held last Saturday.
“It is not like our practices are that physical. We went live for, I don’t know, a hundred plays or something in the scrimmage. And I was pretty pleased with the intensity there. We were a little live today with the young guys. It was soft,” Rodriguez said. “I don’t know if anybody got a bruise at all today because there was a lot of patty caking going on with the young guys. It was kind of a pillow fight. Neither side won because both sides had pillows, big pillows.”
Some prep work for WVU’s first opponent, Coastal Carolina, is set to begin before a typical game-week schedule takes over.
“Typically, it is two weeks out when we start having scout teams and it is full on 40 minutes of team work against what they do and all that stuff. This will be 15 minutes of a little bit of a Coastal look and we’ll go from there.”
As position battles continue throughout the preseason, Rodriguez says he wouldn’t mind seeing some depth chart fights continue right up until the season opener. But he acknowledges there are two different types of competitions for playing time.
“If the quality is there and it is a really good fight and you are comfortable, but if a guy is a solid guy starting because the guy behind him is not ready at all, then that makes me a little bit nervous. I don’t mind if that guy is solid as a starter, but the guy behind him is a really good player too. That’s kind of what we are hoping for.
“Our guys know, we are still rolling 1’s and 2’s. None of these guys have played a game but you are getting an idea now and we’ll get an idea at the end of this week, certainly after Saturday’s scrimmage, OK, these are the guys we think we are ready to win with. If we only have 22, 11 on both sides, we are going to be in trouble. I am expecting 50 or 52. I know that is kind of a goal, a wish and a dream. But that’s what we’ll get to.
“You’ve got to build depth. Depth is probably harder to build, as crazy as it sounds, it is harder to build now in the money era, quality depth than ever before. A lot of guys want to go and start and get paid a little bit more and all that. But I do think we should have better depth this year. I feel better about our depth this year. We purposely tried to address that, just in case we have bad luck.”
According to Rodriguez, quarterback and offensive line are the toughest positions for freshmen to play in their first collegiate seasons. He highlighted quarterback Jyron Hughley and offensive linemen Kevin Brown, LaMarcus Dillard and Aidan Woods as freshmen that have impressed in the preseason.
As for freshman wide receivers, Alaska native Landon Drumm and Nitro High School graduate were the first two to be named by the head coach.
“I think they are all going to be OK. But they are all right now, from a strength standpoint, not quite there yet. But they are really hard workers.
“Landon Drumm, probably of all the true freshmen, may have the best chance. But he got banged up a little bit. It is a knee thing that he will be back, hopefully in a couple weeks. His progress was really good. But he’ll be down a couple weeks, it looks like. Malachi [Thompson] is another guy that I think will have a great future.”
When starters take the field in the opener against Coastal Carolina, it is possible that the Mountaineers will do so with a handful of returning starters, or possibly even less.
“How many new starters have we got? 18, 19, 20. Maybe 21? Maybe 22? We might have 22 new starters. Excuse me, let’s count the punter and a kicker. We might have 24-for-24. I kid you not. It is a possibly. But we might have less than that.
“If we recruited the right guys and they do what we hope we can do and they have a good year, we can retain them. So this time next year when we have this thing, it will be like, ‘Yeah, we’ve got six or seven new starters but that’s it’. Everybody else is guys that have experience in the system.”
While many West Virginians are enjoying a brief break from the typical August heat, do not count Rodriguez in that group. He would like to see his team tested by tougher practice conditions before opening up the season on September 5.
“We have had no heat, no humidity. It has been 75 degrees, which has been beautiful for, we haven’t had IVs and stuff. But I hope in the next week we get a practice that it is 95 and humid. Something happens in Morgantown, West Virginia and the humidity says I am coming from the south and I am landing in Morgantown. And you better get your IVs ready and your Gatorade and all that because we’re coming after you. I miss one day of that, at least one day where they can’t wait to jump in the cold tub afterwards. We’ve had none of it. It has been like a vacation.”