Productive Week
December 20, 2003 01:55 PM | General
December 20, 2003
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- Even though the weatherman hasn't been cooperative, West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez said Friday that his team has been able to maintain its schedule by working out in the Caperton Indoor Practice Facility.
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| West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez says his team has been able to have good practices in the Caperton Indoor Practice Facility. (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) | |
Morgantown has been blanketed by snow the past couple of days.
"We're getting good work in and I think it's been very productive," he said. "I can't imagine what we'd do if we didn't have this indoor building. That's been a positive."
Still, Rodriguez says his team needs to get outside and work on special teams and get more contact work in before they depart for Jacksonville on Christmas day.
"We need to get some kicking game done; we need to go out and bang a little more and it's easier to do that outside'," he said.
Maryland may be in the same predicament as West Virginia with the weather, but Rodriguez' time has been occupied with getting his team ready, "I don't know what their schedule is like or what the weather is like over there. I'm just concerned with ourselves," he said.
The third-year coach plans to have the majority of the game plan in before the team's final practice on Sunday. Rodriguez and his coaching staff will have a preliminary discussion on all three phases of the game plan Sunday evening before resuming practice on Friday, Dec. 26.
"We'll obviously have some time down there to tinker a little bit but we'll have most of it in place before we leave campus," Rodriguez said.
Although it's been almost three weeks since West Virginia's last regular season game against Temple, Rodriguez says his team has been able to stay pretty active.
"They had one week which was a so-called 'dead week' to study for finals. Then they were in finals. Meanwhile, they were still lifting and running and the week after that we're back in practice," said Rodriguez. "Really it was two weeks without playing football but it was two busy weeks. They have never been completely out of the football mode."
The coach believes his team has improved since the first time it played at Maryland, but whether or not it has improved enough to defeat the Terps remains to be seen, "I think we're a better football team but then again so is Maryland. It's going to be a matter of how we play," he said.
Despite being soundly beaten by Maryland 34-7 in College Park, the coach admits there were times when West Virginia was close to making some big plays.
"We were closer than you think on some plays and hopefully we can execute better in the bowl game," he said. "They did a good job. They're a good team. They're the best team we play all year. There is no weak point to their defense. It's a great challenge and that's one reason why it makes the game fun because we can see if we have gotten better and we can compete against them."
Because of Maryland's success against West Virginia, Rodriguez expects the Terps to be heavily favored, "When they've won that many against you you should definitely be the underdog. They're probabably tickled to death to get us in the bowl game because they've handled us two years in a row. I'm sure they're pretty confident," he said.
Gator Bites ...
"It's the same things, nothing new," said the coach.
