So Far So Good
December 27, 2003 10:55 AM | General
December 27, 2003
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – So far so good, according to West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez. The Mountaineers resumed practice for their 2004 Toyota Gator Bowl clash against Maryland Friday afternoon at the University of North Florida.
 |
|
| Coach Rich Rodriguez talks to his team after Friday's workout at the University of North Florida. (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) | |
Rodriguez was pleased with the work his team was able to get in on a cool, sunny Friday afternoon.
“We got a nice day to practice, we’ve got a beautiful practice facility, we’ve got a lot of room to work and I think we got pretty good work in,” he said. “We’re not crisp but we weren’t totally sluggish so it was a good first day.”
Rodriguez says his concerns are two-fold as his team moves into game week, “I hope that mentally they retained what we left off four days ago which I think they did. And then you hope their focus is on getting ready for the game and not on the activities which I think it was,” he said. “I was really pleased with the focus. It was a good first day but we’ve got to sustain it for another couple of days to get ready.”
After an early afternoon workout Saturday, the team will have some free time Saturday evening to enjoy Jacksonville. Rodriguez has already spelled out for his team what is expected of them.
“We’re keeping them pretty busy so they’re not going to have a whole lot of free time,” he admitted. “They’ll want more free time and they’ll get a little bit of that Saturday afternoon and a little bit Sunday afternoon. But they know they’re here to work and I think their focus is going to be on trying to get ready to play Maryland.
“We’ve got curfew like everyone else and it’s going to be strictly enforced,” he added. “If they miss curfew they’ll watch the Gator Bowl at home. I don’t think they want to do that. We’re also going to talk to them a lot about doing the right things and hopefully our seniors and our leaders will lead them in the right direction.”
The coach is aware of the problems Notre Dame had down in Jacksonville last year with player misbehavior.
“We reminded them before we came down here and once again Thursday night. It’s unfortunate because not only does it embarrass the program but it embarrasses the young man and the young man’s family. You get so much attention during the bowl game and you want that attention to be in a positive light and not a negative light,” he said.
Back on the field, the coach says most of the players that were limited up in Morgantown because of various ailments have returned to action. Running back Quincy Wilson, hobbled by a high ankle sprain that kept him out of the Temple game, is back to near 100 percent.
“I don’t really seeing him limping at all,” said Rodriguez. “He should be 100 percent for the game and that’s pleasing. We had a couple of guys nicked up before the break and the only guy still in a green jersey is (fullback) Moe Fofana and I think that is precautionary more than anything else.”
Rodriguez says his team has a lot of work to get accomplished in the next couple of days.
“We’ve got to finish installing the game plan, get our execution down and get our crispness down,” he said. “This is kind of game week for us. Up there we did a few things that maybe we were looking at some younger guys and playing around with different schemes. Now it’s all game-plan mode and it’s game week for us.”
One key item that needs attention is the kicking game. West Virginia only managed to get limited work on the kicking game up in Morgantown because poor weather forced a majority of the practices indoors.
“When we were inside we weren’t able to punt and kick because of the low ceiling. (Saturday) we’ll be able to do some and Sunday we’ll do all of our kicking. Sunday will be a big kicking day for us and that will be good because we missed a little bit of that back home,” said Rodriguez.
Briefly ...
"It's like a game of chess. Don't mess up early and let them jump on you because in college football more so than in pros once a team gets up on you it's pretty much done," he said. "In the past three years when we've played Maryland it hasn't been competitive even at halftime."
