Starting Over
July 24, 2003 09:53 AM | General
July 24, 2003
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – West Virginia University football coach Rich Rodriguez says the Big East football conference will simply have to start over when Miami and Virginia Tech bolt for the ACC after this season.
“It’s almost like it was five-six years ago when you had to regroup as a league and try to establish itself,” Rodriguez said Wednesday during the league’s football media day at Giants Stadium.
Back in 1997-98 the Big East wasn’t on par with the rest of the BCS leagues. Miami was in the midst of probation, Boston College was coming off a campus-wide gambling scandal and conference champion Syracuse was humiliated in the Orange Bowl by Florida.
It just so happened that the Big East also had to renegotiate its television contract that year.
Fast forward to 2002: Miami was a disputed call away from winning its second straight national title and the Big East had four teams finished ranked in the top 25. Since 1999, the Big East has had either the nation’s No. 1 or No. 2-rated football team each year.
After this year, the league will have two of its largest slices of the pie removed.
“Some programs, including us, are going to have to establish themselves as top 25 programs annually,” said Rodriguez. “There are a lot of schools in the new Big East that can do that and I think will do that. I won’t say I’m not concerned but I’m not losing sleep over it because I do think there are programs and schools within our league that can establish themselves as annual top 25 programs.”
Rodriguez admits apprehension was running high in Morgantown before the ACC finally agreed to only take Miami and Virginia Tech, instead of Miami, Syracuse and Boston College.
“There was a lot of anxiety about what was going to happen,” he said. “There was this mindset that the sky was falling. That’s why I told people not to worry, that we’re going to be okay and I think now the fears have been calmed.”
Because there are some hard feelings remaining amongst the fans, Rodriguez believes West Virginia’s Wednesday night match up against Virginia Tech will turn Mountaineer Field into a super-charged atmosphere.
“They’re going to be extra stoked for (Virginia Tech) because it’s a night game and it’s midweek and they’ll probably buy a few refreshments before they go in,” he laughed. “Now maybe a few more fans are going to come that wouldn’t have normally but I have a feeling it was going to be close to a sellout anyway.”
Rodriguez hopes he can get Mountaineer football to the point where people will come out in large numbers regardless of who the opponent is.
“We have big crowds but we want people to come and watch us and we’ve got to do our part and put a good product out there,” he said. “I think we’ll get to that.”
Collectively the Big East coaches believe West Virginia is getting closer to putting a good product out onto the field every year. West Virginia was predicted to finish fourth in the preseason coaches poll after placing sixth last year. Rodriguez says he’s a little surprised by that.
“I thought maybe we would get picked lower than this,” he said. “We’ve only got nine or 10 starters coming back. It’s justified if we were picked lower.”
The coach actually prefers his team to be under-rated going into the season.
“I want them to have a little chip on their shoulder. I think sometimes you play a little better when you play with a chip on your shoulder,” he said.
As the last days of July wind down toward August, Rodriguez and his football staff are getting ready for their third fall camp at WVU. This year, a new NCAA ruling has eliminated two-a-day practices. Rodriguez says his team can deal with the change.
“A lot of us were starting to go a little bit toward that last year as far as not going two-a-days consecutively to try and keep your team healthy going into your first game,” he said. “The way the calendar falls we’ve never practiced on Sunday. Now we may have to have a light practice on Sunday to get our days in.
“But beyond that, I think it’s going to work out okay,” he added. “I think a lot of people, particularly the trainers, will like the new model and I think the players will like it too.”
Even though the team won’t be practicing twice in the same day, Rodriguez warns that fall camp won’t be a walk in the park for his players either.
“It’s not like they’re going to sleep in and watch cartoons until practice. We’re going to keep them busy,” he said. “They’ll lift weights and do some things like that.”
Fall camp begins on Monday, August 4.
