Bring on the Badgers
August 15, 2003 02:28 PM | General
August 15, 2003
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – With two-a-day practices completed, West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez can now turn his full attention toward developing a game plan for Wisconsin.
The third-year coach admits that coming up with the right formula to defeat the No. 19-rated Badgers won’t be easy. Last year, Wisconsin erupted for 27 second-quarter points to turn a close game into a 34-3 halftime rout.
“It was awful,” Rodriguez recalled. “We had a lot of breakdowns physically but we had more mental breakdowns. You could fit a half season worth of mental mistakes in that quarter alone. It was really one of those ‘Twilight Zone’ things. We couldn’t believe everything that was happening. I mean a quarterback having 11 seconds to throw the football? That’s got to be a Division I record.”
Despite the miserable performance, Rodriguez admits there were some positives that came out of the game.
“We kind of challenged the guys and said, ‘Hey go out there and compete and try to earn a little bit of respect and try to get back in it.’ I think we did that,” Rodriguez said. “Obviously we didn’t play well and we didn’t deserve to be in the game the way we played, but we didn’t quit in the second half and it was a good lesson to learn. When you’re playing really good teams, and Wisconsin is going to be one of the best teams we face all year, you can’t have lapses like that mentally and physically and expect to win the game.”
Rodriguez believes his team’s poor performance last year at Wisconsin has served as a motivating factor for the players during the off season.
“I know it’s motivated the coaches,” he said. “I think it’s motivated the young men because they came into camp in really good shape. Maybe that’s because they’re excited about getting the chance to try and prove themselves against Wisconsin.”
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| West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez says the coaching staff will start concentrating primarily on Wisconsin after Saturday's scrimmage. (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
According to the coach, he says after Saturday’s scrimmage the entire staff will begin settling on a depth chart and start refining the sets and formations that are going to be used against the Badgers.
“We kind of been preparing from the start as far as things we’ve put in offensively and defensively. As far as special teams, we haven’t put anything special in yet but we may look at that next week,” he said. “When school starts on Monday we start the Wisconsin preparation completely in the morning.
“We’ll have the game plan by midweek and have the scouting reports to the young men by probably next Wednesday,” he noted.
Rodriguez says he will begin the process of narrowing down the offense and defense. He plans on incorporating into the game plan mostly what he believes his team does best.
“After Saturday’s scrimmage we’re going to sit down and say, ‘OK what can we execute well?’ And then what do we actually have to have in order to win the game against Wisconsin. Then we try to pair that down. So really if they’re confused now it’s going to get easier on them because we’re going to simplify what we do,” he said. “We think we have a good idea now but we still have a few more practices before we completely get settled on it.”
Having tape of last year’s game to analyze is helpful in preparing for Wisconsin, but Rodriguez concedes that the Badgers have the same advantage.
“I think it’s always easier the second time but it’s also easier for them, too,” he said. “We found out with it being our second year last year that we had a little bit better idea of how teams were going to defend us. That being said, every year is a new year and you have different personnel. Some teams may play you a different way.”
Because it is the first game of the season, Rodriguez says his team will have to be prepared for just about everything.
“Wisconsin supposedly may do some spread offense, at least more so than in the past,” he said. “They’ve tinkered with it so we’ve got to prepare for that. (The spread) is a little bit better for us to prepare for as opposed to somebody who runs the wishbone. Now we’d really scrambling.
“There’s always some guesswork but most of the guesswork is in the first game and that’s what makes you really nervous,” he added.
Briefly ...
