Rodriguez Report
October 31, 2004 08:28 PM | General
October 31, 2004
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Overall effort and the running game were the two things West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez liked most about Saturday’s 35-30 victory at Rutgers. Besides that, the coach admits his 7-1 Mountaineer team has plenty to work on this week.
“We’re happy with the win but I think every player and every coach knows we’ve got a lot of work to do and a lot of things we can correct in the next couple of days,” Rodriguez said Sunday.
The coach listed stupid penalties, a lack of a consistent pass rush and some holes in its nickel and dime defenses as areas his team needs to sure up.
“We were great in the first 15 or 20 minutes but I was really disappointed with the latter stages of the first half and the entire second half,” said Rodriguez of his defense. “We weren’t very physical and we made some leverage mistakes in coverage in the second half. It was way too easy for them to get some third-down conversions so I didn’t think we played too well defensively. We are going to look at some of the personnel things we do and we are going to look at some scheme things we’re doing.”
Rodriguez was pleased with the blocking up front and the hard running of all three tailbacks and quarterback Rasheed Marshall.
“I thought up front we did a pretty good job. We saw a lot of movement up front and different movement than they’ve done before and I thought our guys handled it pretty well,” Rodriguez said. “The most pleasing part about the game for us was being able to run the ball and our ability to adjust to some of the different things they were doing to us up front.”
Instead of talking about this weekend’s opponent Temple becoming the next step on the way to capturing the Big East championship, Rodriguez instead is going to focus on ways his team can improve this week.
“Every game we play is for the Big East championship but I’m not going to talk about it too much this week because we’ve got too much work to do to get ourselves ready,” Rodriguez said. “We can’t put the cart before the horse.”
So exactly what is it you plan to work on, Coach?
“There are some fundamental things that we’ve still got to correct,” he said. “I think scheme wise we have an idea how we want to attack people in all three phases. Now we’ve got to pair that down some and throw out what we’re not doing well and try and execute what we can do well.
“We are still having some penalties that we can get corrected right away. I think our team is starting to develop a type of chemistry that I like but we know that every time we play now we are going to get the best shot from our opponents,” he added. “We got a great shot from Rutgers and we’re going to get a great shot from Temple, BC and Pitt because of where we are ranked and because of our status and defending co-Big East champions.”
Rodriguez said Sunday that junior tight end Josh Bailey, who has been hampered all season with a shoulder injury, has elected to get season-ending surgery after getting just a couple of plays against Rutgers.
“His shoulder has popped in and out all year and he tried to play through it but he can’t be functional with it so he’s going to go ahead and have the surgery,” Rodriguez said.
The coach also noted that starting cornerback Pac-Man Jones will be limited this week in practice after suffering a foot sprain in the first half of Saturday’s game.
“We’re hopeful that he will be able to play Saturday. By mid-week we will see how he feels,” Rodriguez said.
The loss of Jones against Rutgers hurt an already depleted secondary playing without nickel back Antonio Lewis, who sat out the game with a high ankle sprain. Rodriguez isn’t confident Lewis will be ready this Saturday against Temple.
Another player Rodriguez isn’t sure will play against Temple is junior wide receiver Chris Henry, who was ejected from the Rutgers game after receiving two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties. Rodriguez said he will have more to say about the subject after Monday afternoon’s practice.
“I want to review everything and I want to sit down with oure athletes first,” he said. “Our players have the day off so I will let you know about the Henry situation (Monday) after practice.”
