Rodriguez Report
November 15, 2004 10:46 AM | General
November 15, 2004
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – On Sunday afternoon Rich Rodriguez was still shaking his head at West Virginia’s special teams play.
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| Sophomore Craig Wilson gets one of West Virginia's five sacks last Saturday against Boston College.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
The Mountaineers allowed two punt returns for scores and three BC field goals added up to 23 special teams points for the Eagles, which moved into the BCS driver’s seat with a 36-17 victory over the Mountaineers Saturday afternoon in Morgantown.
“I’m really disappointed,” Rodriguez said. “We had a breakdown in some fundamentals. We kind of got blocked out of our lanes. The tackling was very poor; we got out of our lanes and lost containment. Obviously we didn’t kick the ball the way we were supposed to. It was a special teams disaster.”
The coach said it is somewhat discouraging that his team would perform in that manner being that it was West Virginia’s 10th game of the season. “As much time as we put into it … at this point in the season we shouldn’t have these things (happen),” he said.
The coach believes it’s not too late to make personnel changes before the Pitt game on Thanksgiving night.
“There were a couple of times where the same guy made the same mistake twice. There is plenty of time to make personnel changes and we rep two groups every time we do it so we’ll look at all that this week and implement it before the week is out,” Rodriguez said.
Coach Rod admitted poor execution in the kicking game virtually eliminated any chance for his team to get back into the game.
“Even when they got up 14-0 we scored to make it 14-7. We still had an opportunity. It was deflating when it seemed like after every time we scored, with the exception of one, we gave them great field position right back again,” Rodriguez said. “That was the deflating part of the whole kickoff scenario. I think there was only one kickoff when we actually did a good job of keeping them pinned in.”
West Virginia held nearly a two-to-one advantage in total yards (462-243) and had a 21-14 edge in first downs. Rodriguez says he can’t ever remember a time when his team had that big of an advantage and still lost the game.
“I also looked at the return yards they got and it was embarrassing and a complete lack of execution,” he said. “It was something we’ve been okay at … not great. The kickoff coverage was a concern the last couple of weeks and that’s why we spent so much time on it. There is no question that played a big part in us not winning the ball game.”
Rodriguez admitted he spent a sleepless night Saturday trying to figure out how he can make improvements in a team that is 8-2 and still has a shot at claiming a share of the Big East title.
“How can we get better? What can we do in practice and meetings to get better? After watching tape what fundamentals are we lacking? What plays would you call over again? Would you do something differently on this third-down play? I go through a million things and you do it after every game,” Rodriguez said. “But after a loss it’s magnified. That’s the tough part about it. I hope our players do that for at least a day or two and then you’ve got to move on.”
Moving on for West Virginia means facing a rejuvenated Pitt football team that won an impressive 41-38 decision at Notre Dame last Saturday. Panther quarterback Tyler Palko threw five touchdown passes against the Irish and Pitt receivers and tight ends made some difficult catches to help the Panthers move to 6-3 and become bowl eligible.
Rodriguez is certainly concerned, not just about Palko’s arm, but also with his outstanding mobility.
“The last several ball games we’ve faced pretty mobile quarterbacks and we haven’t defended them well,” he said. “It’s very concerning and part of it was we didn’t tackle very well. We had a couple of opportunities to tackle (Paul) Peterson and we didn’t get it done. Palko is bigger and stronger and a great athlete, too. We’re going to have to sure that up on defense.”
The coach believes the fact that his team is playing Pitt and it being on national television will help the team get over the disappointment of losing to BC.
“There is still a lot at stake,” he said. “You can still win a share of the Big East title and still great bowl opportunities out there. It’s the Backyard Brawl on a Thanksgiving night on national TV. There is a tremendous amount for us still to look forward to.”
Rodriguez also wishes it wasn’t 12 days between games.
“I wish we had a game sooner. It’s going to be a long 12 days before you play again and that’s the bad part about a loss,” he said. “You’d rather just turn around and play again and hope you play better and get that bad taste out of you. We’ve got to suffer through it for 12 days. I told (the team) after the game that we’re going to be sick watching the film because there were a lot of opportunities there and we just didn’t play well.
“It’s disappointing to play poorly anytime you play poorly but to play poorly at home in such a big ball game … we had been pretty good at that the last couple of years of playing well at home in big games,” he continued. “We certainly didn’t do that (Saturday) and we’ve heard about it. The players heard it and the coaches heard it from the stands. I’m hoping we’ll have the chance of maybe trying to redeem ourselves a little bit.”
