Coach Rod Report
September 20, 2004 10:43 AM | General
September 20, 2004
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez’ Sunday morning film study confirmed his thoughts after Saturday’s game that his team put forth great effort in its 19-16 overtime victory over Maryland.
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| West Virginia's Chris Henry celebrates his game-winning touchdown catch against Maryland last Saturday.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
“I thought we played really hard and I thought they did as well,” he said Sunday afternoon. “I don’t think we actually played extremely well as far as some of our techniques and fundamentals but (Maryland) had something to do with that.
“Our guys didn’t grade out really high which kind of goes to show with only scoring a couple of touchdowns so there are a lot of work to do and a lot of improvements we still need to make. It was still a good win for our program,” Rodriguez added.
The coach was disappointed in his team’s inability to capitalize on several Maryland mistakes.
“We didn’t finish drives, particularly in the first half,” he said. “We had great field position most of the first half and had a couple of penalties that set us back; we missed a couple of field goals and against a good team it usually comes back to get you and we’re lucky it didn’t in this one.”
The coach said on the game-winning touchdown pass to Chris Henry in overtime he called a ‘dummy play’ at the line to see what defense the Terps were going to use.
“We just lined up in a formation and didn’t call a play,” Rodriguez said. “We waited to see what they were in and once we saw the man coverage we went ahead and checked to the slant route. It was something we had executed pretty well in practice and we hit it one time earlier in the game. Chris ran a nice route and Rasheed did a really nice job with his eyes and was real accurate with his throw.”
In the past and even preceding Rodriguez’ years at WVU, West Virginia has seemingly come up on the short end of tightly contested games against nationally ranked opponents. With recent wins against Virginia Tech and Pitt on the road in 2002 and the Maryland victory Saturday, it appears the Mountaineers have come closer to evening the ledger.
“I can’t speak to what happened before I got here and I don’t know the situations surrounding them or the makeup and chemistry of the teams,” said Rodriguez. “I think each individual team is different: The chemistry, leadership and how they respond to adversity. Until you get put into that situation you don’t know how a particular team is going to react.”
For Rodriguez, the most pleasing aspect of Saturday’s victory was the fact that his team battled back from adversity on several occasions.
“I thought our team reacted pretty well to adversity,” he said. “We got behind 13-10 and then 16-13 and I didn’t see any panic amongst the guys. Having some veteran players at key positions like quarterback and a couple up front on the offensive line really helped in that regard.”
Random Notes:
“We have variations of that play and unfortunately we should have gotten more yards on that play,” Rodriguez admitted. “He wound up going out a little wider going around a blitzing linebacker and then he kind of lost his balance a little bit or he could have run for another 20 or 30 yards.”
“He’s our personal protector and he stepped up to block a guy and he stepped up too soon,” he said. The coach admitted that he had never seen that happen before in a game. “I hope I don’t see it again, either.”
“We used to be solely four wides and once in a while we’d do three wides and two backs and now we’re all over the place formation wise,” he said. “I see other teams running more four wides than us and it’s kind of shocking. Right now our tight ends are playing pretty good; we’ve got good backs. I don’t say what we’re doing right now is here to stay because it’s an ever-changing thing. What I like about our offense is the flexibility you have not only season to season, but week to week. That gives you a chance, formation wise, to move the football.”
“It was a complete opposite of our games earlier where they completely controlled the game,” Rodriguez said. “That was a difference in the game as far as keeping the momentum and keeping our defense fresh.”
“I didn’t even realize he was going to carry the ball 30-some times and he held up really well,” said Rodriguez. “I don’t think he had the same burst but he ran physically and he ran hard. That was probably the most physical he’s played and that was pleasing because that is something we’ve stressed with him.”
“Jeff Berk tweaked his knee a little bit during the game and it was a pretty physical game, but we came out of it okay so far,” he said. “Scott Gyorko is okay, he got a little bit of a right shoulder sprain and he got kicked in the leg but he’ll be fine. And Ben Lynch held up okay. I don’t think he had the strength that he wanted but he held up pretty well and he should be okay for this week.”
“I really don’t put a whole lot of stock in those rankings,” he said. “There are a lot of great football teams above us and a whole lot more behind us. I don’t know who we’re better than; it’s nice to be ranked because it gives good attention to the program but I don’t think it really means much at this point.”
“You’re seeing it more and more now than you ever have because there is less separation in the number of scholarships and there are a lot of I-AAs … and James Madison is one of them … that are getting a lot of I-A transfers that maybe started or something went wrong and have gone down. You’re seeing the talent level in the I-AAs increase tremendously in the last four or five years.”
