Football Notebook
December 20, 2005 11:18 AM | General
December 20, 2005
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia University football team will continue practicing through Thursday before being excused for Christmas break. The team will reassemble in Atlanta on Tuesday, Dec. 27, to begin on-site preparations for the Nokia Sugar Bowl. West Virginia faces SEC champion Georgia on Monday, Jan. 2, 2006, at 8:30 pm in the Georgia Dome.
 |
||
| West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez will excuse his team for Christmas break following Thursday's practice.
WVU Sports Communications |
Mountaineer coach Rich Rodriguez says his team did a little extra work on Tuesday because he decided against having a two-a-day workout.
“We had to go back to a full-length practice and we did a little extra at the end,” he said.
Rodriguez also chose to practice indoors on Tuesday instead of going outside where they have more room to work.
“We could have gone outside but I wanted to get in indoor workout because it’s warmer and I wanted to simulate some crowd noise which we did about 15-20 minutes of extensive crowd noise at the end of practice and it was good work,” he said.
Rodriguez said most of the team is in good shape health wise except for a few slot receivers hobbled with injuries. He is hopeful that all of them will be available by the time the team arrives in Atlanta.
“We banged a little bit (Monday) and we’re still waiting on some of our slot receivers to get healthy,” Rodriguez said. “Vaughn Rivers did more (Tuesday) which was encouraging. I’m hoping Jason Colson will start practicing when we get down to the bowl site and we’re hoping the same for Jeremy Bruce.”
Briefly:
“We worked a lot on deep balls after practice with the skill guys because we anticipate them throwing some like we thought South Florida would throw some,” he said. “If you don’t work on it a lot then your defensive backs don’t get a chance to see it that much. Shockley can throw the deep ball and they’ve had a lot of success with that this year.”
An area of particular concern for Rodriguez is Shockley’s ability to scramble away from pressure and throw the ball downfield instead of running.
“We have to have a good performance from our scout team quarterbacks trying to simulate Shockley. What he is able to do is scramble and look for the big throw and that’s really tough to prepare for,” Rodriguez said. “He’s a very, very good athlete and that’s something that we’ve got to be aware of. We’ve got to work on the scrambling drill and not getting off your man and giving them a cheap touchdown.”
“They’ve given up very few big plays and very few teams have been able to execute extended drives against them and that’s what they make you do,” Rodriguez said. “One of the keys to be a good defensive player is the ability to get off blocks and they’ve been able to get off blocks well. They’re very athletic and they play hard. It seems like they’ve gotten better as the season went on.”
“I think those guys have performed pretty well,” he said. “They understand what they’re doing, they’re well coached, and they get after it. We’re probably not the most athletic front five in the country but as far as effort and at least knowing what they’re doing they’re right there.”
“They don’t overanalyze everything like a veteran player can do: they’re just trying to get through that day and the next play and that was the case a lot of times this year,” he said. “They didn’t panic because they didn’t know any better. I’m hoping they keep that attitude.”
“It’s going to be a home-field advantage for them. As many tickets as they will allow us to have and as many Mountaineers that can get in there will be in there. But it’s still going to be a decided advantage for them,” he said. “You give 15,000 to us and 15,000 to them and that still leaves what 40,000 for those in Atlanta? Guess who most of those fans are? They’re Bulldog fans. I hope some of those Mountaineer fans sneak in there, too.
“It should be fun because everyone wants to play in front of a packed stadium.”
“This is our first full week of not recruiting so we’re kind of getting caught up more on Georgia. We’ve had some practices and some of the coaches have been on campus but it’s been pretty hectic and it will be,” he said. “The time to reflect will be right after February. We play at what 8:30 on the 2nd? That means at 6 o’clock the next morning we’re out on the road recruiting and we will be until the first Wednesday in February. Then we’ll take a little deep breath and take a couple of days off.”
“We’re taking everybody that is eligible minus the ones that do very, very poorly,” he said. “I may be calling them and giving them a bad Christmas. I hope I don’t have to call anybody because right now we’re planning on taking everybody.
“It’s a nice reward, even for the young guys that have been on the scout team. They’ve all contributed to this season,” he said.
