Back to Work
December 27, 2005 05:25 PM | General
December 27, 2005
ATLANTA – It’s back to work for the West Virginia University football team. Mountaineer coach Rich Rodriguez says its time to remove the rust and start fine tuning things in advance of WVU’s Nokia Sugar Bowl meeting against SEC Champion Georgia next Monday night.
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| West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez watches his team at Tuesday's practice at Westminster School. The Mountaineers play Georgia next Tuesday in the 2006 Nokia Sugar Bowl
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
“We had a couple of days off so we have to break the rust off, have a good, physical practice, get the guys sweating a little bit and get their minds back to focusing on the game,” said Rodriguez Tuesday morning.
The coach was generally pleased with the work his team was able to get in before Christmas break.
“I thought we had some really good practices,” he said. “It was a little challenging with the weather. We had to go inside a couple of times which limits our kicking and throwing the football. Outside of the weather I thought we had good, physical practices, I thought the guys were focused and ready to go.”
Rodriguez said his team was able to pump some noise in West Virginia’s indoor practice facility to simulate the type of noise it will encounter in the Georgia Dome.
“We had two really good days of noise in the indoor building. We had our players creating some on the scout team and we played the Georgia fight song,” Rodriguez said. “I’d like to get one more day down here but it’s going to be hard to simulate that. We’ve just got to be conscious of it, talk to our offense a good bit about it, and be ready for it during game time.”
The coach said his team’s schedule the next couple of days at Westminster High School will include some full-contact work.
“We’ll go full pads at least the next two days and maybe the next three days in a row,” he said. “We won’t tackle live or anything like that. We’re not quite in game week but our practice schedule will reflect that. We’ll be a little physical, go good on good for maybe 10-15 minutes each of the next three days and then taper it down.”
Slot receivers Jason Colson and Jeremy Bruce have been hobbled with injuries and Rodriguez isn’t sure if they will be available for the bowl game.
“Colson and Bruce are still limited,” Rodriguez said. “They should be able to take a few reps today but they will be in green short for maybe another day or two. I have to monitor their progress the next three days. If they’re not 100 percent then they won’t play. Outside of that we’re relatively healthy.”
Defensively, West Virginia will continue to work on jump balls and continue preparing for Georgia quarterback D.J. Shockley’s ability to scramble and make big plays downfield.
“With Shockley’s ability to throw the ball I think they’ll take some deep shots,” Rodriguez said. “The thing that scares me about him is he’ll scramble around and buy some time and then he’ll throw the ball deep. We’ve got to lock onto the receivers and we’ve got to work hard on the scramble drill all week.”
Weather could be a factor in both team’s preparation with rain showers in the forecast for Wednesday.
“If the weather stays like this the rest of the week then this will be perfect. Now if it rains that might disrupt things a little bit and we may have to find a place to go because they don’t have a turf field here,” Rodriguez said.
Bowl Bits
“Everybody is here,” Rodriguez said. “We had an 8 o’clock meeting last night and everybody was ready to go. Everything has gone smoothly so far.”
“They’ve got a lot of guys and he wasn’t even their leading receiver. I don’t think it will change their game plan at all,” he said.
“They picked out a sweatshirt and a pair of shorts and maybe a hat or something. Last year they got DVD players and this year it was a camcorder. Most of the bowl gifts came in, too. One of them was a mountain bike and that will be interesting watching Warren Young and Johnny Dingle on a mountain bike in Morgantown in January,” Rodriguez said.
“It wasn’t as loud at Syracuse as it’s going to be in the Georgia Dome. I think it all goes back to guys and how they handle situations. With a young team you’re nervous about it and this is the first BCS game for our guys and it’s the first time in this environment for them, but they seemed to be pretty poised,” Rodriguez said. “I want them to be excited and I want them to be nervous, but not be so tight that they’re afraid to make a mistake when we play the game.”
