Camp Notebook
August 17, 2005 01:16 PM | General
August 17, 2005
Rodriguez Audio
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – For the past week and a half Mountaineer coach Rich Rodriguez has put his team to the test on the football field. Last night was the first time they were really put under the gun.
 |
||
| West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez put his team to the test Tuesday night.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
Rodriguez has made it a point since he’s been at West Virginia to have everyone involved with the program know the names of all 105 players in camp. Last night photos of the defensive linemen and running backs were flashed up on a screen in the team meeting room and random players were called out to identify them.
“The players were 100 percent,” Rodriguez laughed. “I think a couple of them were cheating, though. They had some teammates whisper in their ears. They knew their first name but not the last name.”
Rodriguez says the pop quiz isn’t just for the players either.
“I’m going to call out the assistants, too, and it’s going to be real funny if they miss a player,” Rodriguez said. “For them to run a fifth around the field may take a while so I’m anxious to see how they do.”
The team really gets a kick out of seeing another player on the screen that has taken a bad picture, much like the famous scene in the movie Animal House when Delta pledge Kent Dorfman’s picture was flashed up to boos and cat-calls.
“The funny part about it is if you show a name up there and they happen to look like a cartoon character they’re going to get shouted out,” said Rodriguez. “When Owen Schmitt’s picture came up last night you should have heard the noise that came up there.
“I think he was half-asleep when they took his picture -- it was fun,” the coach said.
Rodriguez admits it is his responsibility to keep track of all 105 guys.
“It’s my job to know them,” he said. “I think it’s probably harder for me because I’m doing more individually with the quarterbacks and the receivers – I see them daily. But we talk a lot as a staff, communicate, and watch a lot of film together. We have a lot and then we have 30 more coming in when school starts.”
As for Wednesday’s morning practice, Rodriguez was once again pleased with the amount of work his team got accomplished
“It was as good workout,” he said. “It wasn’t a long practice and we were just in shorts. It was a lot of passing and a lot of mental work. I thought their focus was really good and they should be fresh because we weren’t pounding in the heat.”
Rodriguez said Wednesday afternoon’s scrimmage will give the coaching staff the opportunity to evaluate a lot of younger players
“We’ll kind of see where everybody is at,” he said.
Briefly:
“It is typical of just about every Division I camp right now,” Rodriguez said. “So far I don’t know of anything serious enough to keep them out. There will be several held out of the scrimmage this afternoon and that’s a little bit of a concern. With the veteran players it’s not but I’m more worried about the young guys that have not played much.”
Rodriguez is particularly concerned that youngsters Bassler, Bruce and Thompson need to get reps. He noted that redshirt freshman John Bradshaw is playing tackle in place of both Bassler and Garrett.
“We can move a lot of guys … Dan Mozes can play that position and we can shuffle some guys in and out,” Rodriguez said. “We’re still waiting on Bassler to see what the results are on his knee.”
“They all have different styles,” he said. “(Jason) Colson has got good ball skills, he’s an experienced guy and he knows how to cut and he knows how to run the offense. Pernell (Williams) is a downhill runner who runs behind his pads and gets north and south really quickly. I’ve been really pleased with both those guys.
“The two rookies – our thunder guy (Jason) Gwaltney is a downhill guy who is really learning the offense. He’s got a great forward lean and runs hard. And then our fast, lightning guy Steve Slaton is still learning but he’s got a little extra burst and a little extra speed that we haven’t seen in a while and he’s got a great future here.”
Rodriguez says all of them may have different skills, but each of them must be well-rounded to play in this offense.
“They’ve all got to do everything in the offense: it’s not us gearing one play toward one guy and another play toward another,” he said. “That way it’s harder for somebody to know exactly what it is we’re going to do. Are we going downhill or are we going wide? Whoever is the best and we can win with will play.”
“It’s not been sore at all. The nice part about it is I think he’s starting to get some of his strength back,” Rodriguez said. “When we get done with camp and go to single practices that will help them recover even faster. He has not complained at all about being sore and we haven’t had to limit his reps in practice.”
The coach noted that Bednarik and White are still battling it out for number one, with J.R. House working with the second group. He has also liked what he’s seen from the three freshmen although the plan is to redshirt them.
“I really like all three of those rookies – Nate Sowers, Terry Mitchell and Jarrett Brown. They all have the ability to play here. That is going to put us in a pretty good situation for the next couple of years,” Rodriguez said.
“Our biggest ideas about them are simply where their coaches have been in the past. That’s all you can do -- and then be ready to adjust,” he said. “We’ve got to be ready to adjust early in the game and not panic if we see something different.”
Rodriguez says he met Syracuse coach Greg Robinson for the first time a few weeks ago at Big East meetings in Rhode Island.
“He’s a really nice guy and I think he’ll do a great job with them,” he said.
“After the scrimmage today and the scrimmage Saturday, we’ll have a more definite two-deep,” he said. “There are fewer question marks defensively and we knew that coming in. It is wide open as far as receiver goes. The running backs -- we know who those four are going to be and we know who the quarterbacks are going to be, maybe not the order, and we have a pretty good idea on the offensive line. But as far as the receivers I have no idea.
“It changes daily who is on the first team and who is on the second team. It actually changes minute by minute during practice. It ought to be fun for them and exciting as far as who is going to be the starter,” he said.
Rodriguez admits there is some talent at wide receiver, it’s just that he needs to see a couple of players step up, remain healthy, and play well on a consistent basis.
“We do have talent there but it’s just that Myles and Thompson being injured a little bit … those two guys are going to play for us,” he said. “They may be our two best. We have to be patient and know that we’re going to have some quality guys out there. Darius Reynaud has gotten better every day. He was struggling the first week and now he feels more comfortable.
“Vaughn Rivers we think is pretty good and Joe Hunter is playing the best he’s ever played,” Rodriguez added. “There is some talent there but we’ve got to get the consistency that we lacked there before. I’m pretty confident that with Coach (Butch) Jones that we can get that.”
“Josh Bailey has missed some practice with his hamstring but he came into camp in pretty good shape. We’ve got Brad Palmer, Mike Villagrana and Adam Serena who all know the system pretty well. Big Lou Davis is working his way in there a little bit. And we’ve got a walk-on by the name of Sammy Morrone who has some local ties and he’s doing a great job. He’s going to play football for us both at tight end and on special teams,” Rodriguez said.
