Revving it Up
August 25, 2005 12:27 PM | General
August 25, 2005
Rodriguez Audio
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – As West Virginia moves closer to game week, veteran coach Rich Rodriguez sees his team making gradual progress. The Mountaineers have a tough season-opening chore in facing Syracuse in the Carrier Dome on Sunday, Sept. 4, on ABC.
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| Coach Rich Rodriguez says his young team isn't quite ready to play a game yet, but it is getting closer.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
“We’re not ready yet but we’re more ready everyday,” Rodriguez said Wednesday night. “The minor injuries are still hampering our progress, particularly offensively. We have Brandon Myles, Dwayne Thompson, Jeremy Bruce, Jason Gwaltney … all those guys that have a chance to get into the game and play some have not practiced the last few days if at all.”
Wednesday was the last day for full-contact between the ones. From now until nest Sunday the team will work on polishing its game plan.
“We’re kind of honing down our schemes and getting our game-plan settled,” Rodriguez said. “We’ll go through kind of a dry run of our game-plan Friday night in our annual ‘Beanie Bowl’ and then next week is obviously game prep.”
To this point, according to Rodriguez the only player ruled out for the Syracuse game is redshirt freshman offensive tackle Chris Bassler. The other players hobbled with minor injuries are expected back soon.
“If they want a chance to get back into the mix they better get back pretty quick. If not, we’ll play the other guys,” said the coach.
Rodriguez indicated he’s no closer to naming a starting quarterback or some of the other positions that are still up for grabs.
“We kind of know who is going to be on the travel squad,” he said. “Some coaches want to name a starter right now. Heck, we don’t play for nine days so why do I need to know right now? There are different philosophies. Some coaches want to name their starting quarterback so the team to get settled behind them. I want whoever is playing quarterback to be settled. I’ll name him when I’m ready to name him and it may not be until seven, eight or nine days from now.”
The top two QB candidates are Adam Bednarik and Pat White, or Pat White and Adam Bednarik. Freshman JR House is taking reps with the third group.
“We’re pretty much settled on who the top three are and who is getting all of the reps,” Rodriguez said. “As far as who is going to start right now I’m not settled. I think more is made out of it than needs to be. Both of them are ready to go and a third one is getting closer every day. We feel pretty good. They just don’t have any experience in a game and they’ll get that when they get into the game.”
House has also made strides.
“He’s getting closer,” Rodriguez said. “He did some good things today. As fast as JR is picking it up those guys have been in the system a year and two years ahead of him. In college football at this level that’s huge. He’s still getting his arm strength back but he’s getting a little better every day.”
Throughout camp, Rodriguez has been pleased with his team’s chemistry and willingness to work and learn.
“They had a great summer. I think their attitude has been good and I’ve been pleased with their effort,” he said. “We’ve had a scrimmage or two that has been a little bit soft but I think they’re ready to play someone else.”
West Virginia will have its annual “Beanie Bowl” on Friday evening. Although officials will be on hand, the workout is more of a dry-run for the team with little or no contact.
Briefly:
“We don’t really know what they’re going to do anyway, so whatever quarterback they put in there you’re still in the dark,” he said. “We saw a lot of Patterson because he was the starter last year but that doesn’t really tell us what they’re going to do.”
“We script 15-20 that we want to get called in the first half,” he said. “But you get off the script so easily because of the way teams play you. We found out that it was almost a waste of time to try and stick to a script. There are certain things you want to see early. I think in this game in particular we’ve got to be ready to come off the script pretty quick because there is a lot of guesswork as to how they’re going to defend us and what scheme they’re going to come out in.
“We can’t overload them but you can go in there too simple too and if they stop what you’re doing and then all of the sudden, what are you going to do? “You only have three timeouts and I hope we don’t have to burn them all in the first quarter,” he said.
“Saturday was a pillow fight but we’ve had those throughout the years. (Wednesday) was probably the last day we’ll go live, good on good, until the game. You’ll hit and you’ll bang a little bit but they won’t hit the ground,” he said.
In addition to Tuesday’s video press conference, you will be able to access Rodriguez’ Wednesday evening statewide call-in show, Friday afternoon’s feed of Mountaineer Magazine, as well as live game-day coverage.
CSTV is replacing Yahoo! Sports at West Virginia University’s exclusive online subscription streaming partner.
“I guess they’re looking for news stories,” he shrugged.
