And They're Off
August 07, 2005 09:46 AM | General
August 7, 2005
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia University football coach Rich Rodriguez believes this could be the most competitive fall camp in terms of the number of positions being contested in his five years at WVU. He made that observation and several others following his team’s first workout on Saturday.
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| Rich Rodriguez goes over some instructions with his team before Saturday's practice at Mountaineer Field.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
“A number of the guys that we lost were multi-year starters,” he said. “I think this team is eager to prove themselves.”
The coach was pleased with the condition his team reported in and said there were only a couple of players that didn’t make their runs after practice.
“We had a few guys that didn’t make them all but we’ll get those guys in shape,” he said. “The majority of the guys are in shape and they did a good job this summer. The weather was cooler so we’ve got to try and dial up some heat in the next few days.”
During the portion of practice the media was permitted to attend, they witnessed a punting duel between holdover Phil Brady and freshmen Scott Kozlowski. Also turning some heads was freshmen kicker Pat McAfee, who sent a couple of his extra point attempts into the upper deck.
“It’s going to be pretty competitive,” said Rodriguez of this year’s punting job. “Obviously Phil Brady and Scott Kozlowski are battling but a third guy in the mix is Pat McAfee. He’s our kicker and he’s a pretty good punter, too. We’re going to have some healthy competition there and we’ll see how that shakes out in the next few weeks.”
Rodriguez said all four quarterbacks got reps but sophomore Adam Bednarik took the most with the first group by design. Redshirt freshman Pat White also took reps with the first group.
“We’ve got to make decisions early in camp which guys can grasp things and are ready to play,” he said. “I think you have at least a week of practice but unfortunately with the five singles it’s really hard. I wish we had two a days because then it would clear itself up a little bit.”
According to Rodriguez, all of the quarterbacks threw without any limitations.
“I thought they threw pretty well,” he said. “We only put in three route packages out of 28 so it was kind of simple and it was limited going against a defense that drops eight. I thought they made some good decisions but we’ve got a lot of work to do. We’re not even close mechanically or mentally to where we need to be but I think we’ll get there.”
For Bednarik and freshman J.R. House, both overcoming off-season shoulder surgeries, the real test is still ahead of them.
“We’ll see how they do during the few days we have when they’re throwing twice a day. Hopefully it will keep getting better,” Rodriguez said.
The team practiced a little longer Saturday than usual. Rodriguez says that’s because he had to go over the normal practice routine with the newcomers and he also wanted to give reps to some more players.
“Hopefully (practices) will be crisper and shorter as camp goes on,” he said.
Briefly:
“I’ve been coaching college for 21 years and head coach for 13 and this is the first time I’ve lost one to a music contract,” said Rodriguez. “We knew he was a singer but we didn’t know he was that good. If we see him on American Idol or something we’ll know what happened. I was hoping he’d hang around for the annual Gong Show that we do but now we’ll have to wait for the TV appearance.”
There were no other surprises from the rest of the newcomers and Rodriguez still believes possibly eight or nine of them could see playing time this year.
“It’s a pretty good group,” he said. “We thought athletically a few of them could help us but mentally they’re lost. There’s not one freshman out there that’s ahead of anyone else mentally. It’s going to take them a while.”
“Mentally he did a pretty nice job and you could see the rust shake off a little bit but it’s going to be a while,” Rodriguez said. “He hasn’t played football in seven years. I think he’s conscientious enough that he will work on the things he needs to do.”
“Leadership is going to come naturally,” he said. “You can be a great leader but if you can’t throw the ball or make the right decisions you aren’t going to play. Accuracy is important more so than arm strength even though to make all of the throws you’ve got to have some arm strength.
“Running ability to a certain level needs to happen but we can adjust schemes to fit that guy’s strength,” he explained. “It’s a command and understanding of the game and not just what we do: Understanding how to attack a defense and what we’re trying to get out of every play. One of my goals by the end of camp is to have them understand the purpose behind the plays, the purpose behind the offense and how to attack a defense. The guy that grasps that the best is going to be a leg up on somebody else.”
“Normally when we run our little conditioning drill half of the freshmen wouldn’t make it. Today, only one or two of them missed just one or two of the fifths that we run around the field,” he said.
“It used to be in the first week you wanted to get them into shape but that’s all changed because most of the guys are here in the summer,” he said. “Now you’ve got to get their techniques down, do a lot of teaching as far as schemes go and toward the end of the week start doing some Syracuse stuff.
Yet in the same breath, Rodriguez cautioned that with the large number of newcomers contending for spots on the two-deep that he’s going to have to take things slow for a while.
“I’ve got to keep reminding myself and our coaches that they’re going to be lost for a while. We’ll really have to slow our installation down offensively,” he said. “Whatever we wanted to put in for the next practice we probably won’t.”
