Football Notebook
October 08, 2006 08:16 PM | General
October 8, 2006
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Although not quite as mad as he was after yesterday’s game, West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez is still very concerned about his team’s 11-penalty performance at Mississippi State.
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| Steve Slaton helped the West Virginia running game get back on track by running for 185 yards and a touchdown against Mississippi State on Saturday in Starkville.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
West Virginia is now halfway to last year’s total of 82 infractions and is averaging almost 30 penalty yards per game more than it did last season.
“It starts with me demanding that we play smarter and it starts tomorrow,” Rodriguez said Sunday afternoon.
The Mountaineers have been flagged 41 times for 417 yards in five games and are on pace to reach the 2004 team’s total of 106 citations for 993 yards.
“There were even a couple of penalties that aren’t on the stats because they were offsetting,” Rodriguez said. “The ones that are aggressive are one thing, but even the aggressive penalties have come because of poor technique whether it’s pass interference or what have you. Those are things that we’ve got to do a good job of coaching to get corrected.”
South Florida is the next closest team to West Virginia in the Big East averaging 78.8 penalty yards per game.
Briefly:
“That’s why I’m so upset with our third-down defense because we never have the ball,” Rodriguez said. “Yesterday when the weather was nice, we had a rhythm and we had them on the ropes a little bit and every time we scored the defense had plenty of time to rest.”
Mississippi State had a 72-to-54 advantage in total plays.
Backup tackle Frank Carduff injured his knee during practice last Tuesday and is out for the remainder of the season, but season-opening starter Damien Crissey is expected to return to practice on Monday after missing the last four games.
“He should be able to practice as soon as tomorrow,” Rodriguez said.
“If I was concerned I would be looking it up,” Rodriguez noted. “I’m not concerned at all until the end of the year.”
“We’ve played some good football at times and some average football at times,” he said. “The effort has been good and the best you can be after five games is 5-0. We took care of the non-conference part of the schedule and now it’s almost like a new season for us. I think our guys understand that.”
“We played a little bit better than we did against East Carolina assignment wise. Our backs ran well and our quarterback ran well,” Rodriguez said. “On the perimeter they played a lot of man coverage so we were able to get some of those guys out of the way. Our guys took it to heart that we didn’t have our best performance (against East Carolina) and they know for us to have success we have to run the football.”
Rodriguez said very little was done in the way of adjustments. The team simply executed better than it did two weeks ago at ECU when it ran for a season-low 153 yards.
“It was really the same plays we just blocked them a little bit better and saw the holes a little bit better,” Rodriguez said. “There were still some things out there. I don’t know how many 20-yard runs were brought back because of holding penalties. There were some other runs that we left out there in plays that we were close to breaking it. It wasn’t a perfect game but it was better than the last one.”
“I’m going to wait and see what happens,” he said. “We’ve got a few more meetings to take care of and watch the film again. Tomorrow I will visit with the defensive staff and see if there are any moves that we’re going to make.”
Interestingly, Rodriguez’s 66-game totals are very similar to some other prominent coaches in WVU history:
1. Don Nehlen, 45-20-1 (1980-85), .689
2. Rich Rodriguez, 44-22 (2001-06), .667
3. Art Lewis, 43-23 (1950-56), .651
4. Bobby Bowden, 41-25 (1970-75), .621
“We were somewhat overwhelmed by the speed that they had, but I think our kids played tough and gave them a battle,” said Croom.
“We struggled at first because we have never really seen speed like West Virginia possesses, Croom said. “When Patrick (White) gets in the backfield he’s explosive. They hit some gaps and creases early and forced some one on one situations.”
Said Culberson, “They are very athletic and very fast; they made big plays during key situations and took advantage of that.
“Number 10 (Slaton) is the fastest running back I’ve ever seen,” said Culberson. “He is very fast and hits the hole very hard. He is a great competitor.”
