Football Notebook
November 26, 2006 05:25 PM | General
November 26, 2006
RUTGERS GAME NOTES
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez thought poor execution and some bad plays were the two primary reasons his team dropped a 24-19 decision to South Florida Saturday at home.
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| West Virginia tight end Brandon Tate goes upside down during Saturday's 24-19 loss to South Florida at Milan Puskar Stadium.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
“We didn’t execute very well and we could have done a better job of play calling on both sides of the ball,” Rodriguez said Sunday afternoon. “They made a few plays and we didn’t. We let a team hang around and we’re not good enough to have a few key mistakes and mess around and win games. It cost us.”
Rodriguez admits it's human nature for coaches to question their own play calls – win or lose.
“You could go through every game you watch and say, ‘I wish we would have called this’ or ‘I wish we would have had this defense instead of that defense on.’ Sometimes it doesn’t hurt you and sometimes it does,” Rodriguez said. “Every coach will tell you that.
“There were a couple of key times in a game you lose that you question it more or you think maybe if we would have had this play on we would have scored a touchdown. That’s the ‘what if’ game and we’ve got to learn from it and move on.”
The coach said South Florida utilized a defensive plan on Saturday that it hadn’t shown this year.
“You get a different look each week and the look that we saw from them was a little different than we’d seen and they’d never done it,” Rodriguez said. “At the same time we have usually been pretty good about making adjustments on the sidelines and for whatever reason it took a little longer for the adjustments to sink in at times for us both offensively and defensively.”
The loss to the Bulls drops West Virginia eight spots to 15th in both polls this week.
“It’s not surprising particularly with Big East teams,” Rodriguez said. “If we beat each other it’s a little harsher on us. We’ll worry about that stuff later. The only time it’s important is at the end of the year and that’s if you’re one or two.”
Rodriguez said quarterback Patrick White will be limited the first couple days this week with both a sprained ankle and turf toe on the same foot. Linebacker Jay Henry injured his wrist and was taken to the hospital for precautionary measures, but Rodriguez says the senior should be OK for this weekend’s game.
“Since it’s only a day after the game we’ll know more in a day or two how (Pat’s) going to progress with his ankle. Jay will be fine.
“We had some other guys bumped and bruised a little bit but I think Pat is the one that will be more limited the first couple of days,” Rodriguez said.
With a BCS bowl game and a Big East championship now off the table, West Virginia has to regroup in time to face 13th-ranked Rutgers on Saturday night at Milan Puskar Stadium. The Scarlet Knights still have an opportunity to win a share of the conference title and claim the league’s BCS bowl spot following their win against Louisville a couple of weeks ago.
“You work all year for 12 opportunities and we’re on the 12th one so I think there is enough motivation there,” Rodriguez said. “Plus, it’s our senior’s last home game and the fact that they could still finish as the winningest class in school history … there is the pride factor as well.
“If this is the type of team I think it is and these are the types of players I think they are they will come out focused this week in practice and get ready to play a big game on Saturday night,” Rodriguez said.
“We haven’t lost a lot of games the last couple of years and I guess it’s good that a loss is big news. We’ve got to learn to deal with it and learn to come back from it,” Rodriguez said. “We came back from the last loss pretty well and we’re going to try and do the same this week.”
The one thing Rodriguez refuses to do is to consider this season a failure simply because the Mountaineers didn’t reach a BCS game or play for the national title. Some have already begun to compare this year’s team to West Virginia’s 2004 squad that lost its last two regular season conference games of the year to Boston College and Pitt.
“I think it is ridiculous people talking about the 2004 team as being a bust or whatever. They won a share of the Big East championship and went to the Gator Bowl,” Rodriguez said. “This team has won nine games and has a chance to win 10 and go to another bowl game. Is it what everybody wanted? No, but are we at that point when if we’re not in a BCS bowl that it’s a bad year at West Virginia?
“I don’t know -- I guess we’re finding out.”
