Blue Collar Program
April 11, 2006 10:20 AM | General
April 11, 2006
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Rich Rodriguez admits that he can be a pretty tough man to please in the spring. When you see a 20-yard run he’s sees a missed block that could have turned that 20-yard run into a touchdown, or a missed tackle on defense that could have stopped the play dead in its tracks.
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| Mountaineer football coach Rich Rodriguez admits that he can be a tough man to please in the springtime.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
For West Virginia’s sixth-year coach, the bad is never really that far away from the good. And that’s probably one of the biggest reasons why his teams have won or shared three straight Big East titles and been to three New Year’s Day bowl games in a row.
“We’re probably as coaches hard to please in the spring,” he said. “I think the effort has been pretty good and I think our guys realize that even though we had a pretty good year we’re not going to be a team that can just show up and beat people.”
That means once the team officially wraps up spring drills on Saturday with the Gold-Blue game to be televised nationally on ESPNU, his players head right back into the weight room to get stronger before the start of fall camp in August.
“We’ve got to work extremely hard, we’ve got to be disciplined and we’ve got to have a great summer getting in shape for camp,” he said. “We’re a blue collar team: we’re not a superstar-laden, show-up-and-win type of team.
“The way our recruiting is and the way we have to go out and try and evaluate and develop players -- and the mindset that we have in our program … we have no chance if we’re not a (blue collar) type of team.”
The coach admits he would enjoy one day having a football program with athletes stockpiled at every position, giving him a bigger margin for error. But right now that’s just not the case.
“I’d love to be able to go out there and screw up and win – I promise you that,” he laughed. “We’ll still coach them the same way but it would be nice to do that. There are very few that can but there are a handful … they have to screw up to lose.”
One area that has Rodriguez concerned is offensive line depth, where the coach hopes some of the younger players can develop physically before fall camp.
“We’re still lacking the depth that we want. We’ve got some talent there with the young guys but they’ve got a little ways to go,” he said. “I think they know what they’re doing and they’re pretty good athletically, but we’ve got to get stronger.
“I’m really concerned about our depth on both sides of the ball,” he added. “I was hoping by the end of the spring that we would be comfortable with that but I’m not. Obviously by August we’ve got to be.”
Briefly:
“As I told him, you’re not going to play a whole lot on defense and we know you’re going to play some on offense,” Rodriguez said. “Pernell is such a good guy and he’s going to play a lot of special teams, too.”
“To drop you in February …? People complain that we’re playing a I-AA team: what do you expect us to do? We’re lucky we could find them. It was a battle to find a I-AA team to play that late,” he said. “But our schedule is set now so we’re ready to go.”
“Jake Figner has really come on at tackle and that’s been good to see,” said the coach. “Quinton Andrews has had a pretty good spring and shown some good things. Johnny Dingle has had a pretty good spring, too.”
“There is no question they’re going to have a big opportunity,” he said. “The biggest question will be how can they handle it mentally? Both of those guys are at a position where physically they’re going to be just about ready.”
Lyons attended last Saturday’s scrimmage with his family and the Pittsburgh resident looks like he’s added another inch to his already very large 6-foot-6-inch frame.
“He’s had another growth spurt and he’s a big, tall guy,” Rodriguez mentioned. “He can certainly give you a weapon down there close in the red zone.”
If Lyons continues to grow he could wind up being one of the tallest wide receivers to play college football, at least since 6-foot-8-inch Harold Carmichael starred at Southern University in 1971.
“He has realized what month it is but the time of day quite hasn’t gotten there yet,” said the coach. “He’s a good young man and he’s got a lot of talent and he’s made some strides. He’s swimming mentally but as long as he fights through that I really think he does some things that can help us.”
