MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia wrapped up its first week of spring football drills on Saturday with an early afternoon padded practice inside the Caperton Indoor Practice Facility.
 
Coach Rich Rodriguez was originally scheduled to meet with media at 3:30 p.m. but his session was moved up a half hour to 3 p.m.
 
He spent about 25 minutes with the media going over today's work.
 
"It was our first day in pads," he said. "There was some good and some bad. Obviously, you can teach more and learn more in full pads, although we only did about 10 or 15 minutes live.
 
"As I told the team, I saw some pretty good moments when it looked like we were competitive and playing with an edge, and then I saw too many periods of softness and we'll have to get that fixed," the coach added.
 
Rodriguez said his players must learn how to do a thud practice that is not half-speed.
 
"When you don't go live, you don't always go as much full speed as you need to, so the key is to teach our guys to go full speed, but yet not tackling and that's probably going to take three or four more practices," he explained.
 
When West Virginia scrimmages now the players will tackle, which is a little bit different than the thud scrimmages that the returning players were used to doing.
 
"Scrimmages are live, but we still don't cut tackle or cut block each other," Rodriguez said. "We will have some moments of scrimmaging, not as much as I used to do previously, but we've got to do it for teaching purposes and also for evaluating purposes."
 
Rodriguez noted football is a game of big people up front trying to move other big people against their will.
 
"That involves technique, and that also involves a certain level of toughness on the O-line and D-line," he said. "There are times we did that today. I like the approach our O-line coach, (Jack) Bicknell and coach (Derek) Dressler were doing, but there is a lot of work to be done there on both sides. I just didn't see the movement (today)."
 
The coach indicated he saw moments of toughness today, and now the goal is to get them playing tough the entire time.
 
"If you are soft mentally and physically you are not going to make it," he noted. "You will stand out amongst your teammates and stand out in the program and it's not going to be the place for you.
 
"And they might not even know," he added. "Sometimes they don't even know what our definition is of being soft. That goes back to us as coaches teaching them. Then we have to explain to them why and hopefully they get it."
 
He continued.
 
"If there is a moment of softness or weakness, you have to address it immediately, and every time. That falls on us as coaches to make sure that we address it."
 
Practice resumes next Tuesday morning and members of the media will be permitted to watch a portion of it. Rodriguez and offensive line coach Jack Bicknell Jr. will be made available to reporters afterward. The week will conclude with practices on Thursday and Saturday.
 
Briefly:
 
* Rodriguez was asked about junior Jahiem White and the running back position.
 
"Jahiem is a proven guy, and I think he's going to have a great year," he predicted. "He's got a great skillset for what we do so I'm excited about him. (Diore) Hubbard is going to be a good player, and we've got a big guy in Tye Edwards. L.J. (Turner Jr.) is a young guy, but I'd like to have three guys that I know are ready to roll. 
 
"I think there is some talent there, but we may also need to bring another guy in as well," he added.
 
* Some coaches want to see leadership develop immediately amongst the players, but Rodriguez admitted today that his philosophy on team leadership is probably a little different than others.
 
"Everybody says you've got to have leadership in practice. Hell, that's my job," he said. "That's the coach's job. When you need leadership is when you are not around in the locker room and during the summertime or on weekends. People ask, 'Well, who is showing leadership on the field?' I answer, 'Hell, it better be me!'
 
"Now a quarterback has to be a leader on offense because he's managing the offense, calling the plays and the cadence and the linebacker on defense calling the defense, so that part of it is assumed," Rodriguez said. "I don't worry about that part of it."
 
* Coach Rod said there are four or five centers on the roster right now capable of snapping, which is the number he wants repping each practice.
 
"You can't ever have too many centers and too many guys that can snap," he said. "I think we had maybe two bad snaps today, which I guess is not too bad for the first day (in pads). The goal is to have none."
 
The team roster online is not broken down by specific offensive line positions, but Rodriguez said junior Landen Livingston and North Carolina State transfer Robby Martin were the two taking a good portion of the center reps today.
 
"Everything is new for these guys," he explained. "That's the hardest position to play because you've got to snap it and then do all of the stuff we do in our offense. I thought they were okay today."
 
* According to Rodriguez, there were not many penalties called during today's practice, a positive.
 
* Rodriguez said the secondary play today was "not good," in his words. The backend was the Achilles heel of a defense last year that gave up an average of 415.2 yards and 31.9 points per game. He is hopeful the returning players can improve, and the newcomers will provide some competition there.
 
"I'm not watching last year's film right now," he admitted. "As we get ready for game planning we will watch some of last year's stuff, but now we are just trying to evaluate players in a whole new system. The competion is pretty good, but do we have a solid eight or nine? I couldn't tell you that, but I can't tell you that at any position."