KANSAS CITY – As I was listening to West Virginia coach
Rich Rodriguez from afar on a sunny Monday afternoon in my hotel room in Kansas City, I couldn't help but think about the movie Top Gun and Tom Cruise's character Pete Mitchell's need for speed.
Rodriguez said yesterday that he's looking for more speed at every position on the football field.
"We've got to get faster," he admitted. "Up front on defense, at linebacker, in the secondary, at wide receiver and running back. At O-line, people don't think you need fast guys, but you've got to have twitchy, athletic guys to do some of the stuff we need to do on the O-line.
"And there's some of that there," he continued. "It's not like we're going to recruit a bunch of track guys, but I'm just talking about football speed and guys who play fast because it's a miserable feeling if you are on defense and you can't tackle 'em because you can't catch 'em. If that's the case, then you've got no chance."
Unfortunately, last year West Virginia did a lot more chasing than catching when other teams had the football.
Speed doesn't necessarily have to be a physical trait either. Years ago, during Rodriguez's first tenure at West Virginia, he had some guys like Jay Henry and Reed Williams who were not necessarily burners.
But they always played fast because they processed things so quickly.
Rodriguez said it's the job of the coaches to make things understandable enough for their players to play fast.
"We've got some guys that can run," he noted. "Sometimes, I have to reserve my judgement on our guys' speed because when they're thinking too much they're not playing as fast as they should. That's not their fault. We as coaches have got to get them to play faster by teaching them. Probably some of our hesitation right now is due to learning, but once we get all that done then we can at least play faster."
Playing fast has been the hallmark of Rodriguez's programs going all the way back to his West Virginia Conference days at Glenville State more than 30 years ago.
Rodriguez believes some of that is a function of his fast eyes.
Yes, you read that correctly - his fast eyes!
"What are fast eyes? I think I see things quicker, and it's probably because I've been doing this so long in the same system that I know what it's supposed to look like, so I recognize it quicker," he explained. "So, I will see it before another coach sees it and I won't even give him a chance to coach because I jump into the middle of it. I need to not do that all the time, but I can't promise that I won't."
Rodriguez's son, Rhett, the team's quarterbacks coach, points out the adoption of the tight end on a regular basis has helped speed things up as well.
He explains.
"We say we like to play with 11, so the quarterback run game is a big aspect of what we do and that's always been a big aspect, but now we play a lot more 11-personnel with the tight end in where before we had Owen Schmitt, who was more of a fullback-tight end" he said. "Now, we have more of a traditional tight end that can be in the core or outside split-out, and the reason for that is that we don't have to sub in and out when we go tempo."
Now two weeks into spring drills,
Rich Rodriguez said overall team speed remains a work in progress.
"If you're smaller, at least you can try and outnumber them, but if you're slower, they can really expose that," he said.
Briefly:
* The Mountaineers concluded spring practice No. 7 inside the Caperton Indoor Practice Facility on Monday morning and have two more practices scheduled this week on Wednesday and Thursday before hitting the pause button for on-field activities for a week for spring break.
In addition to media opportunities with the head coach, bandits coach Jeff Casteel will be made available to the media following Wednesday's practice and wide receivers coach Ryan Garrett will talk to reporters following Thursday's practice.
*
Preston Fox, who caught nine passes for 112 yards last year and was the team's top punt returner, has indicated a willingness to return to the team for his senior season, Rodriguez announced Monday. He practiced for a second time on Monday and will have one more workout before he's permitted to wear full pads.
"I got a call that he might want to come back," Rodriguez said. "I thought he was out of eligibility and didn't realize that he had another year. We met, and I told him I'd love to have him and he's a guy who can help us at all the receiver positions."
*
Rich Rodriguez once again discussed the need of having multiple quarterbacks ready to go when the season begins on Saturday, Aug. 30 against Robert Morris.
The root of that philosophy probably goes back to the late Bobby Bowden, who Rodriguez got to know well through his relationships with Bowden's sons, Tommy and Terry. And it likely goes back even farther to legendary coach Paul "Bear" Bryant, who once advised Bobby to always have two quarterbacks on hand ready to go.
Rodriguez said on Monday that six different quarterbacks are getting reps right now, but that probably needs to be pared down to four toward the end of the spring.
"There is some really good competition there – and it's legit and not a made-up competition," he said.
Among those is true freshman
Scotty Fox Jr., West Virginia's four-star recruit from Mentor, Ohio, who was part of Neal Brown's December signing class. Fox is probably not quite ready yet, but Rodriguez is very high on his future. He generated more than 3,000 yards of offense and was responsible for 34 touchdowns during his senior year at Mentor High.
Fox also had offers from Pitt, Michigan State, Indiana and Cincinnati before choosing West Virginia.
* Rodriguez said his quarterbacks have the freedom to make some on-field adjustments, but the checks will be made from above where the coaches can see the entire field. In the fall, Rodriguez indicated he will probably let some of his quarterbacks call the plays during a series just to get a feel for what they are doing.
He believes that can be very helpful.
"(Quarterbacks) have a pretty good sight line, but the guys upstairs have a better view of everything than anybody on the field," he explained.
"I'd like for (the quarterbacks) to get to the point where they can anticipate what is getting called or anticipate the check that's coming. We'll get to that," he said. "We've got to get to the point where the execution is more important than the call."
* Rodriguez on Monday touched a little bit on recruiting responsibilities and the role of his assistants on expanded coaching staffs.
"Everybody recruits, and everybody has to have the ability to recruit," he said. "Which ones take the lead on a guy and which ones go on the road? Now, you've got to designate your 10 and I feel it will be the ones who hit it the best."
He admitted recruiting evaluations have never been more important during college football's transfer portal era.
"It's not the guys that you don't get in recruiting that kill you, even if they go to a rival and you're playing them once a year," he explained. "It's the ones you take that can't play. That means you better evaluate the right way and sometimes a seasoned or more veteran coach has more experience evaluating."
Rodriguez admits that he can deal with one or two recruiting misses, but 10 or 12 misses in one class can turn into a program killer.
"You can't have too many misses and sometimes it's harder now, and it's more urgent now because of the portal," he said.
* Rodriguez pointed out Monday that West Virginia is among the power conference programs with the most new players, and he indicated that number is likely to grow once spring practice concludes.
"Our roster is still evolving, and I hope there are not too many more but that's probably where we're at until there is some sensibility with this portal stuff," he concluded.