MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Rich Rodriguez admits he's still familiarizing himself with his roster while meeting with media in the Milan Puskar Center Team Room following today's first practice of fall camp.

Sitting on the table in front of him on the dais was a color-coded depth chart in case he got any specific questions about individual players.

He didn't, other than one general question about the quarterback position.

"If I'm following a team you want to know, 'Who's your quarterback?' I don't mind being asked every day because I'm curious, too," he said. "There is a process of how we're doing it and (quarterbacks coach) Rhett (Rodriguez) is managing it. We've got five guys that we're trying to get reps, and all of them have got to get an opportunity to show if they can be the guy."

Rodriguez says he's hopeful he's got more than one guy behind center good enough to win with this year. The starter, however, will not be announced until the moment you see the first one run out onto the field against Robert Morris at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 30.

Who knows? 

Maybe he'll run two of them out there at the same time.

"If I have three quarterbacks that are good enough to win with, I'll play all three," he said. "I won't pull a guy out for a mistake, and if he's hot, I'll keep him in there, but it doesn't bother me to rotate quarterbacks if they're good enough to win with."

The five quarterbacks Rodriguez mentioned, in no particular order, are returning junior Nicco Marchiol, senior Texas A&M transfer Jaylen Henderson, junior Charlotte transfer Max Brown, returning redshirt freshman Khalil Wilkins and true freshman Scotty Fox, Jr.

Managing equal opportunities for so many quarterbacks during preseason camp can be somewhat of a challenge, Rodriguez admits.

"Because of our pace of practice, we get a lot of reps in," he observed. "It's a little easier for us to get that evaluated."

Last year at Jacksonville State, Rodriguez felt like his team had a really good preseason camp and then opened the season with a 55-27 defeat to Coastal Carolina, followed by losses to Louisville and Eastern Michigan before finally getting things turned around in week four.

In order to avoid that this year at West Virginia, the veteran coach said he plans on treating his quarterbacks a little bit differently during camp.

"This is really unique because 90% of our team has not played a lot of football at this level, between guys coming back and the new guys, so we've got to have that in the backs of our minds," Rodriguez explained.

"We had 60 new guys at Jax State, and I didn't think we did a good job - myself included - of evaluating during camp. Some of it was the quarterbacks weren't live, so there were some lessons we had to learn from that," he admitted. "We've got to be ready to go for the first game so there are going to be periods of practice that I typically wouldn't go live, and in the next couple of weeks we will do that, simply because we've got to know."

The types of plays Rodriguez calls this year could be tailored to the specific skill sets of the particular quarterback in the game at that moment. It's more about what he can do, rather than forcing him to fit into what the system requires him to do.

"Inevitably, quarterbacks have some plays they do better or are better at than others," he noted. "Throughout the next three weeks, if the quarterbacks keep elevating and we have three we think are ready to play and we can win with, we're going to find out what those three do the best.

"Some coaches might worry, 'Oh, your opponents, every time that quarterback is in, you're going to run just that.' They'll have enough variety that you just can't key on two or three things a certain quarterback does well. Part of our deal in the next three weeks with our quarterbacks is, 'Okay, which plays are they most comfortable with and what do they do best?' We'll have that as part of our mindset going into the season," he said.

Practice through the end of this week will be in shells and the first day of full contact is scheduled for next Tuesday.

That's when the hard evaluations really begin.

"Everybody is going to make mistakes, players and coaches, so I don't just want to drop a guy in the grease because he has one bad day, but if they're loafing or they're soft, then that's got to get corrected right away," he said. "The schematic part, if it takes a little while, whatever, but if you're soft that first day in pads, it's got to be corrected. Those two four-letter words (loaf and soft) are things we should not be having at any point."

This morning, the squad had a crisp, two-hour workout on the Steve Antoline Family Practice Field. Rodriguez thought day one went as expected with good overall effort and the defense being fairly active during the team portions of practice.

The schedule the Athletics Communications staff released earlier this week calls for Rodriguez and defensive coordinator Zac Alley to visit with media following Thursday's practice.

Senior offensive coach Travis Trickett and cornerbacks coach Rod West will be made available after Friday's practice and Rodriguez and running backs coach Larry Porter will finish up the week at the conclusion of Saturday's practice.

No on-field activities are slated for Sunday.