Photo by: WVU Football/Jake Herron photo
Mountaineers Continuing To Adapt To Accelerated Practice Pace
August 01, 2025 02:50 PM | Football
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Perhaps the biggest adjustment so far for the old and new is getting used to the pace of West Virginia football practices.
It's not just fast, it's lightning fast.
Part of the issue coach Rich Rodriguez had with his players after yesterday morning's practice was the inability of some to keep up with the pace that he wants established.
Playing and thinking fast all the time can be tiring, which presents a battle of wills, if you will. If you can't tire out the other team, can you perform better than your opponent while you are tired?
That requires mental and physical toughness. There are two four-letter words in Rodriguez's football program – lazy and soft – and when one, the other or both are displayed, that's going to set him off.
On the other side of the field, first-year defensive coordinator Zac Alley is aggressively doing things to affect the offense. The way senior offensive assistant Travis Trickett sees it, what West Virginia has right now is basically the same person leading the offensive and defensive units.
Both minds are operating rapidly.
"It's an iron-sharpens-iron situation, and I love it," Trickett said Friday afternoon.
When Trickett was Coastal Carolina's offensive coordinator in 2023, he faced Alley's Jacksonville State defense and what impressed him most about Alley was the variety of looks he had to prepare to face.
"Our first two series, I wanted to call certain plays to see how he's playing us because each game he came out with a different game plan over the previous two seasons," Trickett explained. "I had to make sure I had a good plan to go against him because of the problems he presents. Not only that, but he has answers, so to see that every day it benefits our offense.
"This training camp, our quarterbacks will see more looks from a secondary standpoint than they'll see during an entire season," Trickett added.
On the flip side, Rodriguez's offense creates issues because of its tempo. Things are happening so quickly out on the field during practice that it can sometimes look overwhelming. That's by design.
With the exception of a couple of breaks, it's that way for an entire two-hour practice.
"We script an hour and 45-minute practice, and it's up to them if it's an hour and 45 or two hours and 15 minutes," Rodriguez said. "I get bored standing around. There is too much standing around in our sport anyway. Who wants to watch a bunch of fat guys holding hands in a huddle?"
"That's what I love about Coach Rod and his offense," Trickett said. "It doesn't really matter what the defense does because we're going to do what we do and make them stop it. You have to live by that every day because if you try and scheme up what Zac brings ... day one, we're seeing what is maybe an accumulation of day one, two, three, four and five. Some coaches would be like, 'Ugh, I don't want to see that' but Coach Rod is like, 'Okay, good.'"
Rodriguez admits what Alley does defensively can be a lot for young offensive linemen to process at times, but he'd rather have meltdowns in training camp in August instead of during the second quarter of the season opener against Robert Morris.
"I hate to limit him because they do such a good job teaching it," Rodriguez said. "There is a whole lot more our guys have seen up front today in the third day of practice than you would normally expect."
First-year cornerbacks coach Rod West welcomes the stressful situations Rodriguez's offense creates for them each practice.
"We tell our guys if we can get lined up, communicate and create those high-stress situations during practice, then the games will be easy," he explained. "Coach Rodriguez does a great job of setting the tone and tempo to play at a certain pace. We feel confident that if we can master that, get into condition and communicate, we should be in better shape to handle it during the game."
Although Alley's defense is pretty multiple, West said his cornerbacks try to remain consistent with their basic techniques. There might be certain buzz words for the different calls to help them along.
"Yes, there is a lot. We will look very multiple, and that's by design," he said. "Coach Alley does a great job of saying to the cornerbacks, 'I know we've got 10 calls going in today, but we're only playing two or three different techniques.' Once you teach them concepts instead of calls, they can kind of compartmentalize it and make the learning curve a little less steep."
The physical and mental components of the two schemes are basically one in the same, according to Trickett.
"Not only do we talk about being in great shape and the physical toughness, but it's also mental toughness and that's part of the mental toughness, the X and O aspect and the decisions that have to be made (quickly)," he explained. "We tell our guys all the time that the games are going to be easy. 'They're there - they are not moving all over the place' and I think that's why coach Rod and coach Alley get along so well because they're really the same person, just two different ways as far as their mentality of implementing what they do."
West Virginia wraps up the first week of training camp Saturday morning. Rodriguez and running backs coach Larry Porter are scheduled to meet with media in the Milan Puskar Center Team Room following practice.
No on-field activities are scheduled for Sunday.
It's not just fast, it's lightning fast.
Part of the issue coach Rich Rodriguez had with his players after yesterday morning's practice was the inability of some to keep up with the pace that he wants established.
Playing and thinking fast all the time can be tiring, which presents a battle of wills, if you will. If you can't tire out the other team, can you perform better than your opponent while you are tired?
That requires mental and physical toughness. There are two four-letter words in Rodriguez's football program – lazy and soft – and when one, the other or both are displayed, that's going to set him off.
On the other side of the field, first-year defensive coordinator Zac Alley is aggressively doing things to affect the offense. The way senior offensive assistant Travis Trickett sees it, what West Virginia has right now is basically the same person leading the offensive and defensive units.
Both minds are operating rapidly.
"It's an iron-sharpens-iron situation, and I love it," Trickett said Friday afternoon.
When Trickett was Coastal Carolina's offensive coordinator in 2023, he faced Alley's Jacksonville State defense and what impressed him most about Alley was the variety of looks he had to prepare to face.
"Our first two series, I wanted to call certain plays to see how he's playing us because each game he came out with a different game plan over the previous two seasons," Trickett explained. "I had to make sure I had a good plan to go against him because of the problems he presents. Not only that, but he has answers, so to see that every day it benefits our offense.
"This training camp, our quarterbacks will see more looks from a secondary standpoint than they'll see during an entire season," Trickett added.
On the flip side, Rodriguez's offense creates issues because of its tempo. Things are happening so quickly out on the field during practice that it can sometimes look overwhelming. That's by design.
With the exception of a couple of breaks, it's that way for an entire two-hour practice.
"We script an hour and 45-minute practice, and it's up to them if it's an hour and 45 or two hours and 15 minutes," Rodriguez said. "I get bored standing around. There is too much standing around in our sport anyway. Who wants to watch a bunch of fat guys holding hands in a huddle?"
"That's what I love about Coach Rod and his offense," Trickett said. "It doesn't really matter what the defense does because we're going to do what we do and make them stop it. You have to live by that every day because if you try and scheme up what Zac brings ... day one, we're seeing what is maybe an accumulation of day one, two, three, four and five. Some coaches would be like, 'Ugh, I don't want to see that' but Coach Rod is like, 'Okay, good.'"
Rodriguez admits what Alley does defensively can be a lot for young offensive linemen to process at times, but he'd rather have meltdowns in training camp in August instead of during the second quarter of the season opener against Robert Morris.
"I hate to limit him because they do such a good job teaching it," Rodriguez said. "There is a whole lot more our guys have seen up front today in the third day of practice than you would normally expect."
First-year cornerbacks coach Rod West welcomes the stressful situations Rodriguez's offense creates for them each practice.
"We tell our guys if we can get lined up, communicate and create those high-stress situations during practice, then the games will be easy," he explained. "Coach Rodriguez does a great job of setting the tone and tempo to play at a certain pace. We feel confident that if we can master that, get into condition and communicate, we should be in better shape to handle it during the game."
Although Alley's defense is pretty multiple, West said his cornerbacks try to remain consistent with their basic techniques. There might be certain buzz words for the different calls to help them along.
"Yes, there is a lot. We will look very multiple, and that's by design," he said. "Coach Alley does a great job of saying to the cornerbacks, 'I know we've got 10 calls going in today, but we're only playing two or three different techniques.' Once you teach them concepts instead of calls, they can kind of compartmentalize it and make the learning curve a little less steep."
The physical and mental components of the two schemes are basically one in the same, according to Trickett.
"Not only do we talk about being in great shape and the physical toughness, but it's also mental toughness and that's part of the mental toughness, the X and O aspect and the decisions that have to be made (quickly)," he explained. "We tell our guys all the time that the games are going to be easy. 'They're there - they are not moving all over the place' and I think that's why coach Rod and coach Alley get along so well because they're really the same person, just two different ways as far as their mentality of implementing what they do."
West Virginia wraps up the first week of training camp Saturday morning. Rodriguez and running backs coach Larry Porter are scheduled to meet with media in the Milan Puskar Center Team Room following practice.
No on-field activities are scheduled for Sunday.
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