MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia's first day in pads presented a mixed bag for West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez, who met with media in the Milan Puskar Center team room afterward.

He said the team got about 20 to 25 minutes of live scrimmaging up on the Steve Antoline Family Practice Field before ending it prematurely. The players concluded practice with some extra conditioning work supervised by their coach.

"There was some live tackling, which should bring a certain level of intensity, but also a certain level of true football," he said. "I probably would have gone a little bit longer, but I got mad at something and just made them run for 10 or 15 minutes."

Rodriguez mentioned quarterbacks were not hit today but will be when the team has its next fully padded practice on Thursday.

The plan for the rest of the week includes shorts on Wednesday and a team scrimmage on Saturday.

"There were way too many moments of softness, and it's not everybody all the time, or the same guy all the time, but it just can't ever be allowed," the coach said. "Sometimes, our guys don't even realize that they're being soft. Their version of going hard and ours hasn't quite measured up all the time.

"But I still like our guys; I like our team, and I think they're very conscientious," he added. "On Thursday when we go in pads, I think it will improve a notch, and then Saturday when we scrimmage is when we've got to really get after it and take another step."

Rodriguez said his discussions with his offensive staff will include paring down some of the things they are doing and focusing on doing their base stuff better.

"I'm always overly ambitious with our install and inevitably, we can't get the things right that we wanted to do on the first day," he said. "I go back and say, 'Why do we have all these plays? All we've got to do is run 10 or 12 of them really good and then have options off of them.' That will be part of my discussions with the offensive staff."

Upon reflection, the veteran coach admitted he probably felt the same way about his football team after six practices last year that he does today.

In reality, his concerns today are probably not much different than during the 2005 season when he led the Mountaineers to a Sugar Bowl victory over Georgia, or in 2007 when he had the Mountaineers No. 1 in the coaches' poll near the end of the year, or at Arizona in 2014 when the Wildcats won the Pac-12 South and played in the Fiesta Bowl.

"I keep notes, and if I look back at my notebook from last August after practice six, I probably have the same notes written in there," he said. "It was probably around the same spot with a little frustration here and there, a little optimism and that's kind of where I'm at right now.

"I've got a little frustration and some optimism, so that's probably where it was at the year before that, and back in 2005 and everywhere else," he added.

Personnel-wise, Rodriguez said they are still evaluating the transfer portal to see if there are any fits before the fall semester officially begins on Wednesday, Aug. 20.

He indicated they are looking at specific positions to help with depth concerns.

"We're finding who's out there, if they're eligible, if they're interested and do we want to try and bring them in now?" he said. "There is a running back or two, an O-lineman or two that we are looking at, and I told our recruiting staff, 'Just keep looking.' It's hard to add now because they will be so far behind, but we have some concerns about depth at certain positions, and we've got to make sure that we're addressing them."

Following Rodriguez on the interview dais were defensive line coach William Green and wide receivers coach Ryan Garrett to talk about their positions.

Green believes his group has done a good job improving their fundamentals from last spring and he's pleased with where they are six practices into fall camp.

"The big thing is we try and cross-train everybody, and our guys have got to know all the (defensive line) positions," he explained. "It requires a lot of teaching, and it's my job to make it simple for our guys. Coach (Zac) Alley does multiple things and part of my job is to make things simple for the players so they can play fast and aggressive."

Green says there is some carry over with the returning veteran players such as Eddie Vesterinen, Hammond Russell IV and Asani Redwood.

"Football is football in a lot of ways," Green explained. "They did some things differently last year, I believe, although I'm not overly familiar with last year's scheme. I'm trying to stay focused on what we're doing now and getting our guys to understand and focus on the concepts and the plays that we're doing."

Garrett's receivers this year are a blend of returning players, Jacksonville State transfers and other transfer portal performers he's working into the rotation.

"The big thing for us, and they know this because it's every group on the team, we're asking them to go out there every day and play as hard as they can for two hours," Garrett said. "We have a lot of new guys, some guys that have been with us and some guys that were here in the spring. A lot of the new guys have bought in, and they are doing a good job with that.

"It's always exciting as a coach to have so many guys that are competing, and we don't have any solidified starters," he said. "Every day, these guys go out there, in their mind they are competing to play, and that's the reality of it. We're watching and grading everything, so that's exciting for me to see them compete."

Garrett said the process will boil down to the consistency and trust he has with his players.

"The biggest thing is we've got to get guys to consistently play the way we expect them to play," he explained. "We grade practice and we're going to be up here late, and we watch everything. We're grading production, effort, strain, are you getting your block? How many yards are you getting? How many explosives are you getting?

"Obviously, that all comes into play, but the guys that are going to be out there are the guys we're relying on, and we feel like we can count on them," he said. "If I know that you are going to do your job, that is what is going to get you on the field.

"The list is starting to narrow a little bit, but to these guy's credit, they are competing every day," he concluded.