Photo by: Raquel Rodriguez/Mountaineer Football
Saturday Scrimmage Recap
August 09, 2025 02:50 PM | Football
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia had its first major scrimmage of fall training camp Saturday morning inside Milan Puskar Stadium. Coach Rich Rodriguez said the team got about 100 plays in for the coaching staff to evaluate.
"Everybody was getting reps, which was good to see," he said. "Everybody was live, including the quarterbacks and they all got hit a little bit and we needed to see that."
Overall, Rodriguez thought it was a productive first scrimmage for his transfer-laden football squad.
"From a head coach standpoint, to see the defense win some and the offense win some, that's probably a pretty good thing," he said. "Now, it's on to the next thing."
Some scrimmage notables, according to Rodriguez:
* He thought all of the quarterbacks ran competitively today, but he also saw some eyes in the wrong places at times.
"There are a lot of decisions for them to make, so we've got to get that corrected," he observed. "I didn't see a lot of missed tackles; I thought we tackled okay. The one thing we did have was way too many penalties. We had a full Big 12 crew here and we had four or five procedure penalties, which should never happen. We had three or so holding penalties and those are like turnovers.
"We had a critical offsides on fourth and four, and that should never happen. Then we had one unsportsmanlike conduct after a touchdown," he added. "I just told the guy the next time that happens just keep running into the locker room."
* The tackling aspect of the scrimmage was actually an encouraging sign, according to Rodriguez.
"We've had a couple of live periods and part of it is being a dynamic receiver or runner and making you miss," he said. "I hope we have some of that and there were a couple of instances when we missed some tackles, but I thought we rallied to the ball okay on defense.
"We're still not getting enough push on the O-line up front in short yardage situations, and I think we're stalemating too much," Rodriguez mentioned. "We're not getting off the ball and changing the line of scrimmage in a lot of short yardage situations today."
* Both sides of the ball seemed to handle the game planning and scheming that went on today from the offenses and the defenses. Rodriguez said he's purposeful about not sharing plans before practices so both units can adjust on the fly.
"I normally restrict things when we've got the younger guys in there," he explained. "But hell, nowadays, is there really a younger group? Maybe next year there will be a younger group, but they're all new so I said, 'What the heck, just throw everything at them and just go out and play.'
"From an assignment standpoint, we missed a couple defensively, and then offensively, I didn't think there was a lot of missed assignments, but there were a couple easy ones that we can correct," he said. "We are not a walk and talk and teach type of tempo at practice.
"Now, we have walk-throughs, of course, every day and that's when we get our teaching done, but when we're practicing there is not a lot of slow, deliberate (play calls) because I want our practices to be short and crisp."
* The coach said he purposely had his assistants on the sidelines and not yelling out instructions so they could evaluate the players' ability to process things in real time today. "I didn't want them shouting out or yelling out what to do so those guys could be in game mode," he said.
* The coach said there was no live special teams work this morning, but that will be in the practice planning for next week.
"We kicked some field goals and punted a couple of times," he said. "I wanted to do more but we're going to have one day next week we will go live with special teams just to see what we've got there."
He mentioned place kicking right now is still a three-man battle between Coastal Carolina transfer Kade Hensley, Tulane transfer Ethan Head and holdover RJ Kocan.
"We've got three guys battling pretty good right there," he said. "It's all going to be earned. I need to put some pressure on our field goal kickers at the end of practice."
Both Head and Hensley have experience kicking field goals in college games, which is helpful.
The coach indicated Head is probably the "leader in the clubhouse" on kickoffs right now.
"That's one of the reasons (we brought him in). I don't know what his percentage was of touchbacks, but it was pretty high. He's got a strong leg," he said.
Generally, Rodriguez said he prefers his kickoffs to go into or through the end zone.
"If we can kick it out, we'll kick it out," he said. "Sometimes, if you've got wind in your face, you'll do an alternate kick, a sky kick or a squib kick or something like that. If you don't want them to have any return at all, you'll do a squib kick."
Typically, the leading kickoff coverage units in the country are the ones who don't cover a lot of kickoffs because their kicker has a strong enough leg to kick it deep into the end zone.
* Some of the cadence and ball get-off issues Rodriguez was concerned about earlier this week were improved this morning.
"Now, again, we had five procedure penalties," he noted. "Some of that was not the quarterback's cadence; some of it was our center wasn't consistent in his snaps. When the cadence goes the center should be snapping the ball, so we're still not consistent every time and the short yardage stuff, we ought to be in tune with that."
* Rodriguez thought having the Big 12 officiating crew on the field today was extremely helpful to him and his staff. "I was able to ask them some questions on how they were going to manage this or that, and some of them are seeing us for the first time and how we go about our business in a game," he explained. "I thought that was really valuable and we need more of that, for sure."
* The coach was asked specifically today about 6-foot-5, 288-pound Missouri transfer Eddie Kelly Jr., who has one year of college football eligibility left.
"He's a one-year guy we brought in to make an impact and he's worked hard," Rodriguez opined. "He's in better shape than he was when he got here. I think he loves football, but everything is different for him in a new system and all that. I think he's got a chance to contribute, and you can't have enough of those guys. Big guys who can maybe rush the passer, those are pretty valuable."
* Among the pass catchers, he singled out North Carolina tight end transfer Ryan Ward's performance during today's scrimmage. The 6-foot-4, 240-pound, redshirt freshman made a couple of touchdown catches during the team and situational portions of the scrimmage.
"Ryan Ward made a big catch and the tight ends looked like they had a pretty good day blocking," he observed. "All of the slot receivers had some big catches today. I don't know if we had any (catches) on the perimeter, but I thought the quarterbacks ran competitively.
"This was really the first time they were live," he added. "Sometimes they ran a little sideways, but I thought they were pretty competitive running today."
* As far as first scrimmages go, Rodriguez thought some of the penalties were to be expected with a full officiating crew on the field and the coaches on the sidelines.
"I think we put the ball on the ground twice, which is totally unacceptable, and defensively, I don't think we attacked the ball as much as we can," he said. "That's a big point of emphasis at all levels – guys that are punching the ball, tackling the ball and getting it out, especially in short yardage situations. For a first scrimmage, there is plenty to teach off of."
* The coach thought redshirt freshman running back Diore Hubbard showed a few things today and there were a few more running backs available to work with this morning. He mentioned a couple of times that the backs needed to stick their foot in the ground and get the required yardage in short-yardage situations.
Presently, the one missing piece in the backfield is a bigger, physical runner to help with that. The quarterbacks are the biggest ball carriers on the team right now.
"We are still actively recruiting (running backs)," Rodriguez said. "When does school start, the 20th? So, we'll see."
* Defensive coordinator Zac Alley gave his instant analysis of today's practice as well.
"We started fast," he said. "The first couple of series we got off the field and did a good job executing and near the end of practice I felt like we just fell off a little bit. I challenged the guys afterward just to maintain from the first play of the first quarter to the last play of the fourth quarter. Both are important and you don't know which one is going to win the game."
Overall, the tackling from his guys was encouraging.
"It was one of the better overall first scrimmages I've had," he admitted. "Usually, you get out there the first day and you are whiffing left and right because you haven't actually had to go body-on-body at any point up to that time, but I felt like, overall, we tackled pretty well today compared to first scrimmages of the past. Hopefully we can build on that."
* Alley said he front-loads the installation of his defensive packages and expects his guys to know everything as soon as possible.
"I tell them, 'Just because you are a freshman linebacker, it doesn't mean Robert Morris puts a freshman running back in, so you better be able to execute all the calls the same way,'" he explained. "The expectation is everybody knows everything that we do every time. I'd say some of the older guys who are more experienced definitely have a good grasp, and some of the younger guys it's probably a little fast for them. The good news is we still have three weeks until we play."
No on-field activities are scheduled for Sunday.
"Everybody was getting reps, which was good to see," he said. "Everybody was live, including the quarterbacks and they all got hit a little bit and we needed to see that."
Overall, Rodriguez thought it was a productive first scrimmage for his transfer-laden football squad.
"From a head coach standpoint, to see the defense win some and the offense win some, that's probably a pretty good thing," he said. "Now, it's on to the next thing."
Some scrimmage notables, according to Rodriguez:
* He thought all of the quarterbacks ran competitively today, but he also saw some eyes in the wrong places at times.
"There are a lot of decisions for them to make, so we've got to get that corrected," he observed. "I didn't see a lot of missed tackles; I thought we tackled okay. The one thing we did have was way too many penalties. We had a full Big 12 crew here and we had four or five procedure penalties, which should never happen. We had three or so holding penalties and those are like turnovers.
"We had a critical offsides on fourth and four, and that should never happen. Then we had one unsportsmanlike conduct after a touchdown," he added. "I just told the guy the next time that happens just keep running into the locker room."
* The tackling aspect of the scrimmage was actually an encouraging sign, according to Rodriguez.
"We've had a couple of live periods and part of it is being a dynamic receiver or runner and making you miss," he said. "I hope we have some of that and there were a couple of instances when we missed some tackles, but I thought we rallied to the ball okay on defense.
"We're still not getting enough push on the O-line up front in short yardage situations, and I think we're stalemating too much," Rodriguez mentioned. "We're not getting off the ball and changing the line of scrimmage in a lot of short yardage situations today."
* Both sides of the ball seemed to handle the game planning and scheming that went on today from the offenses and the defenses. Rodriguez said he's purposeful about not sharing plans before practices so both units can adjust on the fly.
"I normally restrict things when we've got the younger guys in there," he explained. "But hell, nowadays, is there really a younger group? Maybe next year there will be a younger group, but they're all new so I said, 'What the heck, just throw everything at them and just go out and play.'
"From an assignment standpoint, we missed a couple defensively, and then offensively, I didn't think there was a lot of missed assignments, but there were a couple easy ones that we can correct," he said. "We are not a walk and talk and teach type of tempo at practice.
"Now, we have walk-throughs, of course, every day and that's when we get our teaching done, but when we're practicing there is not a lot of slow, deliberate (play calls) because I want our practices to be short and crisp."
* The coach said he purposely had his assistants on the sidelines and not yelling out instructions so they could evaluate the players' ability to process things in real time today. "I didn't want them shouting out or yelling out what to do so those guys could be in game mode," he said.
* The coach said there was no live special teams work this morning, but that will be in the practice planning for next week.
"We kicked some field goals and punted a couple of times," he said. "I wanted to do more but we're going to have one day next week we will go live with special teams just to see what we've got there."
He mentioned place kicking right now is still a three-man battle between Coastal Carolina transfer Kade Hensley, Tulane transfer Ethan Head and holdover RJ Kocan.
"We've got three guys battling pretty good right there," he said. "It's all going to be earned. I need to put some pressure on our field goal kickers at the end of practice."
Both Head and Hensley have experience kicking field goals in college games, which is helpful.
The coach indicated Head is probably the "leader in the clubhouse" on kickoffs right now.
"That's one of the reasons (we brought him in). I don't know what his percentage was of touchbacks, but it was pretty high. He's got a strong leg," he said.
Generally, Rodriguez said he prefers his kickoffs to go into or through the end zone.
"If we can kick it out, we'll kick it out," he said. "Sometimes, if you've got wind in your face, you'll do an alternate kick, a sky kick or a squib kick or something like that. If you don't want them to have any return at all, you'll do a squib kick."
Typically, the leading kickoff coverage units in the country are the ones who don't cover a lot of kickoffs because their kicker has a strong enough leg to kick it deep into the end zone.
* Some of the cadence and ball get-off issues Rodriguez was concerned about earlier this week were improved this morning.
"Now, again, we had five procedure penalties," he noted. "Some of that was not the quarterback's cadence; some of it was our center wasn't consistent in his snaps. When the cadence goes the center should be snapping the ball, so we're still not consistent every time and the short yardage stuff, we ought to be in tune with that."
* Rodriguez thought having the Big 12 officiating crew on the field today was extremely helpful to him and his staff. "I was able to ask them some questions on how they were going to manage this or that, and some of them are seeing us for the first time and how we go about our business in a game," he explained. "I thought that was really valuable and we need more of that, for sure."
* The coach was asked specifically today about 6-foot-5, 288-pound Missouri transfer Eddie Kelly Jr., who has one year of college football eligibility left.
"He's a one-year guy we brought in to make an impact and he's worked hard," Rodriguez opined. "He's in better shape than he was when he got here. I think he loves football, but everything is different for him in a new system and all that. I think he's got a chance to contribute, and you can't have enough of those guys. Big guys who can maybe rush the passer, those are pretty valuable."
* Among the pass catchers, he singled out North Carolina tight end transfer Ryan Ward's performance during today's scrimmage. The 6-foot-4, 240-pound, redshirt freshman made a couple of touchdown catches during the team and situational portions of the scrimmage.
"Ryan Ward made a big catch and the tight ends looked like they had a pretty good day blocking," he observed. "All of the slot receivers had some big catches today. I don't know if we had any (catches) on the perimeter, but I thought the quarterbacks ran competitively.
"This was really the first time they were live," he added. "Sometimes they ran a little sideways, but I thought they were pretty competitive running today."
* As far as first scrimmages go, Rodriguez thought some of the penalties were to be expected with a full officiating crew on the field and the coaches on the sidelines.
"I think we put the ball on the ground twice, which is totally unacceptable, and defensively, I don't think we attacked the ball as much as we can," he said. "That's a big point of emphasis at all levels – guys that are punching the ball, tackling the ball and getting it out, especially in short yardage situations. For a first scrimmage, there is plenty to teach off of."
* The coach thought redshirt freshman running back Diore Hubbard showed a few things today and there were a few more running backs available to work with this morning. He mentioned a couple of times that the backs needed to stick their foot in the ground and get the required yardage in short-yardage situations.
Presently, the one missing piece in the backfield is a bigger, physical runner to help with that. The quarterbacks are the biggest ball carriers on the team right now.
"We are still actively recruiting (running backs)," Rodriguez said. "When does school start, the 20th? So, we'll see."
* Defensive coordinator Zac Alley gave his instant analysis of today's practice as well.
"We started fast," he said. "The first couple of series we got off the field and did a good job executing and near the end of practice I felt like we just fell off a little bit. I challenged the guys afterward just to maintain from the first play of the first quarter to the last play of the fourth quarter. Both are important and you don't know which one is going to win the game."
Overall, the tackling from his guys was encouraging.
"It was one of the better overall first scrimmages I've had," he admitted. "Usually, you get out there the first day and you are whiffing left and right because you haven't actually had to go body-on-body at any point up to that time, but I felt like, overall, we tackled pretty well today compared to first scrimmages of the past. Hopefully we can build on that."
* Alley said he front-loads the installation of his defensive packages and expects his guys to know everything as soon as possible.
"I tell them, 'Just because you are a freshman linebacker, it doesn't mean Robert Morris puts a freshman running back in, so you better be able to execute all the calls the same way,'" he explained. "The expectation is everybody knows everything that we do every time. I'd say some of the older guys who are more experienced definitely have a good grasp, and some of the younger guys it's probably a little fast for them. The good news is we still have three weeks until we play."
No on-field activities are scheduled for Sunday.
Players Mentioned
K
/ Football
K
/ Football
RB
/ Football
DL
/ Football
Rich Rodriguez | Dec. 3
Wednesday, December 03
Reid Carrico | Nov. 29
Saturday, November 29
Jeff Weimer | Nov. 29
Saturday, November 29
Rich Rodriguez | Nov. 29
Saturday, November 29
