Rich Rodriguez Press Conference August 5th

Okay, well, I know we're gonna get 1,000 true football questions. But with the new rulings on the five for five stuff, you get some guys that could come back that weren't around until maybe this week. So, what's happening there? I don't know if that, I mean, it is kind of chaotic that it's gonna happen right where everybody does their camp, and I don't know if it's, I know the NCAA's appealing it, so I don't know if you can add or not. We're certainly not gonna cut anybody, cuz I don't think that would be right. So, the guys that worked hard all summer and spring, and they're on the roster now, they're gonna be on the roster. We have a couple spots open that we could add a guy or two, but right now we just have it on pause. There's still, there's guys that are, I guess, could be in a portal maybe too that you could get. So, we're researching it. We're talking to a few that might be eligible, but we're not adding anybody right now for sure. Now, 24 hours from now, maybe we do, but cuz there are a couple that are eligible, or at least could return for a fifth year that were here last year. But isn't it crazy that it's still going on right now? But right now, my focus and our main focus is getting these guys, the guys that have been here, ready to play. But I got enough people on the staff to make sure that we're checking that out too. So, how did day one go? Go to- Yeah, I think it went all right. I think probably I should have been as expected, though. I always think we're gonna be in better shape than that we are, and we're in decent shape, but not in good enough shape to go 20 periods without somebody loafing. So, we'll have some unpleasant film moments maybe. But I think the guys are really conscientious, and they can see what we can improve at, and we'll be better tomorrow. So, we got some good work in today. The weather is just unreal from so nice out there. I mean, 75 degrees, no humidity. I mean, if anybody's ever practiced in the south and in the humidity, I mean, this is like a vacation, holy cow. So, I don't expect us to have guys not be able to make it through a practice in this kind of weather, so we'll get better every day. Can you talk a little bit about some of the challenges with that eligibility issue where it's a really fluent situation, like one day these guys are eligible and one day they aren't? What do you think the ultimate solution to that problem is? Well, I think we have some solutions in DC, hopefully it'll pass. And I think our athletic directors have a good grasp on it. I think another solution is maybe listen to some coaches and try to do some things that maybe the coaches advise. But everybody recognizes the craziness that's been going on the last couple years, and so we're hopeful that we'll get some positive news out of DC in the next week or so, or whenever that happens. But this will be, as I said, we'll look back at this ten years from now, because it's not sustainable what we're doing. The chaos you went through, kind of like the COVID year, the chaos you went through that year, but this is even crazier than that in a lot of ways, so just tell us what the rules are so we can know and go forward. And right now, there's not a whole lot of rules that everybody's sticking to, it seems like. I know it's day one of fall camp, but from your mindset now off of the spring and what you know and have seen evaluating all off season, etc. How is this different, even your vibe of this team and your thought process in comparison to year one? Yeah, I mean, I kind of like, I thought we'd have a better practice today. Just what I've seen throughout the summer a little bit, but I do. I have to watch the film to have a true drama on how today went. I didn't think it was great, I didn't think it was awful. But I told the team, there's not a lot of people predicting us to do very well, and I hope that's motivation, and it should be motivation. When people are picking last or next to last, whoever it is, but I'd rather have discipline, because motivation is good for a little bit. But I'd rather have the type of discipline you need to have to win. Because discipline is greater motivation, because it's there all the time. So that's what we talked about. We have a lot of things that motivate us, and that's good. But we have to have the proper discipline to get to where we want this program to be. And that's a process, but the next two weeks are gonna be, that's my job, our staff's job, to get that kind of environment going in our program. Thought about how you're gonna treat the quarterbacks. I know last year you tackled them a little bit. When you get down the road into pads, what are you gonna do there? Yeah, they probably won't be as live much. We probably won't go as live much as a team. Cuz we've had a lot of these guys here throughout spring ball. Now, we'll have a couple scrimmages, so you gotta tackle a little bit. It's like, I know a lot of NFL teams, they don't go live during camp, but they have preseason games. So we'll have some live physical times, and we'll go live during some scrimmages. But I'm not sure I'm gonna have the quarterbacks get hit, unless it looks like maybe they need that to make sure they're doing the proper ball security stuff, and playing with the right type of discipline, I should say. But I don't think we need to beat our quarterbacks up to prove their toughness. I like the toughness that we have from our quarterbacks. But everybody's punching the ball out, quarterbacks gotta learn to carry it. So there's gonna be times where they gotta get banged around, see if they can have the proper ball security. And I don't know, I trained bad, and then we had the first in a lifetime, three straight turnovers, fumbles, and three straight possessions in our opening game last year. And that was really embarrassing, so I'm trying to think what caused that. But I look back at our thing, and we had some live practices, so that shouldn't have been the issue. Our defense is gonna do a good job of trying to poke the ball out, and we gotta do a good job with offensively securing it. You have a better feel for their decision making, I guess, than maybe last year at this time? Yeah, I think so. I mean, Scotty and Max has been in it now, this is the first year for Mike. And so he's still learning the decision making process of it, all that. But he's a smart guy. So I feel good where they're at with that. But we got a whole bunch of new guys again. Sometimes I forget that this is their first. Even though they may have been here through spring ball, this is their first training camp. And so it's not three days and off to some place with their own little private deal. It's two weeks, and it's just two weeks of practice and have some extra meeting time. So it's not like a true training camp per se. But we've got to develop our football team in the next two weeks. And that's coaches, players, everybody. When it comes to developing the team, can you talk about where you are, where you think this team is most improved from last year? Or then kind of like where do you think your biggest areas of concern are going into camp? I don't know, I think the concern is that it's the first year, first season for a lot of guys. Now, we don't have 40 seniors like we had last year. So we got, I don't know, what, we have 16 or 17 seniors. So we'll have a lot of the guys back, I think, unless they get bought out somewhere or whatever the case may be. But I think we're getting closer to developing the type of culture, environment that we want. But I can't make that statement after one practice. I would like to say, if you ask me this in two weeks, say, hey, is the environment, the attitude, I say attitude, I say the environment, the intensity, how hard they play, is it where you think you should be after two weeks? If I'm not sure then, then I have concerns. But I think in two weeks, they'll be where I want them to be, if that makes sense. I know you mentioned the low expectations. And historically, this program's had some of the best years ever. Yeah, it's been a good time, I know. Yourself. But are you at all surprised, based on the success of the offseason, the roster being even rated better, and the success you had in recruiting, that you're exposed to have the same record? Yeah, but I don't, you know, I don't really, I mean, now that's good talking points for fans and for you all to do that. But, you know, I've never really worried about where that was. I mean, like I said, you could probably say, well, they pick you to not to be very good. That should be great motivation. Like I said, well, that's OK. Does that motivate you anymore? No, you're going to work as hard as you're supposed to work, no matter where they pick you, whether you pick your first or last. But I do think you have to have the right kind of discipline and mindset to prove yourself. And if you ever get to the point where you feel like you have nothing to prove, you ought to quit the game as a coach or a player. I never understood it. I said, well, I don't have nothing to prove, I'm just going to go out there. If they're keeping the score, you got something to prove. And we all have something to prove, you know, irregardless of whatever happened last week, last year, ten years ago, whatever it may be. You mentioned two weeks. I think I counted up, I think eight practices before school starts. So you got basically what? Yeah, that ain't nothing, is it? I mean, can you imagine that? 16 hours of field time, right? It's not. And that's why you have to, I guess, more, not just our players, our staff has to understand, you got to have a sense of urgency. It ain't like, OK, you got three weeks or two days and you'll get it sorted out, whatever. I mean, the time frame is less. And it is what it is. And we've known that. And they've had time to work in the summer. But we didn't practice in the summer. The coaches weren't around a whole bunch, you know, in the month of July. And so there's got to be a sense of urgency amongst the staff, amongst the players that, oh, we're not, OK, we'll be there in two weeks. It's got to be like, whatever we did wrong today, let's correct tomorrow. Because we'll make mistakes tomorrow and we've got to correct that the next day. So, you know, I don't know if everybody has a sense of urgency that I have. But they probably hear about it. You know, you know, at the end of practice or coming up in the staff meeting. So but that's just I mean, that's that's my job is to have everybody involved in our program to have the same sense of urgency to get this thing where we want it to get. And that's that's like now, you know, like everybody in our program, he's understanding everybody supports our program needs to understand that. I know there's urgency in my fans and there's urgency when people want us to do well, and I appreciate that. And we got to have a greater sense of urgency in this program to get it right. You talked about trimming stuff down in the spring. Is that the same approach here? Yeah, we cut it down. But I mean, I cut it down to what we trimmed down. But that didn't help today. I think when you're my expectation is for Chris. You know, execution on the very first day of practice. And my expectation was too high. Did not having that spring portal kind of like raise your expectations, you kind of knew from the spring that you're going to have that entire team. Well, yeah, you kind of knew what you had. That was the biggest difference. You had these guys. So they've had time over the summer to learn. And I don't think we made a lot of. You know, again, I watch the film here a little bit, but I don't think we made a lot of mental mistakes. A lot of them. There were some. But still playing at the I guess my expectation, we're going to go out there and almost be like in game week shape. I should have never thought that we're not going to be there. And, you know, we'll get we'll be there here in a week or two. But today it was, like I said, 75 degrees, no humidity, beautiful weather, you know, simple schemes. It wasn't in there. There were times where guys were just, you know, had to get pulled out. So, you know, I know our tempo is a little bit different and my expectations are a little bit higher. The good part about it is I think we have a bunch of really conscientious players and obviously a conscientious staff and we'll get that fixed and heard. If you wind up with Michael, a quarterback and Cam, a tailback, how similar will that be to Pat and Slayton when you have them on afternoon? Or how much has it changed since then? Yeah, I think it's shifted a little bit. Obviously, you know, Pat came in redshirt a year. So he had a year to kind of learn before he played. And Stevie was a true freshman. And he was just a freaky speed guy. I mean, he was so fast that he once he learned it, you know, he was going to go. But it was the kind of a unique comment to those guys were probably the two fastest guys on the team. And Mike's probably one of the fastest. Cam can run, but the best thing about Cam, he has a great feel for the position, whether it's pass protection, running routes, where he's supposed to press on the hole and all that kind of stuff. So he's an experienced football player, but he's a freshman rookie in our system. And so is Mike. So it's both theirs. They have not played a game for West Virginia yet. So I got to remind myself, hey, listen, they've got some experience at this level, but they haven't played for West Virginia yet. But we're going to force feed them, because I think both of those guys are good players. Do you compare Cam to Colbert a little bit? He's probably closer to Avon than than Stevie or Quincy or or one of those guys or Noel. You know, he's he's he's kind of more like the Avon stuff because Avon was just a really good football player in all aspects. All those guys were. We've always had great backs here. But Cam and we got some young guys. I really think they're going to be pretty exciting to watch. But Cam's the leader of the group. And he's got a great feel for already for what we're doing. What what have you changed? Have you made many changes defensively other than personnel? I mean, yeah. Well, yeah, the whole personnel thing. Here's a whole bunch of new guys about every spot. And then Coach Ali's got a few things, a few things new. It's not a whole lot, but he's got a few things new that he's doing. What we hope to do is get our guys to really understand, you know, why we're doing stuff. I think that's the biggest thing with with newcomers that they'll know what to do. But I want them to know why we're doing it. And that's next two weeks before school starts is when we got to get that done. One of the new rules is going to basically eliminate red shirts. You may not think of who's red shirting now in the past, but eventually you would. Well, it can't go past four games now. You don't even think about it in the future. And I never really thought about it before, because like, well, am I going to red shirt and save him for the next coach? You know what I'm saying? So if he can help us win games, shoot, I don't care what year he is, you know, but the five or five makes sense. The one time transfer thing makes sense that that that goes through. Like I said, this this thing that's in D.C. now to protect College Sports Act is a lot of people put a lot of hard work in it. And, you know, does it fix everything? No. But does it fix a little things that we need to fix like immediately? Yes, I think it does eventually. But it's it is it's crazy. And who knows if that'll get passed through both both chambers? I don't know if it doesn't, man. It's going to be some more chaos going on for the next few years. What's that? Go ahead. You were on a pretty heavy class this year, freshman. Yeah. And you have players like, you know, Ben Cutter, who are going to be able to come back a year now with the five for five. And then you have a lot of transfers in that same position that might just play two or three years. How big is the five for five for you with this roster makeup that you have right now? Yeah, I don't know if it's that big of a deal, really. Anyway, I mean, you evaluate your roster after every season. So you've got to know how many spots you're going to have. So. I don't I don't think it's a not really change our philosophy. We've got a really good class committed right now. Hope to hang on to those guys. And I think we'll have a lot of spots for all of them, of course. And, you know, there'll be things happen. There'll be guys, hopefully not too many. But if we if we if we pick the right guys and pay the right guys, you know, that have the ability to come back, then that'll be good because they'll be better next year, another year in the system. And that we'll be able to grow that more than we ever this year. This year we had because of the nature of the situation, we had to replace a lot of the roster again. It's a whole lot easier to coach a guy in his second or third year in the system. And that's kind of our thought process was going on with this past class. There's a proposal out right now to modify the calendar for next year, both recruiting and practices. Yeah, it's kind of like NFL thing has some practices in the summer. We should we should bottle as much out the NFL as we can. I mean, we're everybody doesn't want to say you don't want to professionalize it. Well, I don't know if when you're paying guys, is that kind of not professionalizing it? Are you kidding me? So we need to have, you know, it makes sense to have kind of a. Pro model, they're still going to class to get their degrees, I hope, but but they can still do that and we can maybe have 10 practices and I would think it would be a lot better would it would be a lot less painful in our first practice like today because you could go out there and do, you know, an hour worth of drill work in the summer. It ain't the same as having a practice, you know. And I say that every year and I told the coaches yesterday, I said, I think our guys are in pretty good shape. They look like they're in pretty good shape and all that. And we've we've seen throughout the summer. But I said, I promise you, at the end of first practice, I'll probably be mad and saying we are not in shape. We ain't ready to play a game. You know, in 29 years of head coach, I've probably been 29 for 29 saying that after the first practice, you know, like I guess I was just looking through rose colored glasses thinking, man, we're going to be in game shape very first day. And hell, we are, you know, we're not. For days like today, when there's not 11 on 11 or whether it is there's still some there's some team, but you know, that's part of it's in shorts, it's not it's all tag. And, you know, with all the new guys, you got to teach them how to tag. You know, in the NFL, you don't those guys know you're if you're being an idiot during tag, you're not going to grab a guy, throw him on the ground or something. They'll cut you. You know, I mean, so we have to teach our guys how to play, how to tag. And it's hard in football to have a tag practice in shorts with any kind of intensity. But and that part wasn't as bad today. I didn't think I thought our guys did a good job of knowing how we want to do that. It was just we got the last few periods of practice. And, you know, there were guys who like, you know, a little more winded than they should have been. But again, they've not gone through a 20 period practice. And at our kind of intensity, I guess you could have. So we'll learn from your position. Coaches are watching those two. There's things that you'll review or that they'll review to correct. Oh, yeah, we're going to watch if I have, you know, it's like day at the movies. I I I'll meet with the whole offense, probably at least all the skill guys myself and the coaches will be in there, too. But just so everybody's on the same page, our coaches understand it. And our players do, too. It's not like they don't understand, but they don't realize it until you watch the film and that. Oh, man, I probably could have played a little harder on that snap. You know, I mean, that's that's our job to get that going. Do a lot of freshmen here in the spring. They catch on, they get more comfortable to do some more in the summer. They get better. Is it probably still freshmen at this point right now? They are until they play some games. And that's that's a fair point. I think until they really sometimes you think, oh, they're ready because you see them in practice and some of them are mature beyond their years. But until they really play some games, do you really know where they're at? But we're going to play. There's a bunch of that freshman class that that we really like. And they're going to play. And I want to play more people than anybody in the country. I mean, that's I told the team that yesterday, you know. I want to play whatever 80 guys in a game I want to play, but I'm not going to play just to play. You got to be good enough to win with. I don't want to be concerned in my first team. So you guys are always concerned about who's the starter, who's second. I want to be. They're good enough to win what they play. And it's as simple as that. And if they're not good enough to win with the coaches, the coaches and the players got to both work to get them to that level. But I want if you're good enough to win with you play because you all all what's going on, no matter what the player is getting paid, no matter what kind of attention he's getting. They're not happy when they're not playing. And then when they're happy, when they are, you know, they at least have an opportunity to show what they can do. Well, it's on the coaches and on the players. To get themselves ready to win with so they can play. And we have a lot of guys, I think, that have that ability to play. And but they've got basically three weeks now to prove that that we can do that with. Maybe you already answered this then, because these first couple of practices, it's almost like a second chance in the first impression for a lot of them to see where they've come from, where you left them off in the spring. But it's up until the first scrimmage to play. Every day is an impression. Every day. The best players I've ever coached, they were good every day. They didn't have bad days. They didn't like, you know, they may not. They may have got like maybe dropped the pass or does something. But every day they played a certain level. And that's to me. I don't say that's the challenges, coaches, that we have to do to get our players understand there's not like, oh, they take this one play off and that's OK. And that's who our that's what our program's got to be. Are you considering players playing both ways, the offense and defense? Yeah, if they're if they're in shape and they're good enough to help us win by doing it, we can. And there's there's not a lot of guys sick is one of them, you know, but they've they've all got their one main spot. They got to learn to be really good at. But if you can help us play a couple of ways and you're in good enough shape and smart enough to do it, then. Yeah, we'll do it on occasion, but that's probably. A week and a half or two weeks down the road before you entertain that. OK, thank you very much.