Yesterday, newly named WVU football head coach Rich Rodriguez opened up his press conference with an interesting twist.
In Rodriguez’s opening statement, he mentioned the first practice starting on Tuesday, but, shouted out not only his players but his strength and conditioning coaches as well.
“The guys have been doing a really great job in the weight room,” said Rodriguez, “and with the strength staff, I am really pleased with the work they have done.”
In his inaugural press conference in the Coliseum, Rodriguez talked about how his team is going to be tough and put in hard work not only on the practice field but in the weight room as well.
Despite being proud of his players and the hard work they have been putting in, Rodriguez highlighted a problem many fans expected him to face.
“A lot of new guys, still trying to learn all of their names,” said Rodriguez.
This challenge was expected. With the transfer rates being at an all-time high, new guys transfer in and out of every university on a yearly basis. However, an increased amount of departures means that there are more opportunities for the new players. Rodriguez said that there are “a lot of wide-open competitions, I think, at every position.”
Having a wide open area of competition is not a usual situation that can be seen at many schools. However, this was expected for West Virginia as the firing of Neal Brown led to key losses in the transfer portal. Wide receiver Hudson Clement transferred to play for the Fighting Illini of Illinois and star defensive back Jeremiah Trotter transferred to Missouri.
“I don’t think there is a single returning full-time starter on defense and maybe only two on offense,” said Rodriguez. “It might be the least in the country.”
If that is true, that is a highly unique position for any coach to be in and Rodriguez knows that.
“I don’t know if I ever remember not having any on defense and only one or two on offense, but, that’s why we have spring practice and why we recruit,” said Rodriguez.
Spring practice and the spring game are important preparation phases every college football team goes through before every season. Both phases allow coaches to evaluate their talent, prepare their schemes for the season, and see how the players apply the schemes in a game. This information helps coaches build their lineups and adjust their schemes to fit those lineups to create a winning football team.
“It’s our first spring together. There’s always a little more evaluation,” said Rodriguez. “Typically the second and third year, there is less evaluation because you know your roster. Part of spring is obviously evaluation and seeing what we got and then the other part is teaching and the schemes and the fundamentals.”
However, Rodriguez is not excited about the spring game for reasons many fans would not expect. Before the portal, teams had to worry about not showing too much of their schemes and plays, but according to Rich Rodriguez, the concern is much different as now you do not want scouts to see your players.
“This is because there is tampering, it is rampant,” said Rodriguez. “You know you don’t see tampering in the NFL because you’ll lose draft picks, you’ll get fined. But in college, you don’t see anyone get in trouble for tampering.”
This is why some coaches have opted to simply not have a spring game. For example, head coach Matt Rhule at Nebraska has opted not to have a spring game this year because he does not want other teams to be able to evaluate and steal players from his roster.
“I can see their points,” said Rodriguez. “I got this guy who is really good, and he goes out there and shows out, somebody is going to offer him half a million dollars and take him from your program.”
Rodriguez and his staff want fans to watch their players, but is worried about the lack of structure to keep tampering away.
“If they don’t direct tamper, they will do it through a high school coach or do it through somebody in the community or through an agent or something,” said Rodriguez.
This year’s spring game will look much different than they have looked in the past, as Rodriguez is adamant about preventing players from having show-out performances in front of other scouts. Tampering has been an accusation thrown around the college football world for the past few years, but when high-profile coaches like Rodriguez come out and publicly address those rumors and state that they are true, it makes many fans think about the integrity of college football, a sport that the country loves that now has been turned into a money grab.
