Today marks day number five of spring practice for football and in his press conference, you could tell there were feelings of stress and frustration on the side of Rich Rodriguez as he is still unsure about his team’s capabilities.
To open his press conference, Rodriguez was asked if he has a feel for what his team, his Quarterback in particular, can or cannot do, and his reply was somewhat as expected with such a deep Quarterback room.
“Not yet,” said Rodriguez, “that’s part of our goal at the end of spring, to find obviously what quarterbacks and what routes they like and what plays they run the best.” This is a universal struggle at the start of each college football season, no matter what because there are always new players being added onto the field at any given position. However, Rich Rodriguez states that the Quarterback’s comfort starts with the guys on the Offensive Line doing their part as well. “It starts up front,” said Rodriguez, “what we can do well up front and all of that, so that’s going to be a work in progress.”
Fortunately, though, Rodriguez has plenty of time to handle a work-in-progress type of situation as they are still not even a full week into spring practices. Rodriguez still has all of Spring practice, Summer camp, and the beginning of fall to fix the mistakes, shake off the rust, and oil up the machine that is going to be a new and improved football team. Timetable-wise that is what coach Rodriguez wants, but nobody truly knows the timetable for these kinds of obstacles as some teams deal with these kinds of problems throughout the duration of their season. “I probably won’t really know that until two weeks into summer camp in August,” said Rodriguez, “so right now I have no idea.”
Despite the early frustrations and obstacles imposed on a new football coach, Rich Rodriguez has proved in the past that he knows how to create not only a winning culture but an unstoppable football team as well. While the season is still months away, and there is no immediate cause for panic. The offensive issues should be something to keep an eye on moving forward in the unlikely situation that they do not display any signs of improvement.
