West Virginia Head Coach Rich Rodriguez addressed the media at his weekly press conference prior to the Ohio game and here is a summary of what was said.
–The team played hard but didn’t play well with three fumbles against Robert Morris. The players didn’t panic and put the team away like they should have. A lot to work on and get better at but from here on the challenges get a lot tougher. They will have a tough, physical practice today.
–Offensive line played hard but they didn’t get as much push as they wanted. Assignment wise they were OK. The wide receivers did a pretty good job blocking but they didn’t do a whole lot scheme wise or play wise throughout the game but they were solid.
–Halftime adjustments are overrated, they didn’t change their plays they held onto the football.
–Nicco Marchiol was in control and did a nice job. The others had some explosive runs and they all went in there and did some nice stuff.
–Rodriguez doesn’t believe there is a lot of carryover from week to week. But he wanted to play more people and put the game away earlier.
–Parker Navarro is one of the best in the country. He can take the play that’s off and make something out of it. They were the best team in the MAC last year. Their culture is already established because the staff that returned and it’s going to be a big challenge. They have to learn to be comfortable being uncomfortable. It’s going to be an interesting challenge.
–You can’t let him run around and scramble and throw off schedule plays because he thrives in that atmosphere.
–Nicco Marchiol is an accurate thrower and a lot of his throws off run plays were RPOs. He is really comfortable in the RPO world and with the route packages they have and he’s a very accurate guy. He has a good feel for that.
–Rodriguez said they gave up a couple third and tens early. Zac Alley does a lot of stuff but kept it more generic. They’re going to find out a lot more about the defense this week than they did this past week where they weren’t challenged.
–Rodriguez tries to shrink down his playbook to what they can execute. There’s a lot of stuff they didn’t do this past game that they’ll carry every week.
–West Virginia will pump in some crowd noise at practice. But Rodriguez said that sometimes it’s easier on the road to get the players focused without all the distractions.
–At running back it’s still to be determined who is second or third. It’s not just games it’s practice as well with evaluating them.
–Jimmori Robinson there is no update but Rodriguez is hopeful to hear in the next couple days. Even if they do he said it would have to happen in a hurry for him to see the field this Saturday. Called it a long shot.
–Kannon Katzer is working his way back from injury and same with Max Brown. Rodriguez was very complimentary of Hammond Russell and how he tried to get people to stay when the new staff took over.
–When West Virginia had longer drives and the tempo was there it helped. It might not show up early but the effect can be cumulative.
–Rodriguez said he isn’t looking past Ohio and it won’t be difficult for them to manage being focused on them.
–Ohio is comfortable with what they’re doing on defense. The Bobcats are even front-based but they’ll do a lot of everything. They’ll try to outnumber you in the box and disguise things up.
–Rodriguez said he expected the Alabama series to be canceled with the move to 9 SEC Conference games and the Mountaineers were prepared for it.
