{"id":789973,"date":"2026-03-03T22:00:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T22:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/789973\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T22:00:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T22:00:19","slug":"rich-rodriguez-press-conference-summary-3-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/789973\/","title":{"rendered":"Rich Rodriguez press conference summary: 3-3"},"content":{"rendered":"

West Virginia<\/a> head coach Rich Rodriguez<\/a> addressed the media on Tuesday ahead of the beginning of spring practice and WVSports.com provides a summary of what was said.<\/p>\n

\u2013The team has made a lot of improvements. Four guys are out with injuries Ashton Woods<\/a> has the shoulder surgery he\u2019s recovering from, Emory Snyder<\/a> hip surgery, Peter Notaro<\/a> has a foot that had to get fixed and Antoine Sharp<\/a> had a knee that has to get fixed. Everybody else should be good to go for practice on Saturday. Going to try to get four practices in before spring break. West Virginia should have 101 players for spring. The Mountaineers have some new staff members and recruiting is something they\u2019ve done every day. From an athletic standpoint, he likes where the roster is at. In the 15 practices, what they have to try to do is get these guys experience so they feel more comfortable.<\/p>\n

\u2013Rodriguez said there is so much more true competition at all positions. They truly have that from a player standpoint. Really good transfer, high school class and some of the junior college guys could help. <\/p>\n

\u2013Rodriguez said there is 101 here now but there will be 13 more graduating junior college or high school join the team later. He thought they would be a little deeper than they were last year, but they weren\u2019t but until they start practicing he won\u2019t be sure. <\/p>\n

\u2014Michael Hawkins<\/a> is somebody that they knew about from watching him and having some guys that were at Oklahoma and knew who he was as an athlete. They wanted to have somebody compete with Scotty Fox<\/a> and Max Brown<\/a>. He is really smart. They want at least two guys they can win with at every position. <\/p>\n

\u2013Rodriguez said they could play both quarterbacks. All good players want to be the guy but if you\u2019re good enough to win with you\u2019re going to play. Inevitably somebody could surge to the front but practice will tell that part. They targeted Hawkins and he has all the things he wanted so far.<\/p>\n

\u2013Rodriguez said they lost nine of the top ten guys last year and we\u2019re starting all over again last year. They\u2019ve had some that have played and some of the guys that were young guys have gotten better. They signed a rally good freshman class and signed some really good transfers on the offensive line. They got some portal guys that have experience as starters. They have a couple freshmen that should have great careers and all of those guys have gotten bigger and stronger and should be much better up front.<\/p>\n

\u2013Rodriguez said the first year is always the hardest. You\u2019ll go through four phases, lose big, lose close, win close and then win big is something that Bobby Bowden told him when he first started coaching. It\u2019s different challenges now and you still have to establish the culture. This year they intentionally took a big high school class and they won\u2019t have 40 seniors this off-season. They should get better every year. In ways you can correct some mistakes in a hurry but it takes a lot of money. West Virginia had some but they don\u2019t have that mess around money where guys can make mistakes and correct it immediately. <\/p>\n

\u2013Rodriguez has always thought that coaches that just rely on experience are not sending the right message. You should be getting better as a coach every year this is his 29th year as a coach and he is going to try to make sure he does his job better. He challenges himself and the staff to be better every year and wants his players to be the same way. There are different challenges now with the NIL era but you have to learn how to navigate it. If you like winning enough, you\u2019re going to figure out how to win the challenges.<\/p>\n

\u2013Schematic stuff it\u2019s just 11 guys. Rodriguez said if they have no turnovers or negative yardage plays they\u2019ll win every time so that\u2019s the goal. You have to be good fundamentally, schematically and there is a lot that goes into how they study other people and how they can get better. <\/p>\n

\u2013Rodriguez hired Chance Trickett because he wanted some NFL scouting experience. He has done that for 12-years and his experience has already helped and with revamping how they scout and evaluate. Rick Trickett<\/a> is the preeminent offensive line coach in college football and they have worked a lot together. <\/p>\n

\u2014Larry Knight<\/a> got offered by Georgia and he\u2019s from there. Deke Adams<\/a> is somebody that Rodriguez didn\u2019t know but he did know people that know him and he\u2019s worked with some coaches he knew in the past. They were fortunate that he was out there. <\/p>\n

\u2014Amare Grayson<\/a> and Cameron Griffin<\/a> know the system and the offense as well as the techniques that Coach Trickett wants up front. They are great program guys and he would have liked to have them last year.<\/p>\n

\u2013The running back room is new and it\u2019s hard to mention one group with how many new faces there are at all the different positions. They don\u2019t want to do this every year, bringing in 70 or 80 new guys. In the future, they want to have around 21 or 22 seniors but you can\u2019t predict it.<\/p>\n

\u2013Rodriguez said that they had a little more time to evaluate the guys they wanted to bring in compared to a year ago. Last year it wasn\u2019t all bad, they had some guys that played some really good football and helped to establish the culture they wanted. Rodriguez said last year his team gave them good effort but there are some things they\u2019d like to do better. That group helped them even the six-month guys to establish the culture and now there is enough returning players that have been in the program that is helping the move forward.<\/p>\n

\u2013Rodriguez said they were trying to find the best players that fit what they were trying to do and they wanted guys that loved football and wanted to be at West Virginia as well as the skill set to win games. It\u2019s so transactional with recruiting now and a lot of times it comes down to how much money you have. If they took them out of the junior college.<\/p>\n

\u2013Rodriguez said they have two-three spots that are still open that they intentionally waited to see there might be a junior college guy graduating in May. What you have is what you have this year, outside of guys unenrolling and enrolling somewhere else but the NCAA is trying to address that.<\/p>\n

\u2013A fullback is rare and they wanted a guy that could run the ball a little bit and stick his face in the fan. They will use their tight ends in that role, but they wanted somebody that has played that in Kayden Luke<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2013Rodriguez said they\u2019re calling it a spring festival and they\u2019ll do some competitive things and some one-on-ones and things to close the spring. They\u2019ll come up with a format that is family-friendly. <\/p>\n

\u2013Rodriguez said they tried to get more guys on multi-year deals because the retention part is key. You will always lose a couple and they lost a couple they didn\u2019t want to lose but they were able to retain a lot of guys too so you need guys that want to be here.<\/p>\n

\u2013The coaching staff has always been an issue to retain because sometimes they get offered a lot of money and go somewhere. His staff is happy to be here and the happiness is based on winning. <\/p>\n

\u2013Rodriguez said that the Big 12 is better and he wants to watch the combine with a handful of Mountaineers next year. He said they\u2019re going to work as hard as they can to bring a championship to West Virginia he isn\u2019t backing down from that. He still thinks they can win the Big 12. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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