West Virginia had a busy off-season reconstructing the roster under new head coach Rich Rodriguez.
And now almost through the first spring of his second tenure atop the program in Morgantown, he wants to clarify one thing about the state of his football team.
“I think it’s probably a misunderstanding. I think I didn’t read it, somebody got attention that I was unhappy with the roster or something. I’m unhappy with the depth,” he said.
That isn’t some unheard of concept for a head coach at this time of the year either, but Rodriguez wanted to reinforce that he has been pleased with his team’s effort and how they’ve continued to get better.
But the key is to continue to increase the competition at most spots on the roster whether that is through some of the inhouse options available or going outside in the second transfer portal window.
That isn’t all that surprising considering Rodriguez inherited a roster with only two returning starters on either side of the ball which inevitably led to question marks. And even those guys that have played at other schools are still adjusting to their new surroundings in Morgantown.
“There’s question marks,” he said.
Ultimately, Rodriguez and the coaching staff will have to make some difficult decisions on some of the spots on the roster in order to meet the 105 threshold that is required by the time the season rolls around. That makes this final week critical for those players near the cutoff line to make their cases for inclusion.
Rodriguez plans to be honest with all of the players on the roster and let them know where they stand during the week after spring practice concludes April 5.
As a way to help aid that process, each of the players on the roster will have individual cutups that feature one-on-one drills, seven-on-seven drills and live team reps both the good and the bad throughout the course of the spring.
The goal is to have a snapshot of what each of the players have done on the field in order for the coaches to make decisions based on more than just the type of people that they’re dealing with on the roster.
“This has got to be a football type of decision based on those – what we’ve seen every day and then also what we see on those cutups,” Rodriguez said.
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