Feb. 20—MORGANTOWN — Presumably it was some sort of early WVU depth chart Rich Rodriguez carried in his right hand Thursday.
Some of it was highlighted in gold, other parts in blue.
No matter the color, all of the names on the page had one thing in common.
“Lot of new guys, still learning all of their names, ” said Rodriguez, who begins his second stint as the Mountaineers head coach on Tuesday with the start of spring practice. “There’s a lot of wide-open competitions at every position.”
Rodriguez guessed WVU may have the most starters to replace than any other team in the nation.
As it stands, the Mountaineers will have 11 new starters on defense when the 2025 season opens against Robert Morris on Aug. 30, perhaps nine more new guys on offense.
Forget about players playing like their hair is on fire—the phrase Rodriguez used 25 years ago to describe his system at WVU—Rodriguez and his coaches now must have that same sense of urgency just to find the right guys to compete in the Big 12.
Based on Rodriguez’s shaking and turning of that paper, there’s a challenge there.
“There’s not a returning two-or three-year starting guy we can say is a team leader, ” he said. “Hell, there aren’t any. Some of these guys have played at other schools. Jahiem (White) has played a little bit of offense and Rodney Gallagher has played a little bit of offense.
“Who else on here is like a guy that was a two-or three-year starter and you pencil in as one of your leaders ? There aren’t any. That’s OK. There’s enough talent there and guys to work with.”
It begins Tuesday and will wrap up with the annual Gold-Blue Spring Showcase on April 5.
“Now, part of spring will be about evaluation to see what we got, ” Rodriguez said. “The other part is the teaching of the schemes and the fundamentals. The first spring is always the most important from…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/article/rich-rodriguez-faces-sense-urgency-033400774.html
Author : The Dominion Post, Morgantown, W.Va.
Publish date : 2025-02-21 03:34:00
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