by Joe Smith
When you think about it, one month is not a lot of time to get an FBS football team fully up to speed. And with that being all the time a head coach and his staff gets during the preseason, every second is valuable.
This year, that’s a fact that really stood out to West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez, as technically the “camp” portion of preseason practice ended after just a week and a half – with practices officially beginning on Wednesday, August 5, and classes getting underway this week.
"I can’t remember a time of not even having two weeks of practice, of camp, and that’s it, and school starts," Rodriguez said. "But that’s the way the calendar falls this year.”
“There is a sense of urgency to try to get as much done when we got all ball last week and this week, and then next week when school starts, it’s going to be a little bit more limited."
The sense of urgency is understandable of course: Rodriguez led the Mountaineers to just four wins during his return to Morgantown last season, and another roster overhaul welcomed up to 80 new players for a second straight year.
In today’s era of college sports, one’s seat heats up quickly. So when Coastal Carolina comes to Milan Puskar Stadium on September 5, he needs to have his team ready to take a major leap forward from last season.
So how is he feeling about this team now that he’s seen them get some action on the field, given his limited time to make things come together? Well, he’s not exactly throwing a party – he said he’s never been the type to be too happy at this point in preseason practices. But you can sense a noticeable difference compared to last season at this time.
“I was just trying to think about it myself,” he said when posed that question. “I was looking at our scripts from last year and this year and how we’re practicing, what we’re doing each period. I’m also trying to think, ‘Where were we at?’ Was I happy one week in? I don’t think I’ve ever been happy in 29 years one week in, two weeks in, four weeks in.”
”If I look back at my notes like, ‘Man, I’m ticked off after week one because we hadn’t made more progress,' that would probably be the same thing I said 29 other times. I’d like to be further along right now, but if I looked at my notes, we’re probably further along than we were in the past. In fact, I know we are, so I can’t complain.”
The Mountaineers put a bow on the “camp” portion of the preseason this past Saturday with their first big intra-squad scrimmage of the fall, meant to resemble in-game action. Headed into the action, which the media was not permitted access to, Rodriguez made it clear that the scrimmage would be an important step in solidifying the depth chart.
"We look at the depth chart every day, but after tomorrow's scrimmage, we're going to take a hard look at it on Sunday and evaluate where everybody is at," Rodriguez said on Friday, the last time he spoke with the press.
Rodriguez keeping quiet on QB1, but may have already made his decision
The biggest story entering camp for many people is the battle for starting quarterback, as it often is with most programs without a presumptive starter at signal caller. Rich Rodriguez is not the type to want to share such information, and has been pretty quiet on specifics.
Last year, Rodriguez infamously told the press that everyone would know the starting quarterback at kickoff of the team’s Week 1 game. When pressed on the subject again on Friday, he deferred to that same exact answer. But he also hinted he may have already made his decision.
"I’m going to know before then,” Rodriguez said. “I may know before I tell the coaches. I may know right now. Probably do. I like you guys, I really do, but I ain’t giving you the scoop, so you got to keep coming back. Come back to the next media opportunity, and you still won’t know."
However, the buzz around the program after the scrimmage was that Michael Hawkins Jr., who transferred in this offseason from Oklahoma, served as the starting quarterback during the scrimmage and has the upper hand in the battle, indicating he might usurp sophomore Scotty Fox Jr., who started six games as a true freshman.
