Kyle Whittingham had High Praise for Rich Rodriguez During his Weekly Press Conference

The West Virginia Mountaineers (2-2, 0-1) welcome the Utah Utes (3-1, 0-1) for their Big 12 Conference home opener Saturday afternoon. Kickoff is set for the 3:30 p.m. EST and the action will broadcast on FOX.

Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham held his weekly press conference on Monday and although he spent much of his time answering on the deficiencies in the loss to Texas Tech, he gave his thoughts on WVU head coach Rich Rodriguez and the Mountaineers.

Opening thoughts on Rich Rodriguez

Rich Rodriguez, excellent football coach. I’ve known Rich for a lot of years. He really had it going at Arizona there, and a really good offensive mind – outstanding offensive mind.

I got no doubt that he’s going to get that program where he wants it, where he had the last time he was there.

Playing a Mountaineer team coming off a loss

I’ve never been to Morgantown, but I understand it’s a great place to play and they get great crowds. I guess it holds about 60(K) and they’re getting close to that.

Rich Rod is a really good offensive coach – he’s got great schemes. They’ve had a little bit of musical chairs with the quarterbacks. They played three of them in the Kansas game, and so I think they’re still not quite settled on the quarterback.

Then, their top back didn’t play against Kansas last week – the big kid. Number two (redshirt senior Tye Edwards) I think it is.

We faced him plenty of times, not only at Arizona, but when he was at Michigan. And so, we know what he brings to the table offensively and we’re going to have our hands full. And like you said, they’ll be fired up and they’re coming off a loss like us and when you’re coming off a loss, you’re hungry. So, we’re going to get their best shot.

Looking to emulate the Kansas offense’s success against West Virginia

I’ve only studied West Virginia’s offense at this point. Tonight’s the night I delve into the defense… But I know that defensively, West Virginia runs that 3-3-5 high pressure outfit – over 50% pressure. And so, I’m not sure if they beat some of their blitzes or what, but I spent the last 36 hours or so focusing on West Virginia’s offense.

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