Quick Hits: Brief Offensive Line Eval, Jeff Casteel Rejoining the Staff, Aggressive Play Calling + More

The West Virginia University football program held its eighth spring practice Wednesday morning.

Head coach Rich Rodriguez met with the media following the morning practice session.

Thoughts on the offensive line

A work in progress. A good group of guys. That got good coaches. Landon, Nick, and those guys that were here, give great effort. Love coaching them. None of them have really played, and so, I sometimes got to remember that and be more patient, but they are going to be alright.

Plans during week off for spring break

They’re probably happy to have a break from me and I’m a little bit happy to have a break. I also think we need to have a little bit of pause as coaches. Halfway through, this is what we’ve accomplished, this is what we haven’t accomplished, this is what we still need to do over the last two weeks. That will be part of my time next week while the guys go on a break.

Jeff Casteel rejoining the staff

Jeff’s a good football coach. The biggest part of that is, he’s been there, seen there, done it. Hes going to be a great resource for Zac Alley and the rest of the coaches because he seen about anything and everything and very knowledgeable. Great to have him and his sone Jake.

Staying in touch with Bandits coach Casteel over the years

I’ve been talking to him for a couple of years when I was down in Jax State. In fact, I brought him down last year for a little bit as a consultant. I said, ‘I can’t pay you much, but I can get you some place to live and a few free meals.’ And Jake was on the staff, so he came down to see his son. He came down for a few weeks and helped us out a little bit.

Remaining the play caller as the head coach

A lot of head coaches aren’t involved in schemes as much. They probably got to be head coach by being a coordinator or calling plays, most of them, but then a lot of them give it up. If you’re still calling it or involved in it or whatever, then you have to stay involved in studying what you do and what everybody else does. I’ve said to myself, if I get pulled away so much that I can’t sit in offensive meetings or I can’t study what we’re doing, then I need to give the play calling up. I usually work my schedule around to where the X’s and O’s part, I’m going to be right in the middle of it. I enjoy it. There’s a lot of this job maybe not as fun as other stuff but I enjoy that X’s and O’s part of it.

Being aggressive on fourth down

There’s some really good stuff that you can learn from some analytics, but I don’t know if analytics takes into personnel as much. Like, what that quarterback can or can’t do. I think its more of a feel for me, but again, those possessions are so valuable, and I hate to give one up if its across midfield and its fourth and short, we’ll probably go for it. If I ever punt inside the 40-yard line going in on a normal down and distance, check my pulse because I probably passed out on the sidelines or something. We’re going for it 100% of the time inside the 40 but most would I would think.