Quick Hits: Defensive Identity, Starting Right Tackle, Mike Hawkins' Production + More

Quotes from Rich Rodriguez's weekly press conference.

West Virginia University defensive lineman Nate Gabriel | Christopher Hall - West Virginia on SI

West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez just wrapped up his weekly press conference, where he talked about this week's matchup with TCU, the continuation of struggles on defense, and many other things.

Here are the highlights from today's presser.

The challenge of facing TCU’s defense

“Best defense in the league. I think statistically, they are No. 1 in most of the categories. Very athletic. They know what they’re doing; they play hard. Andy (Avalos) does a great job with their defense. He’s been there for a few years. Don’t give up anything easy. Baylor’s got a really good football team, and TCU controlled that thing from start to finish. It’ll be probably to this date, the best defense we’ve played so far.”

How big of a problem it is not having a defensive identity

“Typically, you find your identity in the first couple weeks of the season or even during camp. I don’t know if that’s the core problem, but it is something. You have to have something you can hang your hat on. Like, if nothing else, we’ll go to this. Or they may score, but it’s not going to be all those chunk plays or something. As I told the staff this morning, we’ve got good enough players. We may not be overloaded at certain positions, but we got better guys than what we’re showing, and we got better coaches than what we’re showing. Zac Alley and those guys have been in some big games and made big calls and done well. It’s a little perplexing how poorly we’ve struggled, but we can’t stick our heads in the sand. Everything’s got to be on the table.”

Evaluation of Mike Hawkins Jr. through seven games

“For a first-year guy in the system, I think he’s playing really good football. He was really decisive in that game and made some big plays on some scramble stuff. He’s going to keep getting better. I thought he was the difference in the game, frankly.”

The playoff expanding to 24 teams

“I didn’t really have strong feelings with it one way or another. I knew it was going to head that way because of money. I don’t think it’s a terrible thing. Does it diminish the regular season? I don’t know about that. The sad part about it is I think some of the leagues are going away with conference championship games, and I liked- I always thought your first goal every year was to win your conference and have a conference championship game. I hate to see that go away. I think conference championship games are fun and exciting. I think the fans love it.”

Malik Agbo starting over Carsten Casady at right tackle

“Carsten wasn’t 100%, and I thought Malik played okay, but I think Carsten should be healthier this week, and if he is, he’ll be back in there starting.”