Quick Hits: One RB Returns to Practice, Handling Redshirts, Secondary Progress + More

Rich Rod provides an update on the squad following practice No. 9.

Cyncir Bowers

The final practice of fall camp before West Virginia's first live scrimmage is in the books. Head coach Rich Rodriguez discussed what he saw from his group this morning, what to look for in tomorrow's scrimmage, and much more.

Here are the highlights from today's press conference.

Opening statement

“We were in shorts. Did some situational stuff. It’s hard to evaluate a lot of it in shorts, but got some work in, and tomorrow will be an important day for us to let our guys play some football without telling them what to do on every snap.”

Cyncir Bowers returning to practice and what he brings to the table

“He’s an athletic guy. I should look up what the speed was, the 40 times or whatever, but he’s one of the faster guys we’ve got. Good football player, very contentious. He’s been a little banged up, but he’s back in a white jersey today. I’d like to have three or four running backs to roll in there. If one guy’s hot, we’ll keep him in there, of course, but we’re working on it.”

What he wants to see in the scrimmage tomorrow

“I think the effort will be there. They’re going to make mental mistakes, there’s that part of it. You’re hoping they’re not making the same mental mistakes that they did today or yesterday or the day before. The physicality should be there. There’s probably too much assistance early in camp with coaches telling guys what to do, and that’s not going to happen in games. The players have to take charge of it themselves, so part of my goal in scrimmage is not as much coaching going on per se. Let the guys play and correct the moments when we have time to correct them, and then evaluate pretty heavily what they do.”

If there are any true freshman who won’t redshirt

“It’s funny you ask that because you remember you’d go into it and that would be part of your mindset, like which ones were going to redshirt. And I’m like, what are we going to do? Redshirt them for the next coach or the next team? Hell with that. If they can help at all, then them suckers are playing, man. I ain’t saving them for the next damn coach.”

How the secondary is coming along

“We do have a lot of guys that have played a lot of football somewhere else, and I do think that’s valuable, whatever the league it was. Now, they’re still learning the system, and our defensive system is really unique and different, but our guys have done a good job of that. I think our secondary play had to get better. I’m just looking at it, we brought in quite a bit of veteran, experienced secondary guys, and I like what I’ve seen from them so far.”

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