Quick Hits: Progress Report, Injury Update, Scrimmage Intensity + More

The latest updates from WVU head coach Rich Rodriguez.

WVU Athletics Communications

Wednesday evening, West Virginia head football coach Rich Rodriguez met with the media for the first time in nearly a week and gave some updates on the team, including a brief report of last week's scrimmage.

If the team is making progress

“I think we’re making steps. I get a little frustrated when we have some stuff tissue stuff- seven, eight guys with hamstring strains or whatever it is. It’s nothing anybody’s done wrong; it just kind of happens. Guys nowadays, if you don’t work them out, they’re not like in the old days where in the summer you were working out, or if you were playing ball every day you were working out, you’re playing basketball, you were active all the time. Our guys are here all summer, and all of a sudden they go full speed in practice, and it’s a little bit straining on them. That part’s frustrating, but I like the work ethic, and we’ve definitely gotten better every day.”

Injury update

“Cam Ball is questionable for the first game, maybe. We’re hoping he’ll be back. Ryan Ward should be back; he hadn’t practiced. Young freshman running back Lawrence Autry is doing well, but he’s banged up for a couple of weeks. I don’t know if he’ll be ready for the first game. He was coming along pretty good. The rest of them is kind of hit and miss.”

The scrimmage

“We went live for 100 plays or something in the scrimmage, and I was pretty pleased with the intensity there. A little live today with the young guys, and it was soft. I don’t know if anybody got a bruise today. There was a lot of paddy-caking with the young guys. It was a pillow fight. Neither side won.”

If the offensive line is the strength of this team

“Oh, I don’t know. They haven’t played yet. We weren’t good on the offensive line last year, but we weren’t good anywhere. Do I expect us to be better? Hell yeah, I expect us to be better. I expect us to be better everywhere. These guys have a lot more snaps; a lot of guys have played a lot of college football, so with that experience, I expect us to be a whole lot better. A couple guys, not just the guys that are returning, but a couple other guys that transferred in from Jax State, have got experience in the offense. Overall, there’s a better feel for what we’re doing up front.”

If any true freshmen wide receivers have a chance of playing

“I think they’re all going to be okay, but they’re all right now from a strength standpoint, not quite there yet. They’re really hard workers. Landon Drumm, probably of all the true freshmen, maybe had the best chance to do it, but he got banged up a little bit now. It’s a knee thing that he’ll be back hopefully in a couple weeks. His progress was really good. Malachi (Thompson) is another guy I think is going to have a great future. Those young guys are just swimming.”