Quick Hits: Rich Rod Talks QB Battle, NIL Setup, Old vs. New Culture + More

West Virginia head football coach Rich Rodriguez met with the media Thursday afternoon for the first time since his introductory press conference earlier this winter. He discussed the start of spring practice, gave his thoughts on certain areas of the roster, and more.

Keys to a successful spring

“In particular, because it’s our first spring together, it’s a little bit more evaluation. Typically, the second and third year, there’s less evaluation because you know your roster. Part of spring is evaluation and seeing what we got, and then the other part is the teaching and the schemes. The first spring is always the most important from that aspect, and then there’s another portal period, so the roster may look a little different in May. It’s a little different challenge than previous years, but it’s also fun and exciting. I have some concerns at certain positions, but what coach doesn’t? Hopefully, by the end of spring, some of those will be alleviated.”

Evaluating the quarterback situation

“I watched a little bit of film, and I thought Nicco, in the opportunities he played, he played really really well. He had a great command about him. I’m really pleased that he’s coming back and we think we’ve got good competition in that room. That’s probably one position I feel more comfortable with, the talent that we have and the ability of those guys to learn and run our system and all that; I think we’re in good shape at the quarterback position with the guys that we got.”

Instilling a new culture

“There’s been moments where we’ve done what we call skill development where I’m thinking…well, their version of playing hard and my version of playing hard are maybe not quite matched up yet. But I think they’re willing, I think they’re eager, and are buying into what we’re asking them to do. They don’t have a choice, but they’ve got a good attitude and are eager to prove themselves and work hard.”

If he watched much tape of last season

“I don’t want to watch too much of last year because last year is last year and there’s different guys, but I was watching some cut-ups of Pitt and a little bit of that Texas Tech until I threw up but it wasn’t as useful to me because most of the guys playing for us are not here anymore.”

Handling and divvying up NIL money

“You better have a little bit of a plan other than just grab bagging. It depends on what you have, but even at Jax State, we created a model like we had an NFL roster and like, if this is the money that we have, this percentage goes to QB1. This percentage goes to left tackle two; this percentage goes to corner one. Now, we’re not going to pay our starting quarterback 18% of your salary cap like they do in the NFL because then you don’t have enough money for your team, but we are going to have kind of an earned success model. If you’re the starting left tackle after August camp, you’re going to get more money than the scout team right tackle. You got to have a fair kind of system that you want to do with your players.”

Keys to a successful spring

Evaluating the quarterback situation

Instilling a new culture

If he watched much tape of last season

Handling and divvying up NIL money

MORE STORIES FROM WEST VIRGINIA ON SI