Quick Hits: State of the Team, Uneasy Feeling About Depth, Softness, Portal Talk + More

WVU head coach Rich Rodriguez talks about the first day of padded practice.

West Virginia University quarterback Jaylen Henderson | Christopher Hall – West Virginia on SI

Things are starting to get real as Tuesday morning, the Mountaineers had their first fully padded practice of fall camp. Beginning with today's practice, the West Virginia coaching staff will start to get a good idea as to who can help them and who still has a little way to go.

Head coach Rich Rodriguez recapped today's practice with the media. Here are some of the notable quotes from the press conference.

Opening statement

“First day in pads. Really wasn’t much different than the last couple days other than there was about 20-25 minutes or so of live. Didn’t have the quarterbacks live yet, probably will have them going live on Thursday. There was some live tackling, which should bring a certain level of intensity and also a certain level of true football. Probably would have gone a little bit longer, but I got mad at something and just made them run for 10 or 15 minutes and then ended practice.”

How long before he expects the team to play with the toughness/physicality he’s looking for

“I hope it don’t take a whole lot. That wasn’t the reason I got upset at the end, but there’s way too many moments of softness. It’s not everybody all the time, and it’s not the same guy all the time, but sometimes our guys don’t even realize they’re being soft. I don’t want to say it’s in their DNA. It’s just their version of going hard, and ours hasn’t quite measured up all the time. There should be some collisions or sounds of collisions. Up front, the o-line and d-line sometimes it looks like they’re tango dancing instead of playing football. I didn’t eat a big breakfast, and that’s good because there are certain things that might make you lose your breakfast. I still like our guys. I like our team. They’re conscientious. And Thursday, I think it’ll improve a notch, and hopefully Saturday, when we scrimmage, we really got to get after it.”

If he feels better about the o-line depth

No. I don’t feel good about any depth. I don’t feel better about anything. I like my team, I just don’t feel good about where we’re at, but we’ve got time.”

Where the team is compared to previous teams he’s had at this point in fall camp

“If I looked back at my notebook from last August 6th, I probably had the same notes on there. It was probably around the same spot. A lot of new guys, a little frustration here and there, a little optimism, and that’s kind of where we’re at. I’ve got some frustration, some optimism, so I’m like okay, that’s probably where it was at (last) year) and the year before that, and 2005, and 2003, and 2001, and everywhere else.”

Possibility of adding to the roster

“There’s a bunch of guys in the portal. There’s a running back or two, an o-lineman or two that we’re looking at. I’ve told our recruiting staff, just keep looking. It’s hard to add now they’d be so far behind, but we have some concerns about depth at certain positions, and we got to make sure we’re addressing it.”

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