Quick Hits: The Freshman Wall, Tempo, QB Progression + More

Rich Rodriguez details the latest from spring ball.

WVU Athletics Communications

Following Monday's practice, the West Virginia Mountaineers have just two more to go before they wrap up spring ball. WVU head coach Rich Rodriguz met with the media on Monday evening, taking questions on how things have been going.

Opening statement

“Finished practice 12 today, we were in shells. Didn’t go live, did some thud. I thought it was okay. There was some moments that looked good and some not so good. My message to the team afterwards was pretty much about how, as coaches, we take great responsibility on increasing everybody’s value. I heard Coach (Nick) Saban say that many times down in Alabama that one of the coach’s main jobs is to increase the value of every one of your players. Now, the value is monetized, and our job as coaches is to make sure they get coached and get better every day, every time that we’re with them. And we’re going to do that. We’re going to coach them, and I think our guys understand that. Collectively, we’ve gotten better. Individually, they’ve gotten better.”

If the tempo was what he wanted last year

“No, not even close. And part of that is because we couldn’t get first downs at times. Couldn’t run the ball like we needed to run it. The only way to play with tempo and pace is get first downs, whether you throw it or run it, and we didn’t get nearly enough first downs, so that puts a burden on the defense. When we’ve had successful offenses, and we’re scoring a lot of points, we were controlling the tempo.”

If the freshmen have hit a wall in practice

“No, they really haven’t. I think because practices are so spread out over spring. We’re not having back-to-back practices in pads or anything like that. So, like tomorrow, they’ll have meetings to review what happened today, and then they’ll still have a meeting before they have a Wednesday practice. When you go in August, it’s really every day. It’s a lot. Spring is the best time to teach. But that being said, we have a few that aren’t here, and we still have time to teach them over the summer.”

What he’s seen from the QBs since the start of practice

“I think they’ve taken steps. I think simplifying has helped a little bit. You can see who’s played a little bit. Scotty’s played some, but he’s still 18 years old. He’s still young. He was enrolled early last year, and he was 17 years old. Mike Hawkins, I think has made great progress. He’s a very conscientious guy. He’s got some good experience. He’s a great athlete. He works hard, and I mean, he’s here all the time watching film, so that’s been great to see. I think Max (Brown) has gotten better. And the young guys are the young guys, but I see Jyron (Hughley) doing some really neat stuff. You see some freshman moments, but he’s very, very coachable. You tell him something, and he gets it. It’s a good group.”

Jaden Bray being a guy fans should root for

“He’s a great young man, he’s a really good football player. He’s had some little bit of tough luck with injuries, but he’s the alpha in that room. He’s not a rah-rah guy, but everybody respects him. I think he’s poised to have a big, big year, and I think he would have last year, too. He’s a lot of fun to coach because it’s important to him. He works hard, and you never have to worry about his effort or his toughness.”