Quick Hits: Trimming the Roster, Hiring Another Coach, Facilities, WR Progress + More

An update on the progress of the roster halfway through spring ball.

West Virginia University receiver Oran Singleton Jr. | Christopher Hall – West Virginia on SI

Thursday morning, West Virginia head football coach Rich Rodriguez met with the media as it officially marks the halfway point of spring practice. Below are a handful of highlights from today's press conference.

Replacing Blaine Stewart

“Blaine got an opportunity to go back in the NFL. Happy for him. Probably over the next week or so, I’ll interview and probably look at some potential candidates. We’re well-positioned to take care of it right now. Having Travis (Trickett), he’s kind of the floating coach. We’re in good shape.”

Progress of the wide receiver group

“I still think we probably got to get more competition there. Ryan (Garrett) is going to do a good job recruiting it. Preston (Fox) is going to help. He’s a proven veteran. Cam Vaughn has played a lot of snaps. Jaden Bray has had some good moments and there’s a couple other guys that have done some good things. The slot positions, we’re pretty good there with Rodney (Gallagher) and (Jarod) Bowie, and ManMan Singleton. But the outside receivers, it’s wide-open. That’s one of the positions we’re taking close evaluations on these next two weeks.”

Why he hired Ryan Garrett as WRs coach

“I got to first work with Ryan at Ole Miss six years ago. He was kind of my GA. I loved his energy. I mean, he would do everything and anything. I was able to bring him with me when I went to Louisiana Monroe and he did a great job there. And then at Jax State, he was one of the hardest working recruiters. Puts a lot of time in and just a really, really good young coach and great with the staff. He’s got a great future.”

If he’s pleased with the facilities 

“They did a phenomenal job here. I think you have just about everything. We don’t have a lot of sayings - hard edge, earned success, hold the rope, spot the ball - those are kind of the four. We’ll have some of the messaging around some of the hallways and some of the rooms, but other than that, shoot, there’s everything (here). Facility-wise, we’re in pretty good shape. We have everything we need and then some.”

Trimming the roster down

“That’s one reason we’re into spring ball earlier. We were going to end on the 12th and now we’re going to end on the 5th to give us a week to talk with our guys and let them know if they need to look at another opportunity and get in the portal. We’ve got to be honest with all of them. We can’t keep all of them even if I wanted to and that’s the hardest part. There’s going to be some guys that’s really hard to let go because they work hard, they do everything right, they’re right on the edge and might be able to help you. This spring is going to be really hard because there’s going to be some guys that we don’t want to let go but will probably have to be let go and that’s not fun.”

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