Quick Hits: Rich Rod in 'Sour Mood', Deep Eval of the O-Line, Bray Leading WRs + More

Rich Rodriguez provided some thoughts following day three of fall camp.

WVU Athletics Communications

Day three of fall camp is in the books, and once again, WVU head coach Rich Rodriguez wasn't too happy with how things went. It was a mix of too many guys sitting on the side getting checked out by the trainers, the weather forcing them to go into the indoor practice facility, players leaving stuff lying on the floor in the locker room, and not great execution.

It wasn't all bad, though, as he did give some positive thoughts about a few position groups during today's press conference. Here are the highlights from today's presser.

Early thoughts on the offensive line

“Certainly, we had an issue last year. Just had no experience. We wanted to get guys out of the portal who had started. So we went from linemen that didn’t have any guys that started college before to having seven or eight guys that have actually started in college football and a couple of guys returning. Trick has done a great job. I think he’s one of the best at what he does, and I like where we’re at. We still got a lot of work to do, but we expect a lot of improvement. We have to be better. I like our group. You always hope that you can have eight. Five starters and a backup guard, backup center, and a backup tackle. I’m hoping we can have ten. I think there’s 10 or 11 that we feel we can get good enough to win with.”

Deeper on the o-line evaluation

“The guys that came back, Nick Krahe, (Malik) Agbo, Landen Livingston, Josh Aisosa, those guys are better players than they were a year ago, which you’d expect them to be, and they are playing different roles, too. Landen is playing a couple different positions. Nick is playing more guard than tackle. Malik is playing on the right side, so those guys have gotten better. The transfers we got, which was Carsten (Casady), Devin (Vass), and obviously the guys from Jax State- those two, Cam (Griffin) and Bubba (Grayson) have played in our offense, so they were kind of plug-and-play good. And then our young guys, Kevin (Brown) and Aidan (Woods) and big Jonas (Muya), Camden (Goforth), I really like our freshmen class. I think some of those guys got a chance to play early. Kevin’s got a chance to start. He’s physically ready, but more than anything, he’s got a certain level of maturity, football maturity, that you don’t see typically in a true freshman. I kind of knew that when we signed him, and then he’s been what we thought he would be and he’ll keep getting better too.”

How today’s practice went

“It was shells, so it wasn’t full pads but we got interrupted because of rain, so we had to come in and that probably put me in a sour mood a little bit and then we had some guys that weren’t serious injuries but guys cramping up and I get frustrated with that and I shouldn’t because it happens, but I guess 75 degrees and no humidity, I don’t think anybody should be cramping up. But I thought the intensity was okay, but I don’t think the execution is nearly… I want to move on to some more scripted stuff or more stuff to put in, but I’m not going to be able to because we’ve got to execute what we have in before we put something in tomorrow.”

How Amari Latimer is adjusting

“He’s a talented guy, a really hard worker. I’ve known him since he was a freshman because when his brother (Geimere) was playing for us (at Jacksonville State). He comes from a football family, and it’s really important. Everything’s still happening fast, but he’s a big, physical guy. We don’t have to rush him into taking reps with the ones right now, even though he’s taken some reps with them.”

What Kayden Luke’s role is

“Stick his face in the fan and go bust your helmet. If Owen Schmitt is your hero, be somewhat of an Owen Schmitt. Owen Schmitt now had tailback skills, and Kayden can run a little bit; he’s got good ball skills. Owen was just a freak. I did see Kayden got a mohawk or something, so he channeled his inner Owen, and I think Owen got a hold of him and said, ‘Okay now, that’s fine, but if you’re going to do that, you better stick your face in the fan and get your nose bloodied a little bit.’ But Kayden will do that. He’s got a good example from Schmitt happens.”

Evaluation of the wide receiver room

“You want somebody to be the bell cow, but Jaden Bray is leading the group there, and we’re going to move him around a little bit too. In fact, today was the first time that Jaden played some in the slot for us. He’s just a good football player. We GPS our guys, and Jaden will be the guy that gets more yards than anybody. He’s just a hard worker and a good football player. Prince (Strachan) is a little banged up right now, but I think he can help us. John Neider can help us; he’s got experience. DJ Epps has had good practices, and he’s got a lot of experience. Cyrus Traugh is an in-state guy that’s been showing us a lot. I think we’re going to be able to have six or seven guys that play pretty actively in the rotation.”