Rich Rod Talks 1st Day of Camp, Roster Spots, QB Plan, Low Expectations + More

Quotes from the head ball coach after day one of fall camp.

WVU Athletics Communications

The first practice of fall camp is officially in the books, as is the first press conference for WVU head coach Rich Rodriguez. Below are some of the highlights from today's presser.

Potentially adding guys who could get a 5th year of eligibility

“It is kind of chaotic that it’s going to happen right before everybody does their camp. I know the NCAA is appealing it, so I don’t know if you can add or not. We’re certainly not going to cut anybody because I don’t think that would be right. The guys that have worked hard all summer and spring and they’re on the roster now, they’re going to be on the roster. We have a couple spots open that we can add a guy or two, but right now we just have it on pause. There’s guys that I guess could maybe be in the portal too that you could get. So we’re researching it. We’re talking to a few that might be eligible, but we’re not adding anybody right now. 24 hours from now, maybe we do.”

How the first practice went

“I think it went alright. Probably as expected. I always think we’re going to be in better shape than we are, and we’re in decent shape, but not good enough shape to go 20 periods without somebody loafing. We’ll have some unpleasant film moments, maybe. But I think the guys are really conscientious and they can see what we can improve at. We’ll be better tomorrow.”

Low expectations

“I thought we’d have a better practice today, just what I seen throughout the summer a little bit. I’ll have to watch the tape to get a true barometer of how today went. I didn’t think it was great; I didn’t think it was awful. I told the team there’s not a lot of people predicting us to do very well, and I hope that’s motivation. But I’d rather have discipline because motivation is good for a little bit, but I’d rather have the type of discipline you need to have to win because discipline is greater than motivation because it’s there all the time. We have a lot of things to motivate us, and that’s good, but we have to have the proper discipline to get to where we want this program to be, and that’s a process.”

How he plans to handle QBs this fall

“They probably won’t be as live much. We probably won’t go as live much as a team because we’ve had a lot of these guys here throughout spring ball. Now, we’ll have a couple of scrimmages, so you got to tackle a little bit. I know a lot of NFL teams, they don’t go live during camp, but they have preseason games. We’ll have some live, physical times, and we’ll go live during some scrimmages, but I’m not sure I’m going to have the quarterbacks get hit unless it looks like maybe they need that to make sure they’re doing the proper ball security stuff and playing with the right type of discipline. I don’t think we need to beat our quarterbacks up to prove their toughness. I like the toughness that we have from our quarterbacks.”

How similar Mike Hawkins/Cam Cook duo is to Pat White/Steve Slaton

“Obviously Pat came and redshirted a year, so he had a year to learn before he played, and Stevie was a true freshman, and he was just a freaky speed guy. He was so fast that once he learned it, he was going to go. Those guys were probably the two fastest guys on the team. Mike is probably one of the fastest, and Cam can run, but the best thing about Cam is he has a great feel for the position. Whether it’s pass protection, running routes, where he’s supposed to press on the hole, and all that kind of stuff. He’s an experienced football player, but he’s a ‘rookie’ in our system, and so is Mike. They have not played a game for West Virginia yet, so I’ve got to remind myself that they’ve got some experience at this level, but they haven’t played for West Virginia yet. But we’re going to force-feed them because I think both of those guys are good players.”

Whom Cam Cook reminds him of

“He’s probably closer to Avon than Stevie or Quincy (Wilson) or Noel (Devine). He’s more like Avon. Avon was just a really good football player in all aspects. We’ve got some young guys that are going to be pretty exciting to watch, but Cam’s the leader of the group, and he’s got a great feel already for what we’re doing.”

If he’s still open to playing guys two ways

“Yeah, if they’re in shape and they’re good enough to help us win by doing it, we can. There’s not a lot of guys. (Matt) Sieg is one of them. They’ve all got their one main spot they’ve got to learn to be really good at, but if you can help us a couple ways and you’re in good enough shape and smart enough to do it, then we’ll do it on occasion. But that’s probably a week and a half, two weeks away before we entertain that part.”