Rich Rodriguez Explains Why Jimmori Robinson Didn't Play vs. TCU

One of the things that I happened to notice after the game was that West Virginia bandit Jimmori Robinson never checked into the game last weekend against TCU. I try to keep tabs on who plays and who doesn't throughout the game, but I was too dialed in on what TCU was trying to do in the pass game that it went unnoticed.

Tuesday afternoon, WVU head coach Rich Rodriguez explained the reason for his absence from the field and what his role could look like moving forward.

"I think there was so much hype with that, and I don't know if you could ever live up to that certain type of expectation, but last week wasn't a great week for him as far as preparation goes, and some other stuff. Hopefully, this week he'll be totally in on our preparation and can have a bigger role on Saturday."

With Robinson watching from the sidelines, Braden Siders, MarShon Oxley, and Curtis Jones Jr. took all of the reps at bandit.

It's understandable that Robinson is still in the midst of learning and understanding the defense, given that he wasn't able to participate in practice until he was cleared by the courts, but to this point, his production has been underwhelming. So far in four games, Robinson has just two tackles and four pressures. As I mentioned in a separate article yesterday, he averaged four pressures per game last season at UTSA.

The most concerning part for Robinson is that the Mountaineers' pass rush has looked much better without him than with him. In the first three games of the season, West Virginia was among the nation's leaders in sacks and pressures. Since he made his debut against Kansas, WVU has struggled mightily to get to the quarterback and even impact throws with a collapsing pocket. On Saturday, with Robinson out, the Mountaineers generated 15 pressures and registered their first sack since the Backyard Brawl — the last time Robinson was not available.

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