Rich Rodriguez Identifies WVU Players Who Could Have Bigger Roles

You can expect some more playmakers to get involved on the offensive side of the ball while the defense searches for answers.

West Virginia University running back Amari Latimer | Christopher Hall - West Virginia on SI

Just because we have reached the halfway point of the season doesn't mean the hourglass has run out for guys who have seen minimal to no action. There is still time to make a move up the depth chart and onto the field, especially on the defensive side of the ball, where they are scrambling for a solution.

"Defensively, we’ve got things to fix, but part of that is personnel-wise too, and maybe that’s moving a guy around," WVU head coach Rich Rodriguez said. "We’ve got three safety positions, and we’re still trying to get that solidified. We got guys that can play safety and corner, and maybe we move them around a little bit, but I don’t want to confuse them and make it more difficult. We want to make sure we got the right guys in the right spot all the time.”

He didn't name anyone specifically on that side of the ball, but you can certainly guarantee that JaCorey Thomas will be more involved and perhaps some of those young defensive backs will get their chance later on in the year.

Offensively, though, Rodriguez would like to get a few more guys involved, including freshman running back Amari Latimer, who had his heaviest workload of the season last weekend against Arizona, rushing the ball 13 times for 55 yards and a score in addition to making three grabs for 44 yards.

“It was good to see Amari Latimer get some playing time too. He’s a big, physical guy. We’ve got a stable of running backs, unlike a year ago when everybody was getting hurt. We’ve got four or five running backs that I won’t hesitate at all to put in the game.”

Utah transfer NaQuari Rogers is also in the mix as well and could make his Mountaineer debut this weekend after having spent the last couple of weeks learning the offense and getting back into game shape.

Rodriguez even hit on a couple of receivers he would like to play more.

“There’s definitely more guys, especially as the season goes along. But at wide receiver, we’ve got to get Keon Hutchins more involved, TaRon Francis. But they’ve got to show us during practice too that we can have confidence that they know exactly what to do."

Hutchins is one of the fastest players on the team and is probably the fastest receiver the Mountaineers have on the roster. Francis, on the other hand, has the physical makeup to turn into a high-level player at some point in his career. With those two in particular, it all comes down to consistency.