Rich Rodriguez Recaps Spring Scrimmage, Talks QB Progress, Defense + More

Over the weekend, WVU held its first scrimmage of spring ball, and head coach Rich Rodriguez met with the media on Monday evening to give his thoughts on how it went. Here's everything he had to say about it and how things are progressing.

How the scrimmage went

“Eh, I thought it was just okay. The offense moved the ball some and made some plays. I thought the defense wasn’t very physical. Had some problems lining up a little bit — a lot of new guys on a new team. You could tell it was the first scrimmage from that standpoint. The effort was okay. I don’t think everybody understands our definition of playing hard is.”

How the quarterbacks have looked

“Scotty’s got a little bit of experience, so you can see that at times, but there some times he still (looks like) a young guy. Mike Hawkins has picked up things really well. He’s a competitive guy and has a great skillset, really pleased with his progress. Max Brown brings a lot of talent to the table, and you can see some good moments from him, too. There’s some skill there for sure.”

Early thoughts on the defense

“I like our athleticism. We’ve got a little more length in the secondary. But again, I have to remind our coaches that even though it’s the second year, it’s really the first year for a lot of them. I’m more worried about the fundamentals and getting better fundamentally. I like their competitiveness, but they’re still learning how to practice, too.”

What's been most frustrating

“I expect more progress quicker. I don’t have a lot of patience. It’s not a very good trait. I need to have more patience. I would expect us to be further along in practice seven than we are, but I probably would have said that last year, two years ago, and ten years ago. My point to our players and coaches is we shouldn’t have to repeat ourselves. We’re going to make a whole bunch of new mistakes tomorrow in practice; we shouldn’t have to be correcting the same ones over and over.”

Keeping Jaden Bray healthy

“There was something hard to detect that lingered a little bit with Jaden. It was a really difficult thing, and I think was something that would have been very hard to see, so it’s something we’ve been cautious with. Even now, Ryan (Garrett) is doing a good job of being cautious with him to keep him strong. He’s a hard worker. He’ll push himself. We’ll keep pressing, but be smart about his load. What Cam (Cook) is to the running back room, that’s what Jaden is to the receiver room.”