Rodriguez Believes WVU's Slow Start to Spring Ball is 'Coach-Oriented'

The first spring with a new coaching staff is usually never pretty. There's a lot more teaching and learning going on than there is developing. When you combine that with the massive turnover of the roster, it can look really ugly at times.

West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez is well aware that this is going to be a process, but right now, he needs his assistants to be a little bit sharper in the way they teach their players while trying to get a lot of reps in.

West Virginia University head coach Rich Rodriguez | Christopher Hall - West Virginia on SI

“The guys have worked hard. I think the biggest drawback to our pace right now is more coach-oriented. Even though a lot of the coaches have been together, this whole group, coaches and managers and trainers and everybody else, have not worked together but for five practices. We meet enough, I mean we meet more than Congress, so you’d think we’d have all that fix all of our problems.

"I’ll have another long staff meeting today, just talking about the efficiency of coaching and what I call coaching on the run," Rodriguez continued. "Everything is situational - down and distance and all that, but we’re not doing a really good job staff-wise of managing that. We have a certain number of plays, guys are going to run, a certain down and distance. It’s on the script. The plays may not be on the script, but the down and distance is on the script. So, to me, we’re not efficient enough in practice. I think our coaches are still adjusting a little bit to how I want to do it.”

This isn't necessarily an indictment on the staff Rodriguez formed. It's more about finding the fastest way to get everyone on the same page so they can accurately evaluate the roster before the next transfer portal window in April. Rodriguez is confident in his staff and believes they are the right guys to help get the program on track; they just need to gain chemistry with one another and quickly.

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