Rodriguez is Watching Who Sinks or Swims When Things Get Real Today

The day has finally arrived. Scrimmage day.

While it may not be the ultimate decider of who wins a starting job or sees the field in 2025, today's practice will be a key data point in the process of making those decisions. Practice in shorts can only tell you so much, and even padded practice has some limitations to it. When you go truly live, it's real football. No defenders pulling up short of the quarterback or giving a bear hug to act as a sack. If the shot is there, they'll deliver it today.

Rodriguez wants his players to be smart, obviously, so there won't be any undercutting tackles, crack back blocks, or shots to the head. If there is, well, said player is going to be in a heap of trouble. But that doesn't mean you can't play the game hard and physical. He and the coaching staff need them to for a bunch of reasons, but also to see how the quarterbacks react when the bullets are live.

What does Rodriguez want to see?

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

“I think the effort will be there. They’re going to make mental mistakes, there’s that part of it. You’re hoping they’re not making the same mental mistakes that they did today or yesterday or the day before. The physicality should be there. There’s probably too much assistance early in camp with coaches telling guys what to do, and that’s not going to happen in games. The players have to take charge of it themselves, so part of my goal in scrimmage is not as much coaching going on per se. Let the guys play and correct the moments when we have time to correct them, and then evaluate pretty heavily what they do.”

The scrimmage is expected to go approximately 100 plays with all five quarterbacks — Nicco Marchiol, Jaylen Henderson, Max Brown, Khalil Wilkins, and Scotty Fox Jr. — set to get reps. It'll feel like a game for the most part, but Rodriguez will throw in some situational stuff and swap out units at random to keep everyone on their toes.

We'll hear from the head ball coach around 12:30 p.m. this afternoon to get a summary of how things went. As always, we'll have the highlights of the press conference available on our website shortly after in "Quick Hits."

What does Rodriguez want to see?

MORE STORIES FROM WEST VIRGINIA ON SI