Quick Hits: What Rich Rod Learned, O-Line Growing Pains, Injuries, Ground Game + More

Tuesday afternoon, West Virginia head football coach Rich Rodriguez further discussed some takeaways from the Backyard Brawl and what to expect this week against the Kansas Jayhawks.

Opening statement

"Big win. Had a lot of recruits there, which was really nice. A lot of neat comments from them for those that were here for the first time in Morgantown. Now, we got a big challenge this week on the road. Kansas is really talented team and they had an open week, so they've had two weeks to prepare. New stadium, all that goes with it, with their Big 12 opener against us at home. We have to turn the page from last week and get ready to play a good football team Saturday night."

Improvements in the run game

"Tye (Edwards) helped. He ran hard. He's a big guy, ran physical. I thought we played pretty solidly up front, executed a little bit better in some of the run game. We really thought we'd be outnumbered and we were at times, but Tye broke a few tackles, and Clay (Ash) ran pretty well as well, so I think it was a combination of all that."

Thoughts on Kansas' defense

"They do a lot. They're very similar to us defensively from a standpoint that most teams you'll see a certain base defense first down, second down. Third down, you'll see all the exotic stuff. You'll see a lot from these guys on every down. With the two weeks, there's probably going to be some things that we hadn't seen that we need to be prepared for. The good thing for us is that our defense does a lot of that too, so we've seen a lot of that stuff in camp. I know on Saturday we're going to see some stuff we hadn't seen in a while, so we've got to make sure we're ready for that."

Building an offense with an entirely new offensive line

"That's the hardest part. Our guys don't have a lot of game experience, particularly up front on the o-line, but they're all freshmen in the system. Sometimes I forget when I go, this is happening, we need to do this or make this adjustment, and I'm like, well, shoot, these guys haven't made any adjustments yet. They're all truly like freshmen, except for a couple guys that played for us at Jax State. They're not seasoned veterans in this is the thing we do to fix that or fix this. That's the hardest part when you're playing with so many new guys, particularly in your first year. Year two is going to be a whole lot easier, and year three, you'll have more of it."

If he learned much about his team in the Backyard Brawl

"Yeah, I think for a multitude of reasons. One is you're playing a game in overtime, and it's a tremendous environment, a tight ballgame, really loud, really intense, so you find out a lot about that. But you don't want to make a judgment just on that, either, good or bad. I'm glad we won. I'd rather learn from a win than from a loss. It's a long season. We're going to have a lot of tough ballgames, and we got to learn as much as we can about our guys every day."

Jimmori Robinson set to make his debut

"We knew when we signed him, he's an athletic guy. He's got all the physical skills that you want. And we got to remember, he's like a freshman. This is his very first game, and he's got to play within the system."

Transfer portal window now only being one 10-day window

"I think it is a much better improvement. The two windows was too many, and then the length of the windows was too much. Most coaches would tell you it was crazy times. It's getting close to the NFL free agent time period. I've always said this, as many rules as we could kind of follow what the NFL does because they are the best professional organization there is, and they got a bunch of rules, and that's how they're so competitive every year. We need to follow that. I think going to the one transfer portal window, to me, is going to make it a whole lot better from an organizational standpoint."

The defense's performance vs. Pitt

"Our defense from the start kept us in the game with some turnovers and some stops against a pretty talented team, a pretty talented quarterback. We got enough pressure on them and got them in some third-and-long situations, which is always good to have. I thought our guys were really active, and we were down a couple guys too. We had the one targeting, and then Chase (Wilson) was out, so I loved the way they battled."

Injury update

"Chase (Wilson), we're hoping for him to be back. Preston Fox got hurt during the game, and he's kind of day-to-day right now, so we're waiting to see what his situation his. (Kannon) Katzer, I don't know if he'll be back yet, but we'll see what happens this week."

Thoughts on Kansas QB Jalon Daniels

"He's a well-built, strong-looking player, breaks tackles. You hate going against mobile quarterbacks like that; that's got experience. You could have the perfect defense called, and you got a guy right on him, and he shakes somebody or makes somebody miss and runs for a first down, extends a play, or makes a play. That's the biggest concern when you play a guy like that."