For Rodriguez, Less is More This Spring
April 16, 2026 01:27 PM | Football
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Years of coaching experience have led Rich Rodriguez to the conclusion that sometimes less can be more.
His West Virginia University football roster this spring is loaded with transfer portal additions and junior college transfers, not to mention 39 current high school players that make up the massive signing class that his coaching staff inked last December and was rated among the best in the country.
Rodriguez's transfer portal work has also earned high praise, so the talent level in all three phases has experienced an immediate upgrade.
Mountaineer fans will get their first glimpse of the recruiting work Rodriguez's staff has put in this Saturday afternoon when they come to Morgantown for this year's spring extravaganza, being billed as the Gold-Blue Spring Festival.
In the meantime, for the first couple of weeks of spring ball, Rodriguez felt there was just too much chess and not enough checkers being played with his players.
In other words, to borrow a favorite Jed Drenning phase, he wanted things simplified so he can get a better gauge of who can do what. There will be plenty of time later on for the offensive and defensive coaches to game plan against each other.
"I think sometimes coaches will try to do too much," he admitted earlier this week. "They want to be the smartest guy in the room and have all of these fancy schemes and stuff like that to where it's still just 11 guys.
"We're playing checkers not chess (right now)," he added. "We're not trying to think four moves ahead; we're just trying to think the next move. I've actually made the defense hone down their playlist from the first day we split the teams up, and I made the offense cut down their playlist because we've still got to evaluate who we have and what we do and not worry about the latest trend or the latest fancy play on offense or defense."
The coach said he made the decision to do this about midway through spring practice, going as far as splitting up the roster into two equal teams in order to get the fairest evaluation of the players. It really wasn't fair for the twos to always be going against the ones or vice versa, so they have all became 1As right now.
He indicated the most recent scrimmage gave the staff some useful information on the team. After all, you can't accentuate your team's strengths until you know all of its weaknesses.
As a former Mountaineer assistant coach once told me, whenever you choose to attack an area, whether it's offensively or defensively, you are making yourself vulnerable someplace else.
The key is to know and understand those vulnerabilities as soon as possible.
"I think we've gotten better information since we've reduced things," Rodriguez explained. "It's been better to be able to measure that and (the team's last scrimmage) was way better because we honed it down, split them up, and you got a lot better feel for, 'Okay, this guy looks like he can help us a little bit' or 'this guy still has got a ways to go.' I should have probably done this earlier, but I just didn't think of it."
Most importantly, what Rodriguez is trying to instill in his players right now is the core values of how he wants them to play Mountaineer football, representing West Virginia University and the entire state.
"We wanted them to have a certain edge, and by watching them – and not that the guys last year didn't, I think some of them did, but I think the second year for the handful of guys who are coming back, they understand that," he observed. "It's contagious, if that makes sense, that once you become un-soft, you never want to go back to being soft.
"And I think I can see that shaping a little bit there," he continued. "It always seems like it has taken a year or two in all of my previous places, other than Jax State where it kind of happened right away, but that's the goal. If you say nothing else but 'man, coach, there isn't anybody soft on your team. All of those guys have a hard edge and play with a hard edge.' That doesn't mean they are stupid and hit people with cheap shots, but 'man, you guys have got a hard edge.'
"That's what our football team needs to be. That's what our state expects, every player on every play playing that way all the time," he added. "There is not one time a guy is loafing or is soft that it doesn't get addressed and corrected. There were too many times that happened last year, and there cannot be one time that happens this year."
Which, to Rodriguez, means simplifying things and playing fundamentally sound football.
"(That is) more important right now than trying to be tricky," he said.
West Virginia had a light practice on Wednesday ahead of Saturday's scrimmage inside Milan Puskar Stadium beginning at noon and concluding at 1:30 p.m.
Afterward, a free Jake Owen concert is scheduled to get underway at 2:30 p.m.
"I've talked to a lot of fans and they say they are excited about coming up here and seeing some of the new guys and seeing some of the activities we are having, so if you are a Mountaineer fan and you can make it this Saturday, come on up here and check us out and check out all of the things we've got going on.
"And bring your whole family up and let's have a great time," Rodriguez concluded.
His West Virginia University football roster this spring is loaded with transfer portal additions and junior college transfers, not to mention 39 current high school players that make up the massive signing class that his coaching staff inked last December and was rated among the best in the country.
Rodriguez's transfer portal work has also earned high praise, so the talent level in all three phases has experienced an immediate upgrade.
Mountaineer fans will get their first glimpse of the recruiting work Rodriguez's staff has put in this Saturday afternoon when they come to Morgantown for this year's spring extravaganza, being billed as the Gold-Blue Spring Festival.
In the meantime, for the first couple of weeks of spring ball, Rodriguez felt there was just too much chess and not enough checkers being played with his players.
In other words, to borrow a favorite Jed Drenning phase, he wanted things simplified so he can get a better gauge of who can do what. There will be plenty of time later on for the offensive and defensive coaches to game plan against each other.
"I think sometimes coaches will try to do too much," he admitted earlier this week. "They want to be the smartest guy in the room and have all of these fancy schemes and stuff like that to where it's still just 11 guys.
"We're playing checkers not chess (right now)," he added. "We're not trying to think four moves ahead; we're just trying to think the next move. I've actually made the defense hone down their playlist from the first day we split the teams up, and I made the offense cut down their playlist because we've still got to evaluate who we have and what we do and not worry about the latest trend or the latest fancy play on offense or defense."
The coach said he made the decision to do this about midway through spring practice, going as far as splitting up the roster into two equal teams in order to get the fairest evaluation of the players. It really wasn't fair for the twos to always be going against the ones or vice versa, so they have all became 1As right now.
He indicated the most recent scrimmage gave the staff some useful information on the team. After all, you can't accentuate your team's strengths until you know all of its weaknesses.
As a former Mountaineer assistant coach once told me, whenever you choose to attack an area, whether it's offensively or defensively, you are making yourself vulnerable someplace else.
The key is to know and understand those vulnerabilities as soon as possible.
"I think we've gotten better information since we've reduced things," Rodriguez explained. "It's been better to be able to measure that and (the team's last scrimmage) was way better because we honed it down, split them up, and you got a lot better feel for, 'Okay, this guy looks like he can help us a little bit' or 'this guy still has got a ways to go.' I should have probably done this earlier, but I just didn't think of it."
Most importantly, what Rodriguez is trying to instill in his players right now is the core values of how he wants them to play Mountaineer football, representing West Virginia University and the entire state.
"We wanted them to have a certain edge, and by watching them – and not that the guys last year didn't, I think some of them did, but I think the second year for the handful of guys who are coming back, they understand that," he observed. "It's contagious, if that makes sense, that once you become un-soft, you never want to go back to being soft.
"And I think I can see that shaping a little bit there," he continued. "It always seems like it has taken a year or two in all of my previous places, other than Jax State where it kind of happened right away, but that's the goal. If you say nothing else but 'man, coach, there isn't anybody soft on your team. All of those guys have a hard edge and play with a hard edge.' That doesn't mean they are stupid and hit people with cheap shots, but 'man, you guys have got a hard edge.'
"That's what our football team needs to be. That's what our state expects, every player on every play playing that way all the time," he added. "There is not one time a guy is loafing or is soft that it doesn't get addressed and corrected. There were too many times that happened last year, and there cannot be one time that happens this year."
Which, to Rodriguez, means simplifying things and playing fundamentally sound football.
"(That is) more important right now than trying to be tricky," he said.
West Virginia had a light practice on Wednesday ahead of Saturday's scrimmage inside Milan Puskar Stadium beginning at noon and concluding at 1:30 p.m.
Afterward, a free Jake Owen concert is scheduled to get underway at 2:30 p.m.
"I've talked to a lot of fans and they say they are excited about coming up here and seeing some of the new guys and seeing some of the activities we are having, so if you are a Mountaineer fan and you can make it this Saturday, come on up here and check us out and check out all of the things we've got going on.
"And bring your whole family up and let's have a great time," Rodriguez concluded.
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