Photo by: Dan Friend
Rodriguez Preaching a Seven-Letter Word to His Mountaineer Defense
September 08, 2026 04:30 PM | Football
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – There is a word that has gained popularity around the Milan Puskar Center the last couple of days following last Saturday's 31-24 season-opening victory over Coastal Carolina.
It's seven letters and begins with C. And, no, it's not C-O-A-S-T-A-L.
The word is C-O-N-T-A-I-N!
Veteran coach Rich Rodriguez told his young and inexperienced West Virginia defense over and over again during the second half of last Saturday afternoon's game not to lose their contain while chasing Deuce Bailey, the Chanticleers' elusive quarterback.
Bailey continually dodged and weaved oncoming defenders like he was playing the old video game Frogger to the tune of 373 yards passing and three touchdowns.
He added an additional 54 yards on the ground before losses.
The good news for West Virginia is the Mountaineers managed to get to him five times for sacks resulting in 35 yards in losses, including a huge one late in the third quarter near the Chanticleers' goal line that flipped the field and set up Michael Hawkins' game-sealing 11-yard touchdown run.
The bad news is they had at least 12 good opportunities to get to him, meaning they failed to do so seven times. That's 12 instances when Mountaineer defenders whipped their blockers to get a clean path to the quarterback only to see their hard work be for naught because they failed to maintain their proper technique.
If you are a baseball player, getting hits in five out of 12 at-bats means you are batting .417 and playing in the all-star game. If you are a basketball player shooting that percentage at the free throw line, well, that gets you a spot on the bench next to the coach late in games.
How this stacks up in football is beyond my analytically challenged brain, but judging from Rodriguez's and defensive coordinator Zac Alley's responses earlier today, it's safe to assume they were hoping for fewer swings and misses from their guys.
"It's something we did a pretty decent job of in the first half creating flushes and got to him, and in the second half, we didn't run to the uphill shoulder of the quarterback and let him scramble around," Alley explained. "Hell, on the last play (a touchdown) we had three unblocked defenders in the backfield, and nobody touches him.
"It's hard to stay in coverage for seven seconds when they're running across the field," Alley added.
Watching West Virginia go after Bailey last Saturday sort of reminded me of watching my dog unsuccessfully chase rabbits in the backyard, which, as you can imagine, is not how defensive linemen are taught to pursue quarterbacks.
There is a specific way defenders are coached to rush quarterbacks, using outside leverage to force them to stay inside the pocket.
For defensive ends and edge rushers, that means they must never rush past the depth of the quarterback, ensuring that they stay parallel or deeper to cut off an outside escape lane.
Linemen engaged with blockers are taught to use their inside hand while keeping their outside arm and vision free to track the quarterback's movement. Coaches often teach the "cage" concept, which basically means to "condense" or "squeeze" the pocket rather than blindly chasing them like your dog does rabbits in the backyard.
Stay in your lane and utilize your teammates for inside help. These techniques are what the word "contain" implies.
However, sometimes strange things happen when you have roughly 80 new football players on your roster, most of them playing in front of 54,000 fans for the first time in their lives.
Even the returning guys sometimes get caught up in the moment, as junior defensive tackle Corey McIntyre Jr. admitted to doing earlier today.
This is not to single out McIntyre, one of five different players to collect sacks last weekend. He was the guy brought out to talk to the media on Tuesday, so naturally the subject of containing opposing quarterbacks came up.
"I've been hearing it a lot lately," he laughed.
"For sure, it's difficult to see, to make sure you contain," he added, "but you just got to remember to do your job always and help everybody that's behind you, basically. Because if you don't do your job, you are messing everybody else up."
McIntyre's father, Corey Sr., played at West Virginia and also in the NFL for the Philadelphia Eagles, Cleveland Browns, New Orleans Saints, Atlanta Falcons and Buffalo Bills during an 11-season professional career. Therefore, Corey's exposure to high-level football came at an early age because of his father.
And while Corey is listed as a fourth-year player on the roster, implying tons of college experience, he's really not that experienced. Prior to Saturday's opener, McIntyre appeared in just 13 college football games and was making his first career start.
"What went through my head, basically, was I was just free and I just wanted to go get that tackle so bad but … it slipped my mind to do what I had to do and that's on me, but we learn from our mistakes," he pointed out.
McIntyre wasn't alone.
Only two players, linebacker Ben Cutter and cornerback Nick Taylor, started games last year for Alley's Mountaineer defense. Wisconsin transfer Geimere Latimer II started games for Alley three years ago, but that was when the two were together at Jacksonville State in Conference USA.
The rest of these guys are just like Corey McIntyre - trying to figure it all out for the first time in real time.
"It was the first time starting for a lot of guys," Rodriguez pointed out. "I don't know, 18, 19 or something like that. Like every other team, the more you play in games, the more they get used to playing with each other. Football is such a team sport anyway, and one mistake makes everybody look bad."
Now, having had a weekend to process things, the next time Rodriguez or Alley yell the word "contain" it will carry on new meaning to them.
Incidentally, my Australian Shepherd is now 0 for 200 when it comes to chasing rabbits. It seems he can neither contain rabbits nor himself!
It's seven letters and begins with C. And, no, it's not C-O-A-S-T-A-L.
The word is C-O-N-T-A-I-N!
Veteran coach Rich Rodriguez told his young and inexperienced West Virginia defense over and over again during the second half of last Saturday afternoon's game not to lose their contain while chasing Deuce Bailey, the Chanticleers' elusive quarterback.
Bailey continually dodged and weaved oncoming defenders like he was playing the old video game Frogger to the tune of 373 yards passing and three touchdowns.
He added an additional 54 yards on the ground before losses.
The good news for West Virginia is the Mountaineers managed to get to him five times for sacks resulting in 35 yards in losses, including a huge one late in the third quarter near the Chanticleers' goal line that flipped the field and set up Michael Hawkins' game-sealing 11-yard touchdown run.
The bad news is they had at least 12 good opportunities to get to him, meaning they failed to do so seven times. That's 12 instances when Mountaineer defenders whipped their blockers to get a clean path to the quarterback only to see their hard work be for naught because they failed to maintain their proper technique.
If you are a baseball player, getting hits in five out of 12 at-bats means you are batting .417 and playing in the all-star game. If you are a basketball player shooting that percentage at the free throw line, well, that gets you a spot on the bench next to the coach late in games.
How this stacks up in football is beyond my analytically challenged brain, but judging from Rodriguez's and defensive coordinator Zac Alley's responses earlier today, it's safe to assume they were hoping for fewer swings and misses from their guys.
"It's something we did a pretty decent job of in the first half creating flushes and got to him, and in the second half, we didn't run to the uphill shoulder of the quarterback and let him scramble around," Alley explained. "Hell, on the last play (a touchdown) we had three unblocked defenders in the backfield, and nobody touches him.
"It's hard to stay in coverage for seven seconds when they're running across the field," Alley added.
Watching West Virginia go after Bailey last Saturday sort of reminded me of watching my dog unsuccessfully chase rabbits in the backyard, which, as you can imagine, is not how defensive linemen are taught to pursue quarterbacks.
There is a specific way defenders are coached to rush quarterbacks, using outside leverage to force them to stay inside the pocket.
For defensive ends and edge rushers, that means they must never rush past the depth of the quarterback, ensuring that they stay parallel or deeper to cut off an outside escape lane.
Linemen engaged with blockers are taught to use their inside hand while keeping their outside arm and vision free to track the quarterback's movement. Coaches often teach the "cage" concept, which basically means to "condense" or "squeeze" the pocket rather than blindly chasing them like your dog does rabbits in the backyard.
Stay in your lane and utilize your teammates for inside help. These techniques are what the word "contain" implies.
However, sometimes strange things happen when you have roughly 80 new football players on your roster, most of them playing in front of 54,000 fans for the first time in their lives.
Even the returning guys sometimes get caught up in the moment, as junior defensive tackle Corey McIntyre Jr. admitted to doing earlier today.
This is not to single out McIntyre, one of five different players to collect sacks last weekend. He was the guy brought out to talk to the media on Tuesday, so naturally the subject of containing opposing quarterbacks came up.
"I've been hearing it a lot lately," he laughed.
"For sure, it's difficult to see, to make sure you contain," he added, "but you just got to remember to do your job always and help everybody that's behind you, basically. Because if you don't do your job, you are messing everybody else up."
McIntyre's father, Corey Sr., played at West Virginia and also in the NFL for the Philadelphia Eagles, Cleveland Browns, New Orleans Saints, Atlanta Falcons and Buffalo Bills during an 11-season professional career. Therefore, Corey's exposure to high-level football came at an early age because of his father.
And while Corey is listed as a fourth-year player on the roster, implying tons of college experience, he's really not that experienced. Prior to Saturday's opener, McIntyre appeared in just 13 college football games and was making his first career start.
"What went through my head, basically, was I was just free and I just wanted to go get that tackle so bad but … it slipped my mind to do what I had to do and that's on me, but we learn from our mistakes," he pointed out.
McIntyre wasn't alone.
Only two players, linebacker Ben Cutter and cornerback Nick Taylor, started games last year for Alley's Mountaineer defense. Wisconsin transfer Geimere Latimer II started games for Alley three years ago, but that was when the two were together at Jacksonville State in Conference USA.
The rest of these guys are just like Corey McIntyre - trying to figure it all out for the first time in real time.
"It was the first time starting for a lot of guys," Rodriguez pointed out. "I don't know, 18, 19 or something like that. Like every other team, the more you play in games, the more they get used to playing with each other. Football is such a team sport anyway, and one mistake makes everybody look bad."
Now, having had a weekend to process things, the next time Rodriguez or Alley yell the word "contain" it will carry on new meaning to them.
Incidentally, my Australian Shepherd is now 0 for 200 when it comes to chasing rabbits. It seems he can neither contain rabbits nor himself!
Players Mentioned
LB
/ Football
N/S
/ Football
DL
/ Football
CB
/ FootballTuesday, September 08
Tuesday, September 08
Tuesday, September 08
Tuesday, September 08
