Rich Rodriguez had nothing positive to say after West Virginia lost to Kansas in blowout fashion on Saturday. The 62-year-old college football coach blamed every single person on the team for the poor performance, including himself.
Nobody was exempt from the criticism.
This kind of accountability is refreshing in an era of college football where players and coaches love to point fingers. However, there was not much else to say after such a demoralizing defeat.
Rich Rodriguez needs to pick a quarterback.
Nico Marchiol was benched during the fourth quarter. He completed 15 of 27 pass attempts for only 126 yards with one interception before his head coach gave him the hook.
Jaylen Henderson entered the game with 15 minutes remaining and immediately led the Mountaineers on its lone touchdown drive of the evening. The redshirt senior finished with two completions for 16 yards and 79 yards rushing on seven carries as the Mountaineers turned to the ground. Redshirt freshman Khalil Wilkins also got some reps as the third-string quarterback.
Rodriguez changed his game plan during the fourth quarter just to see what he has.
“We were doing a little bit quarterback run stuff,” he said. “It gives you a little different dimension. I thought Jaylen ran hard. Khalil is a fast guy, so we wanted to give him some game reps as well. We’ll figure out what we’re going to do going forward.”
West Virginia did not expect to have a quarterback controversy on its hands but here we are. The first-year head coach will likely hand-pick a new signal-caller through the transfer portal and/or traditional high school recruiting during the offseason. He needs to get his guy in the system. In the meantime, he must decide whether Marchiol deserves another shot or if one of the two runners is the better option.
West Virginia fans need to relax.
Rich Rodriguez was never going to win the national championship during his first year back in Morgantown. Rome was not built in one day.
Not only does he lack a star quarterback, he lost both of his best offensive weapons to injury in Jahiem White and Jaden Bray early in the season. They keep piling up.
“Injuries are unfortunate,” Rodriguez said. “They happen. They seem to be happening in bunches, but that’s not the reason we lost. We lost because we were poorly coached, poorly played.”
The head coach refuses to make excuses.
“Not good,” he said of the 31-point loss to Kansas. “Definitely not good. Nothing was good. Coaching not good. Playing not good. I was okay with practice, but evidently, not good enough.”
I appreciate the accountability. It wasn’t just on the players. It was on everybody. Especially the coaches.
“I know this is a process,” Rodriguez continued. “We’re going to get better and better as we go along, if we can stay healthy. That’s a big part of it. I told the team, I don’t think we have as much effort during the week as we did before… we’re going to need a better week of preparation and that starts with the coaches.”
Unfortunately, his comments did not appease the fringe lunatic portion of the fanbase. They already want Rich Rodriguez gone.
Fortunately, most of the fanbase at West Virginia seems to have their fingers on the pulse. They know this is only year one. They know to be patient. It’s a virtue!