Rich Rodriguez isn’t hiding from WVU’s defensive problems. He’s staring right at them, annoyed by what he’s seen, but still convinced the unit has room to get a lot better before the season is over.
That matters, because the numbers have been brutal. West Virginia has given up 1,668 yards and 131 points in three conference games, enough to have fans venting and wondering whether anything meaningful can change before the offseason. Rodriguez doesn’t buy the idea that this group is beyond repair.
“Most of them, yeah,” Rodriguez said when asked if the issues can be fixed during the season. “There's no question.
When you give up two halfback passes in the Iowa State game and a flea-flicker pass in this game, those are just embarrassing. That should never happen.
We just got to get coached better and obviously perform a lot better to give us a chance to win games. I'm encouraged because I know we can play a whole lot better.”
That’s not the language of a coach ready to toss the whole defense in the trash. Rodriguez believes the talent is there, and he’s putting the weight on coaching, alignment and execution instead of treating the unit like a lost cause.
The issues, as he sees them, have come from a mix of run-game fit problems, poor eye discipline and players simply not lining up correctly. None of it has been the same from week to week, which has made the whole thing even harder to pin down.
“We've looked at everything,” Rodriguez said. “The whole staff watched the film for four and a half hours Sunday morning, watched it with the whole defense Sunday afternoon, and trying to get to the bottom of exactly why, because it's been a different issue or issues every week.
I know what the answers are, and the coaches know what the answers are, and we have good enough players to play better. We just, as a staff, got to find ways to get our guys to play better, and that includes everything: How we're practicing, who's playing where, fundamentally, schematically, everything.
I think there is the ability for us to be pretty good on defense with the guys that we have and the coaches that we have, but it's not shown up.”
Changes are coming. Rodriguez said there will be personnel moves moving forward, including some players who have already been shifted once potentially moving again, particularly on the back end. He also said some players who haven’t seen much action so far are likely to get more playing time.
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