It’s not about dancing, ok? Don’t let yourself be taken minute.
It is how much you want and how will you sacrifice to obtain it.
“There is a greater sense of law with our young people than ever before,” says Virginie-Western Rich Rodriguez coach.
And if you think he did there, embrace your pearls. We just start.
I therefore ask how he deals with the law, which sent Rodriguez – in the news earlier this week because, sin of all sins, he told the players that he did not want them to dance on Tiktok – in a rare place, only a few coaches could go in this era of players’ empowerment.
The place of I don’t care.
“You don’t have to bear this. We will not do it, ”said Rodriguez. “It’s like that. It’s not really a conversation. It is more a directive. I do not make any suggestion, I give you an order.
It stops momentarily and grousse: “Sometimes I have to shout a little louder.”
Welcome, everyone, Richrod’s return to Morgantown. The coach who had the west by God a victory by playing for the 2007 national BCS championship, is back in his old trampling ground – and it is as if he never left.
In some ways anyway.
These are always three-star players and transform them into All-Americans (Hello, Pat White and Steve Slaton). That’s always more with less, while dealing with blue blood football programs with more money and more advantages.
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It is also Chris Borland.
Years ago, I found Rodriguez at the annual NCAA coach convention, and he was trying to explain why it didn’t work in Michigan. He spoke of Borland, a marginal recruit of seconds because of his size (5 feet 11th by a good day), but a beast of a player at hours south of Michigan in Kettering, Ohio.
Before Rodriguez Rejected in alabama And stayed in Virginie-Western (and Nick Saban later accepted work), and after his departure for Michigan and it went wrong, he pointed out Borland as a microcosm of failure.
The Rodriguez of Virginie-Western would have taken Borland, would develop it and had an assistant All-America (as Wisconsin did). But the Rodriguez of Michigan has passed, opting rather for more stars, and the size and weight that corresponds to the mold – and adapt to what Michigan should recruit.
Instead of what made Rodriguez, and by extension of Virginia-Western, a team that could win everything despite the inherent drawbacks.
He no longer makes this error, everyone. And now he has coach capital.
The Virginia-Western was desperate, and the fans base was raging and agitated after Bill Stewart, Dana Holgorsen and Neal Brown could not take over the magic of Richrod. The university therefore brought back the only coach who broke his collective heart almost two decades ago.
Because now it made sense.
So, if you think Rodriguez, whose coach’s motto is Hard Edge, who had 32-5 to 2005 to 2007 at Virginia-Western before leaving for Michigan, is backing up players who want to put me before us, you are clearly not followed.
Nile has a place and a goal in football, he said. He does not do football.
“You could tell a player to go through a wall, and he won’t cross it,” said Rodriguez. “Now they want to know why, and when you give him the answer, he will say:” This is not what he says about Google. “I always think good players want to be trained hard. I always think you can be demanding. It is our work as trainers to improve that you did not think so.
Nothing in this meeting will be easy. Virginia-Western slipped late under Holgorsen, then lacked gas under Brown. The program which had risen to national notoriety under Rodriguez, fought against the Rivals Pitt and Penn State and could not compete in Big 12.
The list has been returned and Rodriguez does not yet have a quarter. Heck, he can even return it at some point in 2025 to the first year student Scott Fox Jr., who signed up early and was a kind of revelation in spring training.
It is not surprising that Fox is a three -star recruit, and neglected by the schools of the Blue Blood Power Conference. He wants it. It is important for him.
“There are much more in your life than this sport. Your family, your religion, ”said Rodriguez. “But when we practice, when we play, this next piece is the most important thing in your world.”
Or as his friend Mike Leach has always said, if you don’t train him, you allow it.
In a few weeks, they will open the Milan Puskar stadium for the annual spring match, and they will lock their arms in the stands and sing “Country Roads”. The Renaissance will have started.
Somewhere in this crowd will be Rodriguez, hand call sheet, looking for help.
“I’m going to go to the stands and give fans a chance to call games,” said Rodriguez. “I did it in Arizona, and when they called a piece that did not work, I hung them at the top of my lungs. What a terrible call! Pull the tramp!
He laughs now, because it is good to be back home and good to be wanted. And good to have this coaching capital again.
He talks about competition at a high level early and not to settle. On tenacity and intensity and a fundamental belief that players to want be trained hard.
All these main blocks of football construction that have sometimes gotten lost in a world of social media.
“I always stick to it,” said Rodriguez. “(The players) must refocus on exactly what they are supposed to do. They are not in this team to be the best dancer in Tiktok. »»
The world of I Don’t Fare has returned to Virginia-Western.
Do not be taken in the minute.
Matt Hayes is the National Editor of National University Football for USA Today Sports Network. Follow him on x to @Matthayescfb.
This article originally appeared on USA Today: Virginia-Western coach Rich Rodriguez Rails on players
