Rich Rodriguez Quotations

What makes it tough is they're better for sure than they were two years ago,

Would I be surprised if Boston College jumped? Are you kidding? I think they've been waiting to be asked for a year now, if not longer.

We treat it as an 11-round season and our guys understand that, and if they don't, I'm going to keep preaching it because it's true. The more you win, the more that is at stake.

Somebody just has to step up and take over. With our backs, somebody will do it.

Obviously, the ultimate goal is to win the national championship. I think any coach of a program at this level would say that.

Right now, he's blocking better than any wideout we've had. He's really taken to heart all the little things you're supposed to do. He's earned the right to start.

I did not think our intensity level was what it should be.

I don't ever remember having five turnovers and still winning the game. Syracuse had a good defensive plan. We were scrambling all day on offense.

I'd already be on the plane to Florida. I don't think he (recruiting coordinator Herb Hand) knew that we had a press conference at 8 a.m. if we won, so I had to reschedule. But, that's a good thing.

But Adam and Pat both have earned the right to play. They both are good enough to win with. The nice part is we can run the whole offense with both. They're unselfish and understand their roles.

I don't think any one game defines a season. I don't like to put all those eggs in one basket. Never have. Don't see as I ever will.

He's had a really good camp, ... He's a veteran guy who can play slot receiver as well. He's more confident than he's ever been. He's in great shape, and we're excited for him.

He understands everything we're trying to do. He's invaluable to us, more so for his leadership than anything else.

He got our Hammer Award for two big blows.

We took the approach that we're playing an 11-round championship fight. Right now we've completed seven rounds and we're on round eight. And we also have some lessons to teach from last year when we had a chance and our destiny in our own hands. We stubbed our toe a little bit at the end.

We're obviously excited to win the outright Big East championship. Our young men have worked very hard all season to achieve this goal.

He's doing a nice job, he's our backup long snapper and he's competing to get better. We've been proud of the way he has worked. He's better now than he was last year and every week he keeps getting better and better.

His options are really limited. I know he'd have to go to a junior college and graduate before getting a chance at another Division I school.

He's calm and composed out there. It's not like he's a freshman at all.

Heck, it's still the Sugar Bowl. We're in the Sugar Bowl, but just not back there.

The only thing I was worried about was timing. I was proud of the way we came out ready to play.

I think it's a big bonus for us to be able to play four, five running backs because having fresh legs and playing two at a time and doing all the things our running backs have to do, they can get pretty gassed.

It is a little bit of a grind. I can't remember going eight straight like this. We'll make sure they take care of their bodies and get some rest.

I think that's a little high. We're not playing like a top 10 team. But we're not going to complain about it.

I thought he'd be a great player, and he's turned out to be every bit of that.

I think you're going to have to make some plays in the passing game, whether or not the opportunities are there I don't know. But nobody has been able to run the ball on them,

I think you get answers to your questions in every game. We found out a lot of answers in our first game. I'm not sure we found out any the second game. But, in every game you learn more and more.

I think we took to heart some of the criticism of our league and the fact that no one was predicting us to win. Basically, we were playing in their home environment, their home state.

I think it's quite a challenge for our team, with four weeknight games and three of those on short weeks. I'm not in favor of playing three weeknight conference games on the road, because of the class time we miss, but television dictates most of our schedule.

I was a little disappointed in that (Big East) rule. We've had plenty of cases on the team now, and in the past, where a guy was a couple points short on a test. Yet he comes here and graduates and has a great career and does a great job representing the program.

Jason's brought a lot to us. Injuries happen. We're in the seventh straight week of playing without an open date.

Jason's brought a lot to us, ... Injuries happen. We're in the seventh straight week of playing without an open date.

People are going to try to build them up in the media and on campus. I keep telling them they already live in glass houses, being football players. Now that glass is getting a good cleaning. People are going to see them. They have to stay hungry and want it.

Our guys, I think they've played hungry. It's something we can hopefully continue to do. Every game we've played this year, they've played hungry and played like they want to prove themselves.

Our guys believed the whole season that we could defend our Big East title, and we've played with that dedication and focus on the field. I'm very happy for our seniors and our whole football family.

Our guys will understand the value of the ball, or they won't play. That's always been the case. We're still making a lot of mistakes.

Our young team will have to meet the challenge again.

Our young guys grew up. I can't say enough about our backs. We kept battling and battling.

Playing in a BCS game helps with getting the team name out there. Players are going to go where they think they can excel.

Pat, when he goes in there it's like he's been there the whole time. He managed the game well, made a couple of big plays.

Pat's got a different gear and I think everybody saw that.

Pat just seized the opportunity and made the most of it.

Pat is a talented guy with a strong leg who is going to keep getting better.

I wish we would have tackled him better. He's the type of player you see right in front of you, but he makes you miss.

I think out guys are excited because practice is finally over.

I think Pat White was the difference in the first half. He was able to make some big runs, some big plays.

It has obviously been a really good rivalry, ... I can remember as a player, it was always a tough, defensive, low-scoring kind of ballgame, coming down to the last possession. The last three years, we've had some really good games against them. It's very emotional on both sides. I think there's a lot of passion both fans have. Both programs have been excited to play each other.

Most of our players have never been in there before.

Why would you redshirt him, and he'd be a 30-year-old senior? ... J.R.'s worked hard. He's gotten better every day. He earned the right to be in there.

We're a little more talented now than maybe we've been the last couple years. But we've got to show it on the field.

We have a lot of work to do. But I'd rather win ugly than lose pretty.

We never had an opportunity to get another group in there, or test our conditioning. We never got gassed, because they were three and out so many times. We wanted to play more people. That's a goal of ours.

You know injuries are going to happen. Somebody else has to step up and take that role over.

We haven't had the ball very much. We had a couple of nice drives in the second half against Rutgers, ate up the clock and got field goals.

We know people can outnumber you in the box. We will be forced to pass, and we'll have to do so. That will be an important part of the summer, how the quarterbacks and wide receivers work together, when we can't be around them.

Those guys were not intimidated or overly excited about the environment at all. Nothing overwhelmed them. Really this was the case for them all year.

The police want them to act responsibly and respectfully, and our fans will do that,

We are going to take him as long as he does his part academically, and we'll continue to support him as long as Greg does what he needs to do. He's got to do his part, and he knows that.

We'll show them that it's a hundred yards long from goal line to goal line and 53 yards wide. We'll show them the goal posts are just the same as they are everywhere else.

There has been a lot made of our depth. I think we're OK depth-wise. I don't know if we are overloaded. But I think we can get five or six guys in there pretty good.

We're not ready, but we're more ready every day. If I tell both they will play, they will play. But I don't want them looking over their shoulder, either, thinking they will come out with one mistake. Both give us an extra dimension.

This will be the rubber match, so it will be nice to try to get on the top. That will be an upset, for sure.

When you have two fast guys, and they get a crease they can make things happen. I think it's taken a while for our guys to get comfortable, but I think they are now.

When you play a team that's got a great secondary with great speed, you can't make a lot of moves. Coach (Calvin) Magee and I were on him the last two weeks, 'Steve, press the blocks, make one cut and just hit it.' And he did that today.

We've got to be aware of where No. 18 (Davis) is on every play.

We will certainly miss Pac Man as a player and as a valued member of the Mountaineer football family, but I certainly understand his decision.

We've played Miami when they've had some of the top-ranked defenses in the country. This is the best defense we've seen, period.

We'll have to roll guys in there, ... I think we felt his absence a little bit. He'd really played well at nose guard and held the point down for us. That's a key, key position on the defensive front.

This team really believes in each other and what we're trying to do,

You have to be an unselfish guy to handle this role. Both of them are. I'd rather have too many bullets than not enough. Both are weapons.

When you make somebody one-dimensional, your chances of winning the game are pretty good.

We lost a lot of guys to graduation last year, so we realized there wasn't going to be a lot of talk about us winning the Big East this year. It was neat to watch them come together.

We think Mozes may be even better at center and Hines even better at guard. It's an experiment we've tried.

We'd have to check your pulse if you don't get excited for this one.

We went over to the Dome last night to the game to get a sense of the atmosphere, and I know it will be even louder Monday night. Communication is going to be a big key, but we can't prepare our guys fully until it happens.

Even though they were coming back we didn't panic because our offense was still moving the ball. We stubbed our toes a little bit with penalties, but we weren't getting three-and-outs. At least we were able to stem the tide with our offense getting some first downs.

Everybody claps. Ain't one guy who does his own thing.

At the time, you might recall we were having a little trouble with a guy named Steve Suter at Maryland. We were ready to try anything.

Convinced is too strong a word. I'm optimistic. I feel encouraged that he can play that position. The thing with Nate is we've got to make a decision which position will get him on the field quicker. He does enough things from a physical standpoint we think he can play somewhere for us.

As I mentioned to some folks last night. There's a lot of good football teams in the Big East and we had some very competitive battles with them and we'll continue to have those the next several years.

There's some nicks and bruises, but nothing that should keep anyone out of practice.

The trainers think he may be 85 to 90 percent ready by Saturday.

I see the quarterback is distributing ball to the right guys, making the right reads, and moving the ball down the field. I am very impressed by him.

I've been awake all night waiting on it. That's obviously our biggest concern.

It would behoove us to have a low-scoring game. For that to happen, obviously we've got to play very well on defense and be lucky too,

Things looked bleak there for a long time. But our guys kept hanging in there and we got a little momentum there in the fourth quarter.

I've studied this a little bit. The reason they do this is because flying in a 'V' formation creates a draft and that saves 70 percent of their energy. If one or two fall out of formation, others will go down and bring them back in. They can't survive on their own.

It was a little bit wet but we were able to get through it. We don't have Field Turf where we are so, if it rains extensively, we'll have to change our practice site.

On this level, when you have zero turnovers, you usually win. When you have five, you usually lose.

No question, he's maybe the most valuable player we have on the team, period. Not just from a playing standpoint, but also from a leadership standpoint. We're keeping our fingers crossed.

The one on the screen which was the biggest hit of the year so far. It showed the guys that if you get the right leverage and do the right thing, you can have a lot of fun out there. He's earned the right to start this week.

So there are a lot of factors that go into having a successful season. I'm proud to be coaching in the state of West Virginia. There's a tremendous amount of outstanding coaches in our state at a lot of schools.

Coaches always look for parallels. There are some similarities, and we'll try to draw from that.

As I told the team, we're not only looking for guys who can learn the system, we're also looking for guys who love to compete every day. The greatest players I've ever coached were guys who not only had talent, but wanted to win every drill they were in, and every play.

That gets brought up every time I talk to the media. There's been so much that has gone on in our league, it's almost like I knew that was coming.

You've got to try to limit the big plays, which we've been pretty good at so far this year. They score so quickly, I think it takes the other team out of their offense so fast.

This has been a magical year to be coach at West Virginia University. But you get so focused on what you're doing, and sometimes bad things happen.

They showed some of their explosiveness. I thought Pat White played extremely well, ran the ball well and made some good decisions. And Steve Slaton, at times, he's got that burst that he can break one at any time.

They know Maryland. They know we've been embarrassed by them several times in the past.

They have given us some fits in the last several years,