MORGANTOWN -- Rich Rodriguez' first year as West Virginia's football coach was a trying one.
Taking over for the school's all-time winningest coach, Don Nehlen, Rodriguez knew he might not be given the same grace period as Nehlen was 20-some years ago.
Coming off a bowl victory, Rodriguez' job wasn't to rebuild a bad program. It was to redefine a good one.
Rodriguez has rebuilt a program before. At Glenville, he took a team that scored 20 points the year before he got there and had them playing for a national championship four years later.
But his first season at Glenville produced a 1-7-1 record, most similar to the 3-8 year he had at WVU this year.
"This season has been harder on me than that first year at Glenville," Rodriguez said last week. "The expectations weren't has high as they are here.
"I really thought we would have a better season on the field and record-wise."
But he insists the program has been set on a solid foundation.
Rodriguez has a plan to return WVU to national prominence, and he's sticking to it.
From the near-brutal off-season conditioning program to grueling August workouts, Rodriguez wanted a team that was in better shape than any other. Nobody could accuse the Mountaineers of wilting from that standpoint.
West Virginia's quick mental mastery of Rodriguez' no-huddle, spread offense gave him hopes that the Mountaineers could hit the field running. But while the offense had attained the head knowledge, it never trickled down to the heart. Rodriguez said the extra effort needed to win just wasn't to be found.
That was never more in evidence than the play of the wide receivers.
Quarterback Brad Lewis was never effective throwing on the run and he was never the running threat needed in the offense either. Compounding this problem was an injury to Rasheed Marshall, who appeared physically more capable of running the offense than Lewis.
Several times when Lewis was running for his life, receivers just stopped running their routes. If balls weren't perfectly thrown, little or no effort was made to adjust. Blocking by the wideouts, a premium in the offense, was non-existent early in the season.
Until wide receivers who understand what Rodriguez really wants are found, the offense will continue to struggle into next year. Expect a few junior college wideouts to be brought into the program.
The running game should improve with four returning starters on the offensive line and running back Avon Cobourne back for his senior season. Rodriguez wants a premium put on getting linemen bigger and stronger. In the Big East Conference, this is a must.
Defensively, the play improved as the year went along.
The players appeared to like the new system, but it left little room for error and there were plenty of errors early in the year. While WVU would win the majority of plays, the ones lost were lost big.
A prime example was Boston College running back William Green. The tailback gained 204 yards on 28 carries against WVU. About 150 of those yards came on three runs, two of which he was never touched. His other 25 runs netted a mere 54 yards.
As the year went on, big plays in the running game were cut down significantly. But the problem never went away completely, thanks in part to the offense having too many three-and-outs, leaving the defense little time to rest, resulting in poor tackling late in games.
Rodriguez hopes a stronger team will help alleviate the poor tackling that plagued WVU late in games this year.
Unfortunately, most of West Virginia's best defensive players will graduate.
The team's top tacklers, Rick Sherrod and Kyle Kayden graduate, along with the talented Shawn Hackett and leading interceptor Richard Bryant. Tackle Antwan Lake and linebacker-end Corey McIntyre will also be hard to replace.
What is made up in knowing the system better by the players who replace these standouts will be lost by less game experience and in some cases, lesser talented players.
While the 3-8 season was hard to take, several seniors refused to put down the coaching staff. They believe Rodriguez' new offensive and defensive approaches will take hold and that WVU's program will be a winner once again.
But improvement must be made in all phases of play if WVU is to compete against a schedule which shows Miami (Fla.), Syracuse and Boston College at home along with road trips to Wisconsin, Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh and East Carolina.
Rodriguez knows he has much work to do.
Sports writer Greg Talkington can be reached at 626-1444 or by e-mail at gtalkington@exponent-telegram.com
