Before we start, a quick "shout out" (tangent... I still picture the end of Soul Train when dancers strut their stuff through two lines of people and give a "shout out")... anyway... to Chris Richardson and Matt Keller from Blue Gold News. We've talked online, but today we finally met in person.

Extra crispy
Steve Slaton and Pat White practiced today, as well as several others recovering from some minor dingers. Coach Rodriguez's mood was immediately known with opening statements like...

"It probably helped practice become a little crisper. It was probably our best practice since camp started."

"The intensity was better, the execution was better on both sides."

"It was a pretty good practice. We got some things done today."

"I hadn't been real pleased with the intensity for the most part. We're used to high intensity, high tempo practices. I think the team understands that."

"After I watch the film tonight, if it looks like we were running around like I thought, then we won't run after practice tomorrow."

More on that
"The biggest thing you've got to do is get your timing down. I read somewhere the NFL has... when they start their training camp, they've got 50 practices and 4 preseason games before they play one that counts. We've got 29 practices and no scrimmage games. So, it's a little bit more difficult to get our guys ready."

Say cheese
Coach Rodriguez briefly discussed the importance of film in seeing whether or not the young guys can help this year or not. Additional scrimmages are scheduled for Wednesday and Saturday, followed by more film analysis.

Coach Rodriguez said he expects to have a pretty good identification of his 2-deep after these two scrimmages.

I keep thinking back to a comment in last Wednesday's interview. "A lot of our young guys are still, I think, a little bit in shock with Division I football practice... the way you go from drill to drill and everything is filmed... there are eyes on your every move. Obviously a lot of guys aren't accustomed to that."

Film is really going to play an important role in the next week.

Lyons and Connolly
Someone asked about two of our freshmen receivers, Wes Lyons and Carmen Connolly. Jen said there were some of out-of-area media there today. My bet is the question came from a Pittsburgh reporter, as these two guys are from western PA.

"I don't know, I think Carmen is... he's farther ahead than Lyons is as far as getting in the mix. Wes has been bothered by a sprained thumb, and I think he's still catching up a little bit conditioning-wise and with our tempo."

"I think he's (Carmen) probably got a closer chance to helping us than Wes right now. But, that all could change in a week."

Quickly about Pat
"He looked fine. I think he got a little sore toward the end. But, he made it through all the practice and that was a good thing. "

Great quote
Gee, another Pittsburgh reference. Someone mentioned Dave Wannstedt's comment about how Pitt was building a fence around western PA, basically baiting Coach Rodriguez for a quote. He gave one.

"I'm sure there's a gate or two in that fence."

"We've always had great success at West Virginia with western PA guys. I see that being a staple of our program."

Guard/Tackle
(referring to Ryan Stanchek) "That experiment has gone pretty well at tackle. He's still adjusting a little bit. I think he likes the fact he's in a two-point stance a lot instead of a three-point. I think he'll be able to do the job out there."

(referring to John Bradshaw) "He could play tackle and guard, but we think he's probably better suited at guard. He can play both right and left guard. You'd like to have 2 centers, 3 guards and 3 tackles, total. And, we're trying to gear our thoughts into finding who those eight guys are."

"We really like our young guys. All of our freshmen offensive linemen... all of our new offensive linemen... we think they'll be really good players. I just don't think they're going to be ready right now."

Coach Rodriguez also mentioned his current roster contains more guard-type players than tackles. He feels they seriously must address the need for more tackles in the future.

Pat Liebig
"Pat has been in the program a while. He was a gray shirt, waited his turn. He has battled some back problems and I mentioned earlier... at the end of last year, he was probably playing as well or better than any defensive lineman we had. Very strong guy. He's a tough guy. Very, very tough individual. Probably epitomizes what hopefully our program is about... a guy that hangs in there, battles, and when he gets his shot, he makes the most of it. He's very, very valuable to us."

"Our defense... when we have a dominant or an outstanding noseguard, it makes the whole defense work. We've been fortunate to have them. Back from Ben Lynch to all the guys that have played there... Pat Liebig, if he can bring that to the table for us this year, it's going to make our defense very, very good."

Foot-ball
(referring to Pat McAfee) "Well, he's in green today, so he's still got the Christmas colors on. But, I guess he's kicking some short kicks."

Coach Rodriguez said they were just being cautious, and he expected the trainers to clear him either Wednesday or Thursday.

(referring to Scott Kozlowski) "Scotty has been kicking pretty well. And he's been doing some backup field goal kicking in emergency situations. I think he was pretty good for a true freshman. But we expect him to be even better this year."

A flashback question on first few recruiting classes
"I think the first season was different in a lot of ways. Everybody wanted to throw the panic button and there were some changes that had to be made. But, there were a lot, we thought, positive things that were happening that maybe didn't show up in the record."

"The classes that we brought in there were guys that really held the rope for 4 or 5 years and helped build the base of the foundation of the program."

J.T. Thomas
The decision to redshirt J.T. Thomas or not has yet to be made. But, Coach Rodriguez surprisingly gave quantifiable guidelines for the decision. If J.T. was going to be a starter on every special teams unit and play some defense, then they would use him now. Otherwise, he'll be redshirted. The coaches should have this decided within 2 weeks.

This discussion made reference to a similar decision made on Reed Williams last year. Which led too...

Reed Williams
"Reed's doing well. He played last year, obviously, a little bit, and I think that was good for him, because he's a guy that's on all special teams and he's going to play a lot at linebacker. He's a very instinctive player."

What's impressive is that Coach Rodriguez compared Reed's instincts to those of Grant Wiley's. Here's to hoping Reed's mom is as social and into Mountaineer football as Grant's was. It seemed every time I wore my #6 jersey resulted in a big hug, a picture for the in-progress scrapbook, and a few pleasant minutes with a lady that was really appreciative of our love for Grant. I'll never forget that play in Blacksburg.