Rich Rodriguez Leaves Door Open for Change at DC: ‘Not at This Point’

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Rich Rodriguez answered several questions after West Virginia’s third-straight loss, the third-straight game the defense let down the offense. However, his answer to the last question he faced stands out more than any other.

Rodriguez responded to the question about if he would consider making a change in play calling duties on defense, which suggests removing defensive coordinator Zac Alley, in a way that suggests it’s certainly a possibility.

Rodriguez offered a “not at this point” response after saying he was going to have long conversations with the staff in the coming days. He even went as far as to label his frustration in this defense as greater than how he’s felt about any past group in his career. He even said it was a fair question to ask about Alley, something that also hints it’s under consideration.

West Virginia’s defense allowed Arizona to hang 45 of their 52 total points on them on Saturday, which followed giving up 577 yards and 45 points at Iowa State and 609 yards and 41 points against Oklahoma State.

“It’s really frustrating. I think our fans were fantastic. They showed up today. I thought it was a great crowd. They tried to lift our defense up,” said Rodriguez about the defense letting down the offense. Offensively, Mike Hawkins, Cam Cook, who did fumble twice, and company racked up 522 yards and 31 points. In the week prior, they put up 518 yards and 42 points, losing a shootout to Iowa State. And the week before that, they reached 476 yards in a 41-24 loss to Oklahoma State.

“We had great crowd noise, and we didn’t reward them enough. It’s very frustrating because we can’t get a stop on defense, and then offensively there is probably a little bit of pressure. You can’t have a turnover. You have to score every possession and it is extremely frustrating. I told the team they are playing hard, but as coaches there is some stuff that we have to fix, and fix it in a hurry. I think our guys are conscientious enough to do that, but we didn’t get it fixed today defensively, and then offensively, when we had a couple of turnovers, it really cost us and we couldn’t get the momentum we needed.”

Entering the most recent debacle, Alley defended his players, at least talent wise.

“I think we are talented enough to be a lot better than we are.” Even the communication, once called out as something that needed fixed for the defense, has been fixed, although doesn’t matter without proper execution, according to Alley.

The numbers don’t lie though, and they aren’t friendly for Alley, brought in from Oklahoma to pair his defensive acumen with Rodriguez’s offensive mind. But now a year and half into his tenure in Morgantown, it’s clear, and unavoidable for Rodriguez despite their close personal relationship, that Alley’s defense hasn’t lived up to the hype and a change may be the only option left to fix the unit.

Find more coverage of Zac Alley and the WVU football program at WV Sports Now.