Rich Rodriguez might be considered a pioneer of offensive tempo, particularly as it comes to having his teams push pace, but he's still, deep down, a bit of an old-school coach.
He's a West Virginia native back for his second tour atop the West Virginia football program, and he's two days into his first preseason camp back in charge of the Mountaineers.
RichRod, however, is in prime form from a standpoint of candid expectations.
And Thursday's practice, the team's second in advance of its Aug. 30 opener against Robert Morris, was not at all up to Rodriguez's standards.
Which left him utilizing his press conference to let the world -- especially his team -- know that the Mountaineers were "soft" on this day.
Not to mention that he reminded everyone that there's still plenty of players lingering in the NCAA Transfer Portal seeking a home.
"Didn't think we took great steps today; in fact, I thought we were a little bit soft at times, so got some good in but it wasn't the step that we probably needed to take. Got to get better (Friday)," he said.
After he noted Wednesday that a dozen players cramped up and couldn't finish the opening practice, Rodriguez revealed in this press conference that only two running backs had completed the day. That's when he pondered aloud the option of the Transfer Portal.
"I think we had two running backs that finished workouts today. That's pretty good," he said. "I ain't going to tell you who those two are, but there's still 4,000 kids in the Portal. Isn't there? I've got a recruiting staff, I've got a big ole recruiting staff, they do a really nice job. They're still looking. We're still looking.
"We ain't got a game, school don't start for a couple weeks. I have a spot or two open. I'm just saying."
Rodriguez said the weather was too mild and practices not even in full pads yet for players to be struggling.
"It should be easier to run full-speed in shorts, right? That was probably what got me a little bit riled up at times, we're in shorts and it's nice weather," he said. "If you think this is hot and humid, you haven't lived anywhere else, you know? So, I addressed it with the team. there's not a whole lot of experience with that group. I'm not expecting a handful of guys to grab ahold of it and be leadership. That's our job as coaches. I really believe that during practice, the leadership falls on the staff, our coaches and we've got to make sure we're pushing them to the point where they learn to be comfortable being uncomfortable. They're not there yet."
While he blamed himself and his coaching staff for practice not being the step forward he wanted, he acknowledged his grumpy -- "disappointed" -- approach wasn't unfamiliar.
"I probably have the same lecture the first few days of practice. No matter what you do in summer, it doesn't really prepare you for the way our practices run," Rodriguez said. "Yesterday I thought was pretty good and today I thought, 'Well, we'll take another step.' Let's build on yesterday, because that's what i want the team to do and I don't think that that was the case."