WVU football preparing for 1st true road game against Iowa State
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MORGANTOWN -- West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez has been coaching in college football for over 40 years. He's been to a lot of places, including both Death Valleys, the Shoe and the Big House.
In all his years, Rodriguez has never been to Ames, Iowa, home of Iowa State (2-2). This weekend will be his first trip when the Mountaineers play the Cyclones at noon EST on Saturday, Oct. 3. It'll be the first true road trip for WVU since the game in Charlotte was a neutral-site game.
The first true road game, in a stadium that seats over 60,000 fans, will create all-new challenges for this new-look WVU squad.
"It’s going to be a louder environment," Rodriguez said. "We didn’t have a road game in Charlotte. That was kind of a home crowd. This is going to be a visiting crowd."
On the road, the quarterback and playcalling are impacted the most. This is Michael Hawkins Jr.'s first time as the quarterback for the Mountaineers in a road environment that'll be a lot louder, making it harder to signal in plays.
Hawkins is on the quieter side to begin with, which is what Rodriguez's mentioned a couple of times through the preseason, so this week in practice, Hawkins will have to practice being louder.
In a tough environment, some offenses run a silent count, but Rodriguez doesn't think that's necessary.
"It basically comes down to the quarterback, not only being loud and verbalizing, but being intentful with it," Rodriguez said. "You got to raise your voice, and be timely with it. You just can’t wait around and let the crowd get louder and then go."
The tempo offense helps prevent some of the noise. WVU gets over the ball so quickly it doesn't allow for the crowd to get going and have an impact on the play. Picking up first downs will make it easier to drown out the crowd, too. The Mountaineers have 91 first downs and had 13 first downs in the loss to Oklahoma State.
Staying away from long yardage situations is going to be essential to quieting the crowd.
"You get yourself into third and longs, and they’re cranking it up and all that kind of stuff, it's going to make it a little bit harder to communicate with the guys up front," Rodriguez said.
A fast start will help silence the crowd. The Mountaineers have started pretty fast offensively through the first couple of games. WVU started the first two games off with a touchdown drive, and after punting once, the Mountaineers scored a touchdown against Oklahoma State. The only problem is continuing the momentum throughout the game.
A big enough lead will get the crowd out of it.
"Everybody’s leaving in the third quarter," tight end Ryan Ward said. "Hopefully, that’ll be the goal."
There are a lot of freshmen on the team, with Rodriguez bringing in a big class. Even with some of the older transfers, they were at smaller Group of 6 schools, so they haven't played in a Big 12 road environment.
Linebacker Ashton Woods has played on the road at a couple of different spots. As a veteran, he's provided advice to the young players.
"This is our first true away game for some guys," Woods said. "I can’t wait to see how they go out and respond. But I know a lot of guys just don’t really notice the crowd. Personally, I don’t notice the crowd. It’s just team versus team, mano on mano. You’ve got to go out there and just win."
As Woods said, the atmosphere and fans can't play on the field. It's up to the players to go out and win. It might create challenges for a new team that hasn't played a true road game this season, but nothing the Mountaineers aren't preparing for in a crucial game of the season.
"Just sticking to the game plan," Ward said. "We got a good game plan. We’re going to do more this week, obviously. But just trusting our teammates, knowing that we all got each other’s back, and that we’re all playing together."