The West Virginia Mountaineers (5-3, 2-3) knocked off the TCU Horned Frogs (3-4, 1-3) Saturday afternoon at Amon G. Carter Stadium in Fort Worth, Texas.
West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez met the media to give his thoughts on the Mountaineers first true road win of the season.
Pulling out a gritty win
“Really proud of our guys. We didn't really play great. I think we played with a little bit of grit, but I was concerned that we were a little tired from eight straight weeks, and I think offensively we played a little bit that way some. But they battled through it. The defense battled through it. A lot of new stuff we were doing in this game and showed a lot of grit.
“That's the thing I was hoping is that we’d play hard and make a few plays and hope they mess up a little bit. They move the ball, but the turnovers were big. Any win's a big win, and a big win on the road is especially big, so I'm happy for our guys.”
Shorter practices heading into the matchup against TCU
“We shortened practice down a little bit, but you also have so much that you got to get ready for.
“Defensively, we had a lot of new stuff that we had tried to install right away, and you got to work it. They did a good job with that.
“Offensively, we sputtered around a little bit, and there were some things we probably watching the film and like, ‘Golly, missed out on that.’ But we answered the call when we had to offensively. (redshirt sophomore quarterback) Mike (Hawkins Jr.) made some plays, (senior running back) Cam (Cook) made some plays, and defensively they got the key turnover.
“Proud of the way the guys hung in there. What was really pleasing was the last five minutes, when they're trying to score and everybody on the sidelines was engaged in the game. I know they're a little bit tired, and they can be like, ‘Oh, what's going to happen now?’ But they stayed engaged in the game and made a play to win it.”
Last defensive stop
We had gotten some pressure. We did a lot of three-man rushes, so we didn't get a lot of pressure, but there were times where our D-ends got some pressure with a three-man rush and sometimes the coverage was there and sometimes the coverage wasn't, but we were making them execute.
I think that looked like the plan, as opposed to some of the other times this year when passes got through. We made them execute. Even on some of the plays they made, we had a guy right there. They just executed the play, and you can live with that a little bit. At the end, they didn't make the play. They didn't execute it, and we did. So, we win.
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