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MORGANTOWN — West Virginia University football coach Rich Rodriguez has sometimes used a word in the early days of spring practice that no athlete wants to hear describing them. It's four letters. Starts with an "S."
"Soft."
If there's one word that can cut through to the heart of a football player, "soft" is it. And Rodriguez has used it a few times in evaluating what he's seen of the Mountaineers so far. It's not that the players are totally soft, but there have been spots of softness during practices. He's seen the toughness he's looking for at points, but he wants to see more.
"I had to remind them today," he said after Saturday's practice, "but it was the first day in pads. And I'll probably have to remind them on the second day in pads ... and the third day and the 30th day."
Toughness has been synonymous with Rodriguez teams since his early years in coaching. A phrase he loves to use is "hard edge."
That's what he wants to see from his roster, a grit and sharpness that lets opponents know they're in for a battle on every snap.
Rodriguez also admits that, because it's early in his return to Morgantown, that this roster - filled with new faces from different schools - might not yet know what Rodriguez and his staff consider playing hard and playing tough.
"Sometimes, they don't know what our definition is of being soft," he said. "But that goes back to us coaches teaching them, you know? This is what we think is soft and then we have to explain to them why. Then, hopefully, they get it."
They often do get it, Rodriguez said, even if it takes a while. Rodriguez told the story of a former player during his first stint in Morgantown. He wouldn't divulge his name, but said he was a wide receiver.
"You ever heard the saying, if the puppy won't bite when he's a puppy, he won't bite when he's a dog?" Rodriguez said. "I used to think that, too."
This receiver changed his perceptions. As a young receiver, he wouldn't block. He played soft.
Then, at one practice, he went six reps in a row in a drill. Rodriguez and the coaches challenged him.
"He went from being the softest wide receiver to the best stalk blocking wide receiver I've ever had to this day," he said. "He became a three-year starter at wideout and we won a lot of games with him.
"So he changed," Rodriguez said. "Maybe he just grew up, matured, whatever. That puppy wasn't biting when he was a puppy, but he bit when he was a dog. So I learned that guys can change, and we can bring it out of them."
And so Rodriguez and his staff will work this spring on bringing that bite out in everybody. And if this team is to reach the levels he believes it can reach, he needs to get everybody on board.
"We have some good kids," he said. "We have some guys that will be really good players. We've got to have it all.
"I told the team that I'm not discouraged," he added. "I think I saw enough that, hey, we've got a chance.
But it's got to be everybody all the time. You've got to coach them. If there's a moment of softness or weakness, mentally or physically, you have to address it every time. Not 99% of the time. Every time. And that falls on us coaches to address it."