West Virginia came away with a 31-24 win over Coastal Carolina on Saturday, but head coach Rich Rodriguez was far from satisfied with what he saw from his team.
In fact, Rich Rodriguez had one particularly strong word to describe the Mountaineers’ performance after halftime: embarrassing.
“The first half we played pretty well. The second half, we stunk,” Rodriguez said after the game to ESPN. “The penalties, we gave up long drives, lost contain, the offense wasn’t moving the ball, so we’ve got a lot to work on. I’m proud of the guys, and the way they came out, but the second half was embarrassing. We’ll get that fixed.”
Rodriguez added, “The first half, we played and executed like we’re capable of. We’ll learn from this and get better.”
It was a brutally candid assessment from Rodriguez despite West Virginia walking away with the victory. Cam Cook had a 72-yard run on the first play from scrimmage and then scored a touchdown from 3 yards out. Later in the first quarter it was a 49-yard touchdown strike from Michael Hawkins to Armoni Weaver to make it 14-0. Before halftime, it was Cam Cook from one yard out to help WVU lead 24-0 at halftime.
West Virginia vs. Coastal Carolina Second Half
However, in the second half, West Virginia was outscored 24-3 and gave up over 300 yards in the final 30 minutes. Coastal Carolina had an opportunity to recover an onside kick in the final 30 seconds to try and get one final chance to tie the game. Hence, Rich Rod’s brutal assessment. That’s clearly what bothered Rodriguez most as he evaluates where his team stands early in the season.
For West Virginia, the good news is obvious: a win is a win, and Rodriguez’s team showed stretches of the type of football he believes the Mountaineers are capable of playing.
But the second-half performance also gave the coaching staff plenty to work on moving forward.
Rodriguez has never been one to sugarcoat things, and Saturday was another example. Rather than simply celebrating a seven-point victory, he immediately pointed toward the penalties, defensive breakdowns and offensive struggles that allowed Coastal Carolina to hang around.
West Virginia got the result it wanted on Saturday.
The performance, however, wasn’t nearly good enough for Rodriguez, particularly after halftime. West Virginia is now 24-3 in season openers since 2000. The Mountaineers are home to play UT Martin in Week 2 with a 12:00 p.m. ET kick off.
