File photo WVU held its final practice of the evaluation phase on Saturday. The Mountaineers open the season Aug. 30 at home against Robert Morris.

MORGANTOWN — West Virginia’s 16th practice was the second scrimmage and second practice in the stadium, marking the final practice of the evaluation phase.

Saturday’s scrimmage was the last opportunity for players to prove themselves before Rich Rodriguez finally molds a depth chart. Obviously, the depth chart will be fluid, leading up until game week, but the two tiers of players who can win now and who can help win now later will be formed. Sunday, Rodriguez and his staff plan to sit down and discuss the depth chart.

“You can’t get 50 guys, 60 guys on offense and defense ready to play a game,” Rodriguez said. “That’s just too many people. You can’t have time to have reps because you only have so many hours a day.”

With the pressure to gain a starting spot, there was still some “good and bad” during WVU’s second scrimmage.

Since this was the last time to prove themselves, Rodriguez rotated in a lot of the younger players, which created some mental mistakes. One of them was from the offensive line, who was warned about being lined up in the backfield, and then still lined up in the backfield.

“That’s like double bad,” Rodriguez said. “They warned you, and you still did it wrong. That kind of stuff should never happen.”

Other than the mental mistakes, Rodriguez did point out some positives from the defense. He said the defense “played pretty well for the most part.” Defensive coordinator Zac Alley highlighted that some of the younger defensive linemen came up with sacks, which is encouraging because Alley said the line needed more work after the spring game.

Overall, though, Alley thought the defense had progressed “pretty well” over camp.

“I think almost everybody’s gotten better,” Alley said. “I think we have like 41 seniors or something like that. You got a lot of guys who’ve been around and played a lot of ball, so I think more comfort in the defense has helped them more than anything. They’ve gotten used to it. I would say, just as a whole, we’ve raised our level of play.”

The tackling was a little issue during camp, and Rodriguez, like last scrimmage, said the tackling was “OK.”

“I think there were a couple of missed tackles here and there,” Rodriguez said. “But I don’t know if it’s because we weren’t explosive enough to make a miss or what have you. But there were a lot of people around the ball a lot of the time when we tackled.”

Then, there was the offense. Rodriguez didn’t discuss too many positives about it, but he did talk about some big plays downfield. It’s hard for Rodriguez to evaluate and pick out players individually while coaching, so he’ll look into it more on Sunday.

“There were a couple of really good contested catches that were touchdowns, which was good to see,” Rodriguez said.

What did Rodriguez say about the quarterbacks? Better not to ask at this point.

“We were talking for 15 minutes before we got to the quarterback,” Rodriguez said. “I’m really proud of you guys. It took 15 minutes before we got to the quarterback.”

The quarterback decision won’t come anytime soon, and neither will the starters for other positions.

Just an hour after Rodriguez wrapped up his press conference, it marked two weeks until West Virginia faces Robert Morris. Football season is almost here, and Rodriguez is preparing accordingly.

“We’re going to have some long meetings tomorrow with the coaches, and kind of figure out where we’re at,” Rodriguez said. “Then kind of make my plans for next week accordingly.”