ESPN FPI Extremely Down on WVU Football Ahead of 2025 Season

With the 2025 college football season about two and a half months away, national outlets are making their opinions about WVU crystal clear – they don’t think much of the Mountaineers. Most are now projecting a tough first year to Rich Rodriguez’s second tenure with West Virginia.

Even though the ESPN FPI (Football Power Index) is often criticized for confusing rankings, their placement of WVU matches up with what others are saying nationally. Rodriguez’s team is barely ranked inside the top 70, sitting at No. 66.

West Virginia’s Backyard Brawl rival is at No. 58 and there are also several schools who experienced losing seasons in 2024 placed ahead of WVU as well.

But regardless of the low expectations, Rodriguez, who is being doubted nationally in some respects, knows preseason polls don’t matter as much in this era. And for that reason along with his trust in his staff, he remains confident.

Where Does WVU’s Rich Rodriguez Rank Among P4 Head Coaches?

“I think our staff has done a good job. I think we have one or two spots left open, but in this ever-changing world of college athletics, it’s been really crazy. But I’ve said this many times. The goal post will move, we gotta move with it,” Rodriguez told WV Sports Now’s Mike Asti directly about having to make tough decisions on who to cut and who to bring in.

“We gotta do everything we can to try to improve our roster every day, not every month but every day.”

While Rodriguez brought West Virginia conference titles and major bowl wins during his first tenure, the Mountaineers are coming off the program’s worst six-year stretch since before Don Nehlen arrived in 1980.

West Virginia failed to even achieve one single ranking in the Associated Press under Neal Brown – they did finish the 2023 season ranked No. 25 in the Coaches Poll.

Despite a complete overhaul of the roster and having to implement a new culture, Rodriguez believes West Virginia can compete for a national championship. In fact, Rodriguez admitted he wouldn’t have accepted the job without being sold on WVU’s plan to succeed at the highest level.

Rich Rodriguez is Driven by One Main Goal for His Second Tenure at WVU

“I think if the rev share comes in and the so-called salary cap comes in, it’ll give some sense of fairness across the board.”

However, no matter what happens, Rodriguez just simply believes it can happen, even if some think he’s crazy.

“I believe in our state. I believe in our university. I believe in our coaches. And I believe in our program. You look at Arizona State that went from worst to first in the Big 12. We could do the same thing.”

For a related story, WV Sports Now chronicles what went right and what went wrong for WVU football during the offseason?