Phil Steele Details Reasoning for Low Expectations for WVU Football

College football analyst Phil Steele picked the WVU football team to finish last in his 2025 college football preview. He elaborated on his outlook for the Mountaineers on an episode of Mike Drop with Mike Asti on July 16.

Steele gave two reasons as to why he believes WVU will falter this season: roster turnover and its schedule.

“Number one, not the talent because I do think there’s talent on this West Virginia team, but how quickly they can come together as a team,” Steele said.

He compared WVU’s current situation to that of  Arizona’s from last season, where first-year head coach Brent Brennan had a substantial amount of transfers and finished 4-8.

Mike Drop: Phil Steele Previews 2025 Season, Explains Being Down on WVU

“They’ve got over 30 players that did not participate at spring practice coming in in the fall as transfers, and now they’re gonna have to come together as a team on the field,” Steele said.

When it comes to the schedule, WVU will host Texas Tech, TCU and Utah, all teams Steele believes are top Big 12 contenders and that WVU will be underdogs in.

“I think the one game they have a chance of being favored in is Colorado, but that’s saying that Colorado’s transfers don’t perform anywhere they did last year… They only have four Big 12 home games this year. Three of them are against league powers. And that means five Big 12 road games this year. They may be an underdog in eight or nine of their Big 12 games this year,” Steele said.

One bright spot Steele sees for WVU is the return of Rich Rodriguez. He has high hopes for the future of Rodriguez’s career at WVU aside from his doubts this season.

“I think Rich Rod’s gonna do a tremendous job here at West Virginia. He did a phenomenal job at Jacksonville State,” Steele said. “In fact, two years ago at Jacksonville State I picked Jacksonville State last in their conference and they had a fantastic year. So I know Rich Rod’s gonna get it done.”

Find more coverage of WVU Football at WV Sports Now.

For a related story, Mike Asti detailed three reasons to be optimistic about WVU in 2025.