Rich Rodriguez Apologizes for KU Loss, Defends State of WVU Program

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Faced with the predicament of acknowledging what took place on the field and also still believing in himself, Rich Rodriguez apologized to WVU fans after his team’s 37-14 loss to Kansas.

“I apologize to our fan base, to every West Virginia fan out there. I mean, I didn’t see this coming.” said Rodriguez at the open of his postgame press conference.

So what made Rodriguez take the leap of actually apologizing to the fans after this latest loss? Well, instead of the defense costing the Mountaineers, the offense also failed to show up. The offense totaled only 262 yards throughout the entire game, and that includes a significant uptick with the score already out of reach. Mike Hawkins completed just 19-of-34 passes for 227 yards with only one touchdown and one interception. He only ran for 36 yards as well.

And to further paint the picture of the rough day, Cam Cook ran for just 12 yards on nine carries.

But coming off the collective group’s worst effort of the season, one that dropped WVU’s record to .500 at 5-5, Rodriguez reiterated his confidence in the direction of the program under his leadership.

“We are better than we were a year ago. We are going to be better in three weeks than we are today. We are going to be better in three months than we are today,” responded the 63-year-old head coach to a direct question about why fans should have hope with the Mountaineers in jeopardy of missing a bowl game in consecutive seasons the losses to schools with first-year coaches and now to a last place team. 

He then paused and continued.

“We are going to be better next fall than we are this fall if we can retain the players we want to retain, recruit the way we need to recruit, and fix some of the issues that we have to fix. The school wants to win, our administration wants to win, and everybody involved wants us to win. I know what it takes to win. Maybe you could question that after tonight. I understand that, but this is not my first rodeo.”

However, nothing Rodriguez can say is going to change anyone’s mind. Winning is the only thing that can do that. And unfortunately for the Mountaineers, their life doesn’t get much easier with Houston coming to Morgantown next week and a trip to Utah waiting as the regular season finale.

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