WVU Football
Rich Rodriguez Calls Defense ‘Gross’ in Rant Following Texas Tech Loss
Despite a close game throughout, West Virginia lost for the second time when scoring over 40 points on Saturday night. Knowing the defense let down the offense once again, a fed up Rich Rodriguez kept going using a particular word to describe what happened in WVU’s 53-48 loss to Texas Tech.
“Gotta play better to win. The defense was gross,” said a frustrated Rodriguez after the game.
“I mean, first half, just gross. And they played better in the second half. But we didn’t play the deep ball. Probably need to work on it more in practice in my opinion, but that’s obvious.”
The numbers show how “gross” the defense really was, too. For a new season worst, West Virginia allowed the Red Raiders to stack 638 yards of total offense, with 362 coming through the air. Texas Tech quarterback Tommy Castellanos recorded 464 combined yards, also running for 102 yards, and threw five touchdown passes.
Mike Hawkins and the Mountaineer offense put up 582 yards, with 303 through the air and 279 on the ground, but all of that production didn’t matter in the end.
And when asked what it’s like to have to try to win a shootout most games, Rodriguez expressed a level of disgust he’s never felt before in his three-decade-long career.
“It’s ridiculous. In all my years of coaching, I can’t ever remember it being this way, where every possession was so critical because in every game because you can’t stop them.”
Aside from the 24-20 victory at TCU ahead of the bye week, WVU has let every other Big 12 opponent score at least 30 points and four surpass 40. Texas Tech became the third team to exceed 600 yards of offense on the West Virginia defense.
Find more coverage of Rich Rodriguez and the WVU football program at WV Sports Now.
jackson five
November 8, 2026 at 5:10 am
but zac is a great DC , and you hired him and you gave him a million and half per yr and asst head coach,, 75 per cent of the terrible def is on you rrod,, you hired a zero coach, a brain dead coach and you helped recruit and sign these worthless players on def..
you, zac , the players, it’s on you rrod,, you don’t really know what ur doing anymore,, ur just cruising along getting a paycneck , doing very poor coaching,,
who thought this game would be a terrible defensive game, well everyone,and we still have houston and utah to play,, lol this team is a total joke and rrod is a total joke for hiring alley,,,,enough said, i didnt expect the def to play any better and utah and houston will put 600 yds on wvu too,, lol it’s a 3 ring circus,, our team is a flat out joke and why in the world would hawkins stay at wvu after this yr..