Rich Rodriguez Clarifies TikTok Ban, Wants Players to Worry About Winning Games

Rich Rodriguez wants his players to live the “hard edge” life on and off the field. And even though he understands there’s a big generational gap between a 61-year-old coach and his current players, there are still things he’s unwilling to compromise on.

But despite rumors to the contrary, Rodriguez is not banning TikTok, a popular social media platform for people of the age of his players, all together. He just doesn’t want them dancing. That, of course, is just not “hard edge” and not the image he wants for his team.

“They’re going to be on it, so I’m not banning them from it,” said Rodriguez to clear up the supposed new TikTok ban within the WVU football program.

“I’m just banning them from dancing on it,” Rodriguez added. “It’s like, look, we try to have a hard edge or whatever, and you’re in there in your tights dancing on TikTok, ain’t quite the image of our program that I want.”

For those who may roll their eyes when hearing an older coach talk about social media, Rodriguez knows he might be out of touch with the youth of today. He just doesn’t care. The only thing he cares about is winning and doing whatever it takes to win games for the West Virginia Mountaineers.

“I hope our focus can be on winning football games,” said Rodriquez. “How about let’s win the football game and not worry about winning the TikTok?”

For a related story, WV Sports Now’s Mike Asti details his current takeaways from spring ball.