Rich Rodriguez Hesitant to Tip His Hand as He Prepares to Make Tough Roster Decisions

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – With only one week of spring practice remaining, WVU head coach Rich Rodriguez knows he’s going to have to make some tough decisions when cutting down his roster. He can carry players through the summer before trimming his team again ahead of the season, but as Rodriguez prepares for the upcoming spring transfer portal window, he’s planning to bring in more depth at key positions.

Rodriguez knew his first spring back leading the Mountaineers would be his toughest as far as evaluating players. Having flipped most of the roster from who played for Neal Brown in 2024, Rodriguez knows it’s just too early in the process to truly know what he has.

“We are a whole long way from being in game shape,” said Rodriguez about his team being in “spring shape” but not close to where they need to be before the ball kicks off in the fall.

For a positive, Rodriguez has been able to notice the effort his players. However, he noted he didn’t see enough competitiveness earlier in the week and even went as far as to say, “I don’t think we got better today” after practice on Thursday. Rodriguez’s tone seemed to change a bit a couple days later once they started going offense vs. defense. He then admitted seeing an uptick in competitiveness during the Saturday scrimmage.

At the same time, he’s hesitant to praise any player publicly or brag about anyone to the media for fear another school will try to steal them away. And that mentality does make sense based on the current climate of college football, or really college sports in general.

In terms of specifics, Rodriguez mentioned each of his quarterbacks have displayed leadership qualities and are adapting well to learning the system and some true freshman have stood out, granted he wouldn’t give more detail or call anyone out by name.

And while it’s often impossible to predict what an athlete will do in this era, Rodriguez shared that he doesn’t expect to lose any of the top players he plans to keep.

“I hope we don’t lose any… they don’t act like they are half in or half out,” responded Rodriguez to a direct question asking if he’s worried about any players turning on him and deciding to leave West Virginia on their own.

Rich Rodriguez Makes Bold Transfer Portal Prediction About WVU

No matter what happens, every move Rodriguez makes is done in the interest of helping West Virginia win. Of course, he only wants players who fit his “hard edge” philosophy and doesn’t want anyone only in it for the money. But at the same time, he’s not going to shy away from pursuing talent and is confident WVU will pay to bring those type of players in if necessary.

As far as what WVU will focus on when looking for new transfer players, wide receiver and the defensive secondary stand out as positions of emphasis.

“I still think we got to get a little more depth at wide out. We just don’t have the numbers right now at wide receiver,” said Rodriguez.