Rich Rodriguez Wants to Start a New Tradition for WVU Fans

Only one game into his second tenure as leader of the Mountaineers, Rich Rodriguez already has an idea for a new tradition for WVU fans.

For any fan who noticed the playing of “The Stroke” by Billy Squier before kickoffs during West Virginia’s season opener, that was by design. In fact, Rodriguez would like fans to join in by clapping in unison when that song is played from now on.

Rodriguez mentioned wanting it to become a new tradition when asked directly about the noticeable song on his weekly radio show on Monday night.

“When we do kickoff, everything stops,” Rodriguez said.

“So in practice everybody in the program, not just the players, get on the home side and they start clapping over their head and everybody gets into it,” he said. “That whole thing with getting everybody fired up before kickoffs our whole team does it.”

Rodriguez then added that it would be great to have 60,000+ West Virginia fans join them at home games.

“It would be a great addition for us to do every time after we kick off,” he said.

But before coming back home to Milan Puskar Stadium, WVU will hit the road to take on Ohio in Week 2.

Able to overcome early struggles to win big in the season opener, the WVU football team knows they will have to be much better in Week 2. Oddsmakers even seem to be uneasy about West Virginia’s upcoming road trip.

Most major sportsbooks, most notably DraftKings and FanDuel, have the Mountaineers as a slight favorite to mover their record to 2-0. At the open of the new week, WVU sits as a 3.5-point favorite on most books, indicating a close game. DraftKings is one that has moved to just -3.

Unlike WVU, Ohio is coming off a loss in their season opener. The Bobcats scored 31 points before falling 34-31 at Rutgers.

Kickoff for the West Virginia Mountaineers (1-0) at the Ohio Bobcats (0-1) from Athens, Ohio is set for 4 pm ET.

For a related story, Nicco Marchiol grades as the top Big 12 starting quarterback for Week 1.