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5 hours ago
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Rich Rodriguez is still very much in the process of figuring out what his West Virginia football team has when it comes to the 2025-26 season.
The off-season has been one full of change, with players coming both into and out of the program, as over 70 new players have been added to the roster. That can lead to some obvious adjustments.
“There are days like this morning’s practice that I was like, gosh, I thought we’d be further ahead,” Rodriguez told The Triple Option podcast. “But I’m pretty critical anyways. Looking at their every practice so I’m trying not to make all the judgments now.”
Still, the veteran head coach has been impressed with the attitude that his players have shown and how they’ve bought into the culture and message that he is trying to deliver.
“They’ve bought in. They ain’t got a choice, but I think they’re trying hard,” he said.
Rodriguez admitted that while he’d like to say that his roster is set heading into 2025, that isn’t the case as some players have yet to arrive and the coaches are still looking at options.
“There’s still too many unknowns for me to know where we’re at and there’s so many guys that haven’t played,” he said.
The Mountaineers roster lost a bulk of their starters from last season’s team so it’s a different dynamic when it comes to discovering what all his team can do.
Still, Rodriguez believes that his coaching staff and the facilities are in place to have success. Throw on top of that the commitment from a revenue-sharing perspective from the school and the pillars are there for Rodriguez to build the Mountaineers football program.
“We’re going to have enough that we can fill out a roster and pay our guys that have earned it in a pretty good clip there,” he said.
But for now, the biggest variable is time and while Rodriguez is excited for the future of the program, the focus now is winning football games this coming season.
“So I think that we can get there quicker than maybe in the old days, where you're taking a couple, two, three years. But now, is it all going to happen this first year? That'll be the hardest challenge,” he said.
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