Football <\/p>\n
West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez didn\u2019t mince words about what areas of his roster needed help from college football\u2019s transfer portal.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery one,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Rodriguez didn\u2019t have a stellar start to his second stint, going 4-8 and finishing 14th out of 16 teams in the Big 12. And while Rodriguez hopes to fare better in Year 2, about three-quarters of his 123-player roster didn\u2019t stick around to find out.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
While schools like Oklahoma State, Iowa State and Penn State that all lost coaches saw players run for the exits, perhaps the greatest toll was at West Virginia, despite Rodriguez coming back.<\/p>\n
When the season ended, the Mountaineers said goodbye to 40 seniors, then saw more than 50 players enter the transfer portal.<\/p>\n
Despite the exodus, \u201cI don\u2019t think we were caught completely by surprise,\u201d said West Virginia athletic director Wren Baker.<\/p>\n
Baker said in a recent interview the new environment of third-party name, image and likeness deals and direct revenue-sharing payments to athletes that varies by school \u201cis really conducive to high turnover.\u201d<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
In the meantime, Baker said Rodriguez has his full support.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a lot of confidence in where we\u2019re going and the plan that Rich has developed and is executing,\u201d Baker said.<\/p>\n
That plan includes going back to the portal, where Rodriguez already has several portal transfers enrolled for the spring semester along with three dozen of the whopping 49 recruits from the December signing period. He also has tentative transfer portal commitments from 20 others.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously we\u2019ve had a lot of needs, of things to fix,\u201d Rodriguez said during national signing day in December.<\/p>\n
Much of that had to do with size. The Mountaineers \u201cweren\u2019t big enough\u201d on the offensive and defensive lines, at linebacker and at cornerback. While some of those needs were addressed in December, Rodriguez wanted to find more linemen in the portal because \u201cwe need some grown men in certain spots.\u201d<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
West Virginia\u2019s roster took a hit after the 2024 season following the firing of Neal Brown. Rodriguez arrived after the December 2024 signing period and it took him two months to finish hiring his staff. He inherited Brown\u2019s recruits, then had to desperately look in the portal to fill massive roster gaps.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe went portal heavy, a lot more one-year guys than I would ever want to have,\u201d Rodriguez said. \u201dYou don\u2019t want to have to flip the entire roster.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rodriguez, who didn\u2019t have to deal with NIL and revenue sharing during his first stint as West Virginia coach from 2001 to 2007, brought 80 new players to the roster in 2025. But injuries took a heavy toll in the offensive backfield alone.<\/p>\n
Rodriguez used four different starters at quarterback and four at running back. Seven of those eight players entered the portal, the exception being quarterback Scotty Fox, who started the final six games and will compete with a new group in the spring that includes Oklahoma transfer Michael Hawkins Jr.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
Many of the West Virginia players who entered the portal still haven\u2019t found a new home.<\/p>\n
Baker said it would be a \u201cuseful exercise\u201d to eventually compare apples to apples such as West Virginia\u2019s attrition to other schools with a current second-year coach. He pointed to Bill Belichick at North Carolina and Barry Odom at Purdue. North Carolina had an estimated 30 players leave in the portal and Purdue lost more than 20. UCF\u2019s Scott Frost, who just finished his first season back with the Knights, had at least three dozen players exit.<\/p>\n
For the moment, West Virginia\u2019s roster has been replenished to 95 players with plenty of room left for new talent.<\/p>\n
Two decades ago, Rodriguez won four Big East titles in five years with the Mountaineers. He\u2019s still trying to restore a winning climate in Morgantown, where West Virginia hasn\u2019t been ranked since 2018.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is such a fluid situation these days in college sports,\u201d Rodriguez said. \u201cWe look at the portal every day, for every position, all year.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n