Head Coach: Rich Rodriguez is entering his first season BACK at West Virginia. His first tenure featured some of the prime days of West Virginia football, and he has a 60-26 record with the program. He left the program for Michigan where his coaching style didn’t mesh with the players Michigan recruits, he went on a journey afterwards going to Arizona (reaching a Fiesta Bowl there) and most recently had a great run at Jacksonville State. He’s back and ready for another run with the program he feels most at home with.
Program Outlook: West Virginia was a program that felt primed to become one of the better ones in College Football, especially with Rich Rod around, but since he’s been gone the Mountaineers success has been a little more inconsistent. The state of West Virginia isn’t a big market but it is one that has a lot of passion. These fans have been waiting for a return to their winning days and it feels like they’re getting closer than ever.
How does the 2025 Roster look?: West Virginia ranks 80th in the country returning 52% of their production per Bill Connelly’s returning production rankings. This is to be expected with a coaching change, especially with a dramatic change in styles. Key players starts with who will play QB for the Mountaineers? The odds on favorite appears to be Nicco Marchiol but Jaylen Henderson and Max Brown are in the mix too, we know Rich Rod is not afraid to use multiple QBs if he feels that will work best. The run game already has a head start with returning back Jamiem White but they also added SMU transfer Jaylan Knighton as well, this is a great duo. Cam Vaughn is a big play receiver who will follow Rich Rod over from Jax State. West Virginia struggled immensely on defense last year but there’s a few parts here to help. It starts with Edge rusher Jimmori Robinson from UTSA, he was such a huge pickup for West Virginia. Eddie Kelly will be another key contributor up front. Reid Carrico leads the linebacker unit and safety Fred Perry who also followed Rich Rod over from Jax State is a stud player who will help establish the culture. With a couple other transfers the secondary is looking solid. The question marks will be finding other contributors to the passing game other than Vaughan and the offensive line is mostly starting over. On defense it will be all about how these portal players mesh with each other and the new culture for the program, that side of the ball was a big overhaul.
Screenshot from FBSchedules.com
2025 Schedule Thoughts: West Virginia’s schedule is going to be very challenging, there’s not a lot of breaks. They open with nearby Robert Morris who is a better NEC team at the FCS level but it ramps up quickly with a road game at Ohio. This is an awesome game West Virginia scheduled, it is regional and fun, although I can’t help but to think they did it just to insult Marshall by not playing them but playing their rival just across the border in Ohio. West Virginia then wraps up the non-conference slate with the Backyard Brawl which is always going to be a blast, I’m happy any time this game is on the schedule, it should be annually. The Big 12 schedule is rough, there’s a lot of tough road games here and overall West Virginia doesn’t get a lot of rebuilding teams on the schedule, they play a lot of the better ones instead. I don’t know why Cincinnati, the only somewhat regional team to West Virginia in the conference isn’t on the schedule, that would have been a winnable game to have. Overall this schedule makes even a bowl an uphill climb.
Final Thoughts: The excitement is back around West Virginia football and that’s great for now. I don’t have high expectations for this year, last time around Rich Rod tore it down to the bones in a 3-9 opening season then turned it around immediately after with his own guys, we could see that here. I fully expect this team to start out very slow, but if you have them on the schedule you definitely want them early because if they figure it out late like Rich Rod’s Jax State teams did, you won’t want face them. I think it is very possible not just with the offense but managing to take Zac Alley from Oklahoma was a huge hire on defense. Seriously you want to face this team early not late.
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