West Virginia’s football program under Rich Rodriguez is starting a major rebuild in his first year back as head coach, bringing in 56 transfers and 14 freshmen. In today’s college football, using the transfer portal to quickly reshape a roster isn’t unusual. While it’s not ideal long-term, it allows coaches to find players who fit their systems more quickly.
Rodriguez doesn’t expect this heavy reliance on transfers to last. Over time, he wants to build through high school recruiting and rely less on the portal. Still, because many of this year’s transfers only have one year of eligibility, there will be more holes to fill next offseason.
Speaking on In the Gun, Rodriguez explained his recruiting philosophy: “I don’t care if a guy has one year left or four just get players good enough to win. Of course, we’d love to sign more high school talent, and that’s the goal for next year. Recruiting is going great, and we expect to bring in more high school guys than portal guys. I tell recruits we don’t bring anyone in to sit, we want guys who can compete right away.”
Rodriguez also emphasized that he doesn’t pay attention to star rankings or offer lists. Many of the best players he’s coached had little hype coming out of high school. “Some of our best players didn’t have big rankings. Maybe others didn’t see it, but we did. Sometimes a ‘five-star’ means someone who works hard, learns fast, and keeps improving. We beat teams with better-ranked recruits because our players were simply better, even if it wasn’t reflected in the rankings.”
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