West Virginia Head Coach Rich Rodriguez on the Wild New Era of College Football

Brian Fisher here for Sports Illustrated at Big 12 Media Day is joined by West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez.

Always seems like this is the time of year where you know football's right around the corner, isn't it?

Yeah, well, it's a little early.

We should probably be on vacation right now, Brian, but you know, as, as you can sense it in the air a little bit.

There's a lot of excitement, you know, our players are all on campus and, and working hard, and it's, we're an interesting time, are we not, in college, college athletics in general and college football in particular, so.

You know, the, uh, the, all the turnover and all that stuff, it makes you a little bit nervous, but it also makes you pretty excited as, as somebody who's been around the game for a while.

I mean, it, it, it seems like everything changes year by year.

Are, do you get used to that at this point?

Yeah, I think, you know, we'll look back at this era in 10 or 12 years now and think, what the hell was going on in that 5-year NIL period?

You know, we hadn't got it all figured out yet.

We need some help and trying to get help from DC, but good luck with that, right?

So it's, it's a, it's a unique time.

Uh, but as a coach you can throw your hands up and say, oh gosh, this, what are we gonna do?

Or you can say, tell me what the rules are today and how do we go and compete with it.

And that's what, that's the kind of path we're told, we're taking, when it comes to West Virginia last year, obviously, you know, there's a lot of excitement about you, you coming back.

You know, how, how would you kind of sum up the, the mood going into this season?

Yeah, it's a little different.

The roster flipped again.

I've never done that, you know, 80 new guys last year.

80 new guys this year, but we had a little bit more money this year, a little bit, a lot more time, and we're a little bit more intent, intentful on how we want to go and build our roster.

And so we don't have 30 seniors like we did last year.

We're gonna have 14 seniors, I think this year .

And so we got a lot of good young players.

You know, we're able to find some guys at, at the, at the group of 5 level, group of 6 level that wanted to play at a higher level.

Um, we ever get great value with some of the guys we got, and it's the 2nd year in the system, even though most of the rosters new, most of the staff is returning, and so it's the 2nd year of us together in the system, and I feel really good where we're at.

I mean, have you had to kind of adjust in terms of who you look at, how you evaluate?

Oh, hell, you gotta adjust everything nowadays.

I mean, it's nuts, you know, you're crazy that, uh, You know, where, where it's standing right now, but we were, you know, we have a plan for it and, and we got to execute the plan.

I thought we had some really good young players that we can build on and, you know, if we picked the right guys, which I think we did, we got to make sure we keep them .

If they do what we think we're gonna do, we're gonna make sure we sign on the multi-year contracts and they don't go somewhere else.

But we got a great environment.

I got a really good staff.

A lot of us have been together for a long time.

And I feel good where we're at, you know, we won't be predicted to be pretty good, but I expect this to be pretty good.

And then that's usually when you guys do surprise when you kind of got that, that disconnect.

But, uh, in, in terms of roster, certainly a highly rated transfer class, a lot of guys that you did bring in.

Was there somebody that kind of stuck out in your mind after watching them through, uh, spring ball?

Well, we tried to get guys that had proven production, you know, we didn't really want to get any guys that, oh, this guy, if he couldn't play over there, why do we think he's gonna play for us, you know, we're trying to beat that team.

So, we, but we have a few guys that were young guys, maybe redshirted, uh, which is no longer a thing, uh, at a Power 4 school, but most of the transfers we got were, were a group of 5 guys that have been highly productive and want to play at this level.

You know, for instance, Cam Cook, and he's, Cam Cook was successful in the Big 12, the leading nation's leading runner last year at Jack State.

We had a little in there at Jack State.

And so for his final year, you know, he's gonna get a chance to prove it at the power 4 level.

And so we ever try to get proven production.

Uh, as opposed to potential, and we addressed that basically at every position.

I mean, does that, do you, do you think that does translate just a little bit more in this, this, this game because the rosters are so, uh, transient?

It is, and it's , it's, uh, you gotta have a plan, uh, schematically as well.

Like I remind our coaches, especially our young coaches, we got really, really sharp young.

Coaches have got great ideas, but I said, we got to be freshman-friendly because these guys, he might be a 21, 22 year old grown man, but it's his first year in our system.

So let's not overcomplicate things.

And so that's part of our plan during the spring and, and during fall camp is that we want to make sure our guys, our best players are playing, uh, because they know the system.

I, I know it's not the record that, that you wanted last year.

It certainly started out with a bang, kind of a bit of a roller coaster.

Is that just kind of the nature though of playing in the Big 12?

Yeah, a little bit of that, you know, being the first year, and then, you know, I would like to think we're not gonna have to play 5 quarterbacks because of injury or 5 running backs because I've never had that, that those two positions hit that hard that quickly.

I mean, about a 4th or 5th game of the year, we're on our 4th different quarterback and our 4th, 5th different running back, and so a little bit of bad luck there.

Uh, but, uh, I also think it helped us learn a little bit about what we need to do going forward as far as who we brought in the room and who we're recruiting and, and I love our guys' attitude.

The culture is never gonna change, you know, we, you know, we, we have a demanding culture.

Um, uh, we have, we want guys that love football and not like it.

And I love the way our guys have approached it so far and, you know, I think they all have something to prove.

I think it's a danger when you get a guy that doesn't really feel he has to prove anything.

I want everybody to have to prove something all the time.

Do you feel like you, especially at the quarterback position, you're a little bit more slow?

I do.

We, uh, we got Mike Hawkins out of transfer portal, which we had kind of identified.

We wanted to get a guy that would, that can run, can throw, was decisive, uh, and wanted, it kind of had a chip on his shoulder was Mike fits that, and then Scotty Fox, who played as a The 17 year old true freshman last year is coming back and he's a talented guy.

And so we have some others as well.

So a couple of freshmen I think are gonna be really good.

So, uh, I like the talent in the room.

Uh, we got a couple of guys with experience because Mike and Scotty both have started some, some games for us.

So, uh, I like where we're at.

Is there somebody on the roster that, uh, maybe we don't know now, maybe he's not a household name there in Morgantown, but he will be this fall.

Yeah, I think, well, even a guy that's here at the media today, Jaden Brave, he was our best wideout last year, got hurt in the 2nd game.

So we, you know, we didn't have him all year and he's back bigger and stronger and healthy, ready to go.

We got, uh, another receiver named DJ Epps who's highly productive at the group of 5 level.

They had a great spring for us as well.

And so we, and we have several linemen that, uh, a lot of people don't know about, but they were very productive again at the group of 5 level.

So I'm pretty excited that defensively, you know, we have some, You know, I think we have one guy back that started or something like that.

So there's not a lot of experience, but we, we thought we increased our athleticism all across the board, uh, with our portal pickups.

Are you more fired up going into the season than you were last year?

Yeah, last year, I mean, I was excited just to be back and, uh, but I was really, you know, nervous.

About, you know, where we were at.

I didn't know, you know, even the returning guys, I didn't know like who, what they were doing.

And we, you know, it was, it was not the year we wanted, but we also learned a lot.

That's the one thing about as, as coaches, you better got to look yourself in the mirror too.

How are we doing, you know, our system, our schemes, who we got, and, and so we made a couple of changes on the staff, but, uh, I've done this long enough to know, you know, are we better than we were 6 months ago and a year ago, uh, And I don't have to look at somebody else come tell me that I can see that myself, and, and I know we're better.

It seems like this has been the, uh, the summer of country roads, uh, yeah.

How about that?

I only caught on a little bit that our baseball team's running the World Series helped, and then now I see teams in the World Cup playing it.

I think we started it in 2002, and I just wanted a reason for fans to stay the whole game.

If we were winning, I want them to stay there and sell more concessions, right, and, and sing Country Rose, and it became a neat little tradition, and now it's kind of blown up, which is.

It's really neat, you know, especially for our little state, you know, West Virginia, you know, we don't have any pro teams, no other power 4 teams, and so West Virginia athletics is a big deal, and I take great pride in being a West Virginia native.

Well, hopefully they'll be singing it quite a bit, uh, yeah, absolutely.

uh, Richard Rodriguez, thanks for joining us here at Sports Illustrated at the Big 12 meeting Days.