Sunday Morning Thoughts: Why the Verdict is Still Out on Ross Hodge at WVU

Just twelve games into the Ross Hodge era in Morgantown, fans are already losing faith in his ability to get the program back on track. Not all that long ago, there was an abundance of optimism after the Mountaineers pounded Pitt and then signed the highest-rated recruit in program history, Miles Sadler, just days later.

The reality is, we live in a world where you're either all in or all out, regardless of the sport or how long the coach has been in place.

I'm not coming here to cover for Saturday night's 16-point blown lead, which marks the second double-digit blown lead this season, nor am I a Ross Hodge apologist. I'm just taking the 50,000-foot view of this thing because the truth is, it's way too early to know how this tenure will go.

Sure, you can pick your side now and then, if you're right, you can boast it from the mountaintop, but it would just all be a premature guess.

When the hire went down, I gave it a C+ and stated, "Do I think it's a home run hire? No. Do I think it's a terrible hire? No. It's a hire based on potential, and considering the situation Wren Baker was put in with DeVries leaving after one year, it's probably somewhere in the middle. Baker knows his stuff when it comes to hiring, so if I had to guess, the Mountaineers will be just fine.

I still feel the same about it today as I did then. And yes, I admittedly jumped the gun a little bit a few games back, talking about how bright the future is, but truth be told, that's still the case, considering the class that is coming in.

Darian DeVries winning the way he did in his one and only year in Morgantown created an expectation for Hodge that he could do the same or perhaps better in his first year on the job.

Yes, DeVries is a good coach, but let's not be overly fooled or have goldfish memory about last season. Much of that team's success wasn't because DeVries was a mastermind who constantly pushed all the right buttons.

He had one of the best point guards in America on the roster in Javon Small. How many times did Small bail WVU out? If he never transferred in, you're probably looking at a very similar situation to what Hodge has now. His all-league player, Sadler, is coming.

I'm not here to tell you that everything is all sunshine and rainbows, and to believe in Ross Hodge and that he will win here. All I'm getting at here is that we're twelve games into year one with a team he assembled over the summer, and that this is the worst this program should be under his guidance.

Does this team get markedly better throughout the course of the season? Do Amir Jenkins and DJ Thomas develop into potential starters for 2026-27 by season's end? Will Treysen Eaglestaff ever bust out of his funk and play up to his potential? These are all things that can change one's opinion on Hodge.

It's fine to be frustrated and disappointed. Last night should have never gone down the way it did. That's one Hodge, and there's no other way around it. He didn't make the adjustments needed in overtime to stop Ohio State's attack and get the ball out of Bruce Thornton's hands.

That said, twelve games, or one season for that matter, is not going to paint a clear picture for the future.

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