A Handful of Mountaineers Are Now Racing the Clock to Keep Their Roster Spot

The time has come for the West Virginia coaching staff to make serious changes to the roster once again. With 40-some seniors departing and a massive high school class coming in, the Mountaineers are going to have to create some roster spots, while also keeping in mind they have to address several positions in the transfer portal.

Naturally, you're going to have players transfer out to either seek more playing time, get a pay raise, or be closer to home. It happens everywhere and is not unique to West Virginia in any way. What also happens is some hard conversations with some players who may have no intention of leaving, but are told they don't have a spot on next year's roster.

You can partially blame the NCAA for setting roster limits and the wonky transfer portal windows. However, sometimes it's something completely in control of the player. During his signing day press conference on Wednesday, WVU head coach Rich Rodriguez openly shared that there are some players on the roster that need to get their act together, for lack of a better term, or they will be playing somewhere else in 2026.

“We like to be brutally honest with our guys because we don’t like to string ‘em along and then two weeks from now, I’ll say you got a spot here. We’re going to tell them you have a spot here, or you don’t have a spot here. And then, there are a handful of guys that are frankly going to be called to task a little bit and say you need to show us in the next month or two months that you’re right for our program, or you’re going to have to find a spot. If everybody’s not disciplined and focused and doing the right things the right way and all that, then I ain’t going to mess with them. They’ll have to go somewhere else. We don’t have a lot of those problems, but there are a few guys that are going to be up against it. They have the ability to make it right and have a great career here, but they also could mess up, and then they’ll have to do their career somewhere else.”

What does that look like in the offseason? The simple stuff, such as attending class, staying in the weight room, getting with the trainers for recovery, watching some film, and working on their craft. Rodriguez has made it very clear that there is no room for laziness or guys not doing what they are supposed to do. To firmly establish a culture, you need to hold everyone accountable and point out when someone is not doing what they should be doing.

He didn't mention any names, nor should he. There's no reason to publicly throw a group of players under the bus. They know who they are, and if they don't, they're about to find out when they have their exit meetings with the staff in the coming days.

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