Dark Days Ahead? ESPN Buries West Virginia in Future Power Ranking

The future of West Virginia football is now in the hands of the man who had the greatest three-year run in program history, Rich Rodriguez.

The expectation locally is that Rodriguez will have the Mountaineers back on track in no time, but that's not an opinion that folks on the outside share. Instead, it's viewed as a massive rebuild - one that may take a while to get off the ground, even in today's era where you can make swift changes to the roster.

ESPN's Adam Rittenberg recently ranked the futures (next two years) of all 68 Power Four schools based on the quarterback situation, the depth in the trenches, roster management, star power potential, and the coaching staff.

His outlook for the Mountaineers? Whew, you may want to look away. He has them ranked 66th, sitting ahead of only Stanford and Purdue.

"Massive roster turnover comes with the territory when you make coaching changes in the portal era, and West Virginia will have essentially a new team in 2025. Some of the departures will sting, especially on offense as lineman Tomas Rimac and others are gone, but West Virginia also retained leading rusher Jahiem White and Marchiol in the backfield. The team made a major portal pickup in (Jimmori) Robinson, who earned AAC Defensive Player of the Year honors last fall, and bolstered areas such as secondary and wide receiver, where Cam Vaughn followed the staff from Jacksonville State. The coaching shuffle didn't stop WVU from signing ESPN's No. 40 recruiting class for 2025.

Rittenberg noted that there isn't much star power on the roster right now and that the uncertainty of the quarterback position also plays a huge factor in their low ranking. If WVU can get to a bowl game and play competitive football in the games they lose, they'll gain some respect entering year two of the new Rich Rod era.

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