ESPN Misses the Mark on WVU Football's 'Ambitious Roster Flip'

West Virginia flipped its roster again, but it was something that absolutely had to happen.

West Virginia University head coach Rich Rodriguez | Christopher Hall – West Virginia on SI

It's been quite a successful offseason for Rich Rodriguez and the West Virginia Mountaineers, right? Well, I guess, not according to everyone.

ESPN's Eli Lederman, Max Olson, and Adam Rittenberg ranked WVU 15th (out of 16) in the Big 12 as far as how successful the offseason was, aka roster movement/retention and coaching staff changes.

"Rodriguez and his coaches are continuing one of the most ambitious roster flips in the sport. West Virginia had 28 players start four or more games last season. Only three of them -- quarterback Scotty Fox Jr. and offensive linemen Nick Krahe and Landen Livingston-- are still on the roster. Eighteen of the players who moved on were graduating seniors, and another seven exited via the portal, including top receivers Vaughn (Miami) and Rodney Gallagher III (Arizona). The Mountaineers parted ways with 43 scholarship transfers this offseason and are working with a 2026 that will feature more than 80 newcomers."

By the way, they listed everything that went right and wrong for every team, and the quote above is what they had for what went wrong for WVU.

Look, I get that the numbers look scary on paper. Anytime you have that much turnover and very little returning experience in the system, it's easy to jump to the conclusion that things are in a messy spot. That's the furthest thing from the truth with this program's current state.

The huge roster turnover needed to happen. When Rich Rod was hired a year ago, the transfer had already been open for a few days, putting him behind the proverbial 8-ball. As Jed Drenning likes to say, it was he and Dusty Rutledge locked in the football building with a jar of peanut butter, trying to reach out to transfers and get them on campus for a visit.

The majority of West Virginia's transfer class didn't show up until the second portal window after spring ball, so they were way behind and just never had the time to develop. Because they had missed out on the initial wave of transfers, they had to pluck from the clearance aisle, landing guys from the lower levels with very little experience.

They swapped those guys out for a completely different caliber of player this offseason, signing players with experience and production, some of whom came from other Power Four schools. The talent level of this 2026 team is on a whole other level, and I'm not sure how that's not obvious. I guess we need to keep in mind that they don't have the access or insight as to what is going on as we do here locally, but still, this is not going to be one of the worst teams in the Big 12. Far from it, if we're being honest.