Grading Every Area of Rich Rodriguez's First Year Back at WVU with Full Report Card

The first chapter of Rich Rodriguez's return to West Virginia is officially over. Before we move on to what's next, let's take a look back at how year one went and hand out some grades for the head ball coach.

Setting the Culture: C+

It took a while for this group to catch on to exactly what Rich Rodriguez and his staff were looking for, but following the loss to UCF, the light bulb came on. I thought they had turned a corner following the Backyard Brawl, just as everyone else, but that turned out to be an anomaly at the time. The start of conference play was brutal, and Rodriguez stated numerous times that some guys weren't playing hard enough. Not throwing in the towel in a lost season shows this group believes in what they're building. In the final month of the season, they turned into a scrappy bunch that just kept fighting. I'll be honest, though, watching Cam Vaughn completely give up following the interception today dropped this from a B- to a C+.

In-Game Decisions: C+

For me, this really comes down to clock management. the handling of the quarterback situation, and when to go for it on fourth down. I thought he handled the final few minutes of the Backyard Brawl beautifully, leaving just 11 seconds on the clock when the game-tying touchdown was scored. Couldn't have scripted it much better. Before they landed on Scotty Fox, I was not a huge fan of the quarterback rotation. I believe you can play two quarterbacks, but only if it's for a certain package of plays. And as I've stated way too many times, he made the right decision going for it on fourth down against Arizona State. Taking the three just didn't make any sense when you were already down there twice. As a coach, your concern is that you don't know how many more opportunities your struggling offense is going to have in the red zone, so you have to try and make the most of it by going for six.

Play-Calling: B-

I'm going to be honest here. It's really hard to grade a coach's play-calling when you played five quarterbacks and were down to just one healthy running back with experience heading into the season finale. It was just one of those kinds of years. Also, the easiest thing fans do is point to the play-calling when something doesn't work. The casual fan doesn't realize that when the ball is handed off, it could be a part of an RPO, meaning the quarterback made the decision to hand it off. It comes down to execution. There were only a handful or so of times this season where I really scratched my head at a play call, the majority of which happened early in conference play when they were rotating quarterbacks. Play-calling is not why this team struggled in 2025.

Recruiting: C

Easy now. Don't roll your eyes just yet. Allow me to explain.

This can and probably will change in the next handful of days leading up to the start of the early signing period on Wednesday, but man, he's off to one heck of a start. Why not higher? Well, because there's room for this class to get better, and if they land some big-time commitments in the next few days, this will then reflect the grade you were probably hoping for.

Also, I'm factoring in the transfer portal class they brought in last offseason. They had a ton of hacks at the plate and whiffed more than they would have liked. Tye Edwards (albeit one game), Fred Perry, Michael Coats, Jason Chambers, Jordan Scruggs, Cam Vaughn, Chase Wilson, and Devin Grant were the only ones I was impressed with. Last year's portal class really weighs this grade down.

However, getting four-star Kevin Brown is a massive deal for the acceleration of the rebuild up front. There's also a handful of others who I think will be able to contribute right away, such as cornerback Vincent Smith, JUCO wide receivers Keon Hutchins and Kedrick Triplett, JUCO running back Martavious Boswell, bandit Noah Tishendorf, and linebacker Cameron Dwyer, just to name a few.

Winning back the fans: A-

Let's be honest, there's always going to be a segment of this fan base that is just never going to get over Rich Rod leaving in 2007, and I totally get it. No matter what happens in this second tenure, some folks will always hold that against him. All that said, I think he's made a ton of progress in earning back the trust and getting everyone on board with building this program back up to where it needs to be.

Setting the Culture: C+

In-Game Decisions: C+

Play-Calling: B-

Recruiting: C

Winning back the fans: A-

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