If These WVU Players Take Off, 2026 Could Look a Lot Brighter in Morgantown

It's not been the start to the 2025 season that West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez had envisioned, but he remains hopeful that they'll play a better brand of football over the next six games and have some momentum heading into the offseason.

While the goal should still be to win games this season, the coaching staff has to find out which of the young guys can either start or play a key role in what they do in 2026. Finding building blocks for this roster is not easy, and in most cases, it's more of a projection than a sure thing. But here's what I have so far.

QB Khalil Wilkins/Scotty Fox Jr.

Both of these youngsters have shown why the coaching staff believes in their futures. Wilkins did a nice job of orchestrating some positive drives against Utah and then competed his tail off against BYU, rushing the ball 23 times, which was WVU's only way to run the ball. He still needs to iron out some things in the passing game, but the arm talent is there. Timing and decision-making are two areas he needs to improve.

Fox is a flat-out competitor. Plays with a moxie and an attitude that Mountaineer fans can appreciate. Of the entire quarterback room, he's probably the best thrower of the football, and we saw some of that come out in last week's game against BYU, especially on the 30-yard touchdown toss to Cam Vaughn.

I'm not sure which of these two will ultimately become "the guy," but WVU really needs at least one of them to show they can be that in 2026. If one fails to separate, ideally, you'd like to see both show some things down the stretch to feel comfortable that you can go into next season with a battle between these two and not have to go out and spend big dollars, by WVU's standards, in the portal.

RB Jahiem White

White, of course, is out for the season with a knee injury, but will be a very important part of what the Mountaineers do offensively in 2026. Yes, retention is key, but I don't see it being as big an issue had he played a full season healthy and produced at a high level. Plus, I truly believe White wants to finish his collegiate career at WVU. His return will do wonders for this offense, assuming he returns to pre-injury form.

WR Cam Vaughn, Rodney Gallagher III

Vaughn is going to have a lot of folks calling his phone, and if we're being honest, it's probably already happening. The good thing is that he's been with this staff for three years now, but does this year's frustrations, plus whatever type of money another program offers him, enough to pry him out of Morgantown? We'll see. If he returns, it's a MASSIVE win for WVU.

As far as Gallagher is concerned, I still believe his best ball is yet to come. If he gets more involved down the stretch and proves to be a reliable playmaker, that gives the Mountaineers two sure answers at receiver. Again, assuming Vaughn stays put.

OL Nick Krahe, Landen Livingston + one more

Nick Krahe and Landen Livingston haven't lit the world on fire, but they've probably been the two most consistent pieces along a really bad offensive line. They need to continue to improve over these final six games to cement their roles in 2026, and if they do, it will make retooling that unit much easier, knowing you only have three spots to fill.

In addition to Krahe and Livingston, if one more guy with additional eligibility emerges — Josh Aisosa, Malik Agbo, Donovan Haslam — now you're in a really good spot to attack the portal for top-tier talent to fill out the rest of the line.

This duo/possible trio has to show a lot in the back half of the season, however, to truly be considered a building block.

Bandit Curtis Jones Jr.

Similar to the offensive line, Jones is more of a projection than a sure thing at this point. He's shown flashes of being a key piece for this defense moving forward, but then he's also had some really bad tape, i.e., the Ohio game, where he had four missed tackles, and certain parts of the Pitt game. With Braden Siders and Jimmori Robinson set to graduate, WVU needs to find production at the bandit spot, and it'd be a nice starting point for 2026 if Jones makes some strides.

DB Nick Taylor

And to round out our theme of hopefuls, we're going with Nick Taylor. For whatever reason, he only played in a handful of snaps against BYU after putting together a strong performance the week prior against Utah. Almost the entire secondary is graduating after this season, and of the players who can return, he's really been the only one to make some noise.