In the Gun Exclusive: Rich Rodriguez Talks Kevin Brown, Big Fish, JUCO Ranks, + More

At the end of the first day of the early signing period, West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez joined us for an exclusive interview on the In the Gun Podcast to give his thoughts on the 2026 recruiting class.

Here's everything he had to say.

Thoughts on the class so far

“It was a lot of work involved not in just the last 24 hours, but a lot of work involved in the last 12 months. We knew we were going to have to sign a big class because one, we had a bunch of seniors, but also, there was going to be some roster movement anyway. I didn’t know we were going to have 60 or 70 spots open, but we do. We tried to get the best players we could get. We had a chance to recruit the high school guys more so than last year. We’ve signed 45 and from 24 different states. Everyone asks what’s your needs? Everywhere. Hell, are you kidding me?”

Being competitive financially this year

“We’re participating in the rev share thing, and we’ve got a little more money to pay guys. We have some more that we’ve got to raise NIL-wise. I mean, that’s part of my job is to raise, and I’ve got some good friends that will help us. As compared to this time last year, where we really didn’t have any, now we’re going to have some, we’re an active participant, and it’s a factor. If a coach tells you money ain’t a factor, I mean, hello…The biggest key is that you have the money to spend and you evaluate the right way. There are going to be others that have more money than us and that may have more money than everybody, and have three times more money than us. I’d like to close that gap and hopefully, eventually, we can. One of the reasons about getting high school guys and JC guys, they’re usually less expensive than the portal guys. But we thought we evaluated the right guys, and we have a fair number for the guys that got signed. We’re still going to have a portal period and sign a dozen or so. We’re not replacing the whole roster, but three-fourths of it we are.”

If the junior college level is overlooked

“Oh, no question it’s overlooked. When the portal thing started a few years ago, everybody started looking for portal guys, and the JC guys got lost in the shuffle — not all of them, but a lot of them. And there’s some really, really good JC programs, like Hutchinson is a program we’ve recruited guys out of every year, everywhere I’ve been, and they’ve got some really good players. The other thing about it, when you get the JC guys, they’re the least spoiled of anybody you recruit. If you give them a sandwich, they’re like, ‘Are you kidding me? I get a free sandwich?’ Those guys, they come here, they see our facilities and see what you do for your players, and they’re tickled to death. But again, it’s about picking the right guys and fit what we want to do.”

Importance of having a huge number of early enrollees

“It’s always important. I think the fact that we can work with our guys a little in the summer makes it less important than it was before. Before, you couldn’t even ask the guys what they were doing in the summer. Supposedly, they were supposed to change the calendar where we could have practices in the summer. I don’t know if that’s going to happen or not. But nonetheless, just to have them here for a few months to train with our strength staff, to be in our facility, to get to know the system, for coaches to work with them a little bit, is really critical.”

Landing OL Kevin Brown

“Obviously, his dad, Tim, played for me, but he was committed to Penn State. And I’m like, he’s a really, really good player. Let’s see if we can get him on campus. He comes to summer camp, and he works out, and a lot of big-time guys don’t work out. He comes and works out, and I’m like, I ain’t ever seen nothing like it in all my years. A high school guy that was that college-ready in camp. That just made me want him more. Not that I was rooting against Penn State, but I was kind of rooting against Penn State. When there was a chance that maybe he would leave after that thing went down and we got him to visit campus, I said, we got to go all in. Everything you want in a high school football player, Kevin Brown has it. He’s still going to adapt to college, but that kind of added to that hard edge deal because that’s what we want with all of them.”

Reeling in some more big fish

“This list ain’t done yet, guys. Just telling you, so we’re good.”

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