Rich Rod Warns Schools Against Tampering with WVU’s Roster This Offseason

One thing that West Virginia's head football coach wants to accomplish in the next few weeks is to figure out a depth chart. Yes, by mid-April, the Mountaineers will have their first depth chart for the 2026 season — not one that will be made to the pubic, however.

Because there is no second transfer portal window, coaches largely know what their team will look like next fall, barring any injuries or enrollment issues for players who are expected to arrive in the summer. There's also the possibility that an addition or two is made via the portal, but the remaining options are pretty thin at this stage of the offseason.

Rodriguez made it very clear, though, that if he loses players between now and the season, he's not going to let it slide.

“We know what our roster is. If our roster changes because somebody’s leaving, then somebody tampered. Let’s turn their tail in, you know what I mean? Fine them. Suspend them.”

As previously mentioned, there are players still in the transfer portal searching for a new home. New entries are not permitted, but that hasn't stopped anyone before. If someone wants to unenroll and go somewhere else, they'll find a way to do so.

The NCAA has not done a great or even a good job of penalizing those who tamper, but coaches all around the country in all sports are getting agitated with it constantly happening, and are going to become more vocal about it, including Rodriguez.

WVU is not suspicious of any tampering currently going on. This is more of Rodriguez sending out a warning that if anyone thinks about doing it, they should know that he's going to make sure it gets taken care of, or at the very least, called out.

This time a year ago, you were seeing some programs cancel their spring game or having it be very drill-oriented in fear of other schools getting their hands on the film of it and going after players they took a liking to.

Even with no portal window in the spring, you're probably going to see more and more schools do away with the spring game entirely. This year, WVU is changing it from a game to a festival.

"We may do things a little bit different," Rodriguez said earlier this spring. "Do some one-on-ones and some different things that fans may want to watch. The scrimmage part, I’ve never been that that’s the end-all be-all, and if you had a great spring scrimmage, that means you’re destined for greatness or the opposite. We’ll come up with a format.”