Rich Rodriguez Appoints Ben Kerr as Director of Player Personnel

West Virginia University football coach Rich Rodriguez announced the hiring of Ben Kerr as the program’s new director of player personnel, adding an experienced administrator with a strong Power 4 background to the Mountaineer staff.

“Ben is an outstanding addition to our football program in the areas of recruiting and player personnel,” Rodriguez said. “He was on our staff at Arizona, and he brings years of proven administrative experience, especially at the Power 4 level. He will make an immediate impact working with our student-athletes.”

In his role at West Virginia University, Kerr will assist in recruiting and scouting while overseeing the director of recruiting, director of on-campus recruiting, and assistant directors for scouting. He will organize and lead personnel meetings, meet regularly with individual personnel units to enhance communication from the head coach, manage the transfer portal, and relay details of priority prospects to the coaching staff.

Kerr will also oversee the weekly in-season creation of advance scouting reports, research and analyze recruiting data related to player acquisition, and evaluate WVU’s roster along with other Big 12 rosters to identify strengths and weaknesses. His responsibilities include reviewing all recruit prospect files and supervising the student assistant development program.

Kerr arrives in Morgantown after spending the past seven years in various administrative roles with the Penn State Football program. He served as director of football administration from August 2019 through July 2025 before transitioning to director of football operations, and most recently held the role of interim chief of staff beginning in November.

While at Penn State, Kerr managed day-to-day football operations and administrative staff, oversaw the program’s budget, handled contracts, coordinated bowl game operations, and served as a liaison to multiple campus departments, including athletic and university administration, human resources, the ticket office, the head coach’s agent, and the Big Ten Conference.

As the program’s operations and administration lead, Kerr also served as facilities coordinator for the Lasch Football Center, assisted with future facility construction phases, supported long-term program and facility master planning, oversaw practice planning and implementation, managed the video department, and organized all aspects of regular-season and postseason team travel.

Prior to his time at Penn State, Kerr spent two seasons on the football staff at University of Arizona Football, serving as assistant director of football and recruiting operations in 2017 and director of football operations in 2018. He also worked as assistant director of operations at William & Mary in 2016 and previously interned at Penn State during the 2015 and 2016 seasons.

Kerr earned his bachelor’s degree in kinesiology from Penn State in 2012 and completed his master’s degree in sport management at Millersville University in 2015.

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