Rich Rodriguez Continues to Search for Answers After the Loss to UCF

West Virginia University head coach Rich Rodriguez UCF postgame quick hits

Oct 18, 2025; Orlando, Florida, USA; West Virginia Mountaineers head coach Rich Rodriguez watches a play during the first half against the Central Florida Knights at Acrisure Bounce House. | Russell Lansford-Imagn Images

The West Virginia Mountaineers (2-5, 0-4) dropped their fourth straight after falling to the UCF Knights (4-3, 1-3) Saturday afternoon 45-13.

WVU head coach Rich Rodriguez sat with the media following the loss to discuss the continued Mountaineer deficiencies.

Hoping for a better showing after the bye week

“We stunk in every phase, in every way. I thought we had a good week in practice. I’ve done this a long time, I thought the guys were ready to play. We didn’t do anything well - Looked slow, Out of position, missed tackles, didn’t block. Hell, [we] had two holding penalties on draw plays. That should never happen. Again, poorly coached, poorly executed, poorly played, poorly everything. So, hope this is bottom.

“You can say, ‘well, you’re playing young quarterbacks,” and we are and there’s growing pains with that, but that doesn’t explain everything.”

Starting freshman quarterback Scott Fox Jr.

“Just trying. Got to give everybody a shot and do it based on what they’ve done in the game, but also what they’ve done in practice. I’ve got to make a decision based on practice and to have the two young guys, the only guys that are healthy are the two young guys. So, Scotty got the first shot based on practice the last two weeks, but it’s a lot on them more when the pieces around them aren’t helping, you know what I mean? And we got to figure out a way for that to happen because if you got a young quarterback and you can the ball or you don’t have to get rid out it so quick when you drop back and stuff.”

Giving more opportunities to offensive linemen sitting behind the starters

“Yeah, but it’s not like if people say, well let’s change up on the o-line.’ Well, trust me, if we thought the change up would be better, we will do that. We are trying to do that.”

The defense giving up explosive plays

“Three drive started inside the 10-yard line, and they scored. We missed some tackles. Looked slower if that’s the right word. Weren’t playing as fast as we needed too. The execution part, the scheme part we will have to look at. It was not a good effort from any facet.”

Pass defense

“I got to find out why we had so many guys so wide open. I know one time we were supposed to have a deep safety in the middle of the field, and we didn’t, and I think it was the second touchdown of the game. It should never happen. So, there were some breakdowns there. Why it happened, I got to find out why. We played really poorly as poorly as we played defensively of I’ve had a team play defensively in a long, long time. Our guys are pretty consciousness – coaches and they’ll do what they can to fix it. “

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