Rich Rodriguez Doesn't Want 'Hired Guns' at WVU — Here's His Message to Players

The days of building a program full of guys who stick with you for three, four, or, in some cases, five years are officially a thing of the past, thanks to NIL and the transfer portal. You'll have a small percentage of players who ride with you from start to finish, but it's certainly never going to be the majority.

Because there is so much movement, it can he difficult for a player to have a special feeling about a certain school, state, or fan base. It can feel very transactional, and understandably so. But West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez has made it very clear to his team that when you play for the Mountaineers, it's about playing for something much bigger than yourself.

"I want them to feel a certain obligation to West Virginia. To our school. To our program. To our state," he said during his radio show on Monday night. "I don't want them to be hired guns, even if they just came for one year. I want them to feel like I'm playing for West Virginia. I'm playing for my school, I'm playing for my state, I'm playing for my teammates, and that is the most important thing that they take from a mental standpoint. Not that I'm playing for myself so I can get a bigger contract. That can't be who we are."

Rodriguez was also asked about guys making business decisions — players deciding to go in a certain way on a tackle or not play with maximum effort because they are thinking about their next deal and don't want to get injured.

He gave the perfect response.

"If a guy turns something down, like he had a chance to tackle a guy, or he just kind of, like, ' Eh, I don't want to do that because it might get me hurt and that's a so-called 'business decision,' I'm going to make a business decision to cut him. I might cut him before the half is over. That's how adamant I am in that you have to play a certain way. That's been the message I've been trying to say the last couple years. You still have to play the game a certain way, and if you do that, you'll get rewarded. If you turn stuff down, to me, you're not the type of a guy you can build a program with. I don't think I have that (with our guys)."

Unless something changes, I'm not sure we will ever see the same level of passion for their universities from players, but it can still be more important at places like West Virginia, where you are the main event in the state, not just a town.

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