Rich Rodriguez Doubles Down on National Championship Aspirations at WVU

Rich Rod still firmly believes the Mountaineers can sit atop the college football world.

Sep 13, 2025; Morgantown, West Virginia, USA; West Virginia Mountaineers head coach Rich Rodriguez yells at the referee during the second quarter against the Pittsburgh Panthers at Milan Puskar Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Ben Queen-Imagn Images | Ben Queen-Imagn Images

Winning at West Virginia isn't as easy as it used to be, and if we're being honest, it's always been a bit of a challenge to compete nationally. But Rich Rodriguez did it before, and he believes he can do it again, albeit in a much different era of college football where NIL dominates the decisions of recruits and transfers.

The Mountaineers had a miserable first season with Rodriguez back at the helm, going just 4-8, and for the second straight offseason, Rodriguez overhauled the roster. Last year, they had no choice but to add a bunch of transfers because of the coaching change. This year, it was more of a choice to revamp the roster with a huge, yet highly talented freshman class and a stronger tier of portal additions.

Going from 4-8 to the national championship is highly unlikely, but at some point, Rodriguez thinks WVU can get there. Heck, even after their blowout loss to Kansas last September, he threw out a five-year timeline.

West Virginia University head coach Rich Rodriguez | Christopher Hall - West Virginia on SI

On Tuesday, he doubled down on his national championship thoughts, stating, “I said this a year ago, we’re going to work as hard as we can to bring a championship to West Virginia. It was a tough start, but I’m not backing down from that. I still think we can win the Big 12, which is a really good league. I think we can get into the College Football Playoff, and I think you can win a national championship at West Virginia. It might be difficult, but it can be done.”

After watching Indiana go from the worst program in college football history to hoisting the national title this season, it's not as crazy a dream as it may seem. Of course, it's going to take an incredible amount of support from boosters and donors, along with top-notch coaching and development, all of which Rodriguez believes he'll have, as he stated when he first landed the job.

“We’re going to have all the things you got to have to win a national championship," Rodriguez told college football analyst Josh Pate last spring. "We might not have the extra stuff that some of the programs have, but we’re going to have enough. What we got to have, what is non-negotiable, is the earned success model and the hard edge mentality that we’ve got to exhibit every day. I wouldn’t have come back if I didn’t think we could win a national championship. I had a great situation at Jax State. I could have stayed there and finished my career, but I wanted to come back. It’s home. People that I care about, the school that I love, and you can win it all here. There’s always going to be challenges, but when you do well here, it is so neat to see everybody in the state come together.”