Rich Rodriguez Isn’t Buying the Doom and Gloom as He Fights to Fix WVU’s Culture

Flipping a roster in one offseason is a chore in its own right, but getting an entire roster, whether they transferred in or stuck around following the coaching change, to buy in is a whole other challenge.

For a moment, it seemed as if things were heading in the right direction when West Virginia knocked off Pitt in overtime, pulling off an incredible come-from-behind victory. They showed fight, resiliency, and played a physical brand of football for four plus quarters. Since then, it's all gone downhill — offensively, defensively, and special teams-wise. Every corner of the roster has seen a significant dip in production, and at times, the intensity and effort have not been there, specifically last week at UCF.

"Most of the games we've played, we maybe didn't play well, but I thought the intensity or the competitiveness was still there. This past game, it wasn't," WVU head coach Rich Rodriguez said. "Poor coaching from that standpoint, especially me, making sure our guys have a certain level of competitiveness every play. In that game, even early in the game, even before anybody scored a touchdown... that was the most surprising part of that deal."

Setting the culture and the foundation for what you want your program to be is pivotal in year one. Rodriguez even admitted that he was fooled earlier in the year by the Pitt game, believing that the team was in a pretty good spot, trending in the right direction from a culture standpoint.

"I still think we have a ways to go. I never thought it was totally in. I think you have to play a whole season, but I thought we were further with that, and I haven't done a good enough job to get that to where we want to. I don't think it's that far off, as maybe it looks like. I'm still convinced we're going to win big and have great success, but it's not going to happen as fast as I want for sure.

"We've got a lot of football left. Everybody wants to be doom and gloom, and I understand that because we played so poorly in the last game, but hell, there's a lot out there, there's a lot of games. I mean, we're just barely over halfway through, and we have not played our best game yet, so that's out there. I don't go to practice, and go, golly, I have to scream and yell because they practice pretty well. That's not the biggest issue. The way we started this last game was not with the intensity that our program should have. That's the part I was most disappointed with."

Playing in front of the home crowd and having the Coal Rush this weekend should help create some energy on the sidelines. All it takes is a couple of big plays or stops early in the game to get this team believing again, regardless of how shorthanded they are.

MORE STORIES FROM WEST VIRGINIA ON SI