The One Thing That Will Tell Rich Rodriguez WVU is Ready to Take Off

Rich Rod will know things are headed in the right direction if this happens.

Nov 29, 2025; Morgantown, West Virginia, USA; West Virginia Mountaineers head coach Rich Rodriguez walks along the sidelines during the first quarter against the Texas Tech Red Raiders at Milan Puskar Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Ben Queen-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Next week, West Virginia football will open up fall camp, and throughout the month of August, head coach Rich Rodriguez will learn a lot about the team he has assembled for the 2026 season.

After having already gone through spring ball with much of the roster and seeing the progress those guys have made in the weight room and over the summer, he has a pretty good idea as to where things are headed. But as the season inches closer and the competition intensifies, some guys will rise to the occasion; others may flounder.

There is no true way of knowing how good a team you are going to be before you tee things up in Week 1 because it's mainly a guessing game. Coaches will often wonder, "Damn, is our offense that explosive or is our defense just that bad," or vice versa. It's hard to know the answers to those types of questions until you line up against someone else.

My co-host on the In The Gun Podcast, Jed Drenning, knows Rich Rod better than most. He knows what he's looking for in camp and what he is hoping to accomplish beyond the Xs and Os. I asked Jed in our most recent episode what the one thing is that needs to happen in camp for Rodriguez to feel good about where this train is heading.

“I don’t think it’s something you measure on paper, but you can feel it in the locker room. It’s year two, and the expectation is there is going to be some holdover, even with 80 guys turned over on the roster, and what that means is 30+ guys aren’t. Even with all those guys on the roster, the staff, in large measure, is back. You have way more kids back this year even with 80 new faces, so the expectation is the culture starts to work its way in, and it gets to a point where, to some extent, some of the culture piece is going to be on cruise control. Culture is a euphemism in Rich’s world for toughness, hard edge, whatever you want to call it.

"So by the end of camp, after the grind of knocking each other around, you’re going to get a sense once they line up and get ready for the gong show and bonding that way, which is some of the greatest bonding in the world. If you’ve never been a part of one, you don’t know what you’re missing. You are so relieved that camp’s behind you, the good stuff’s ahead of you, and now, let’s just kick back and make fun of your teammates, make fun of your coaches. If by that point, you’re getting ready to do your skits for the gong show, if the staff recognizes we’ve got a tough football team…it’s going to be a fun 2026.”