West Virginia's Season Finale Against Utah Moved to Friday

The West Virginia Mountaineers football team is entering a pivotal season with Rich Rodriguez entering his second season back in Morgantown as head coach. The team received the news of a slight schedule change to their 2026 slate of games.

The Big 12 Conference announced on Friday the matchup between West Virginia and Utah will move from Saturday, November 28 to Friday, November 27th.

📅 𝗦𝗖𝗛𝗘𝗗𝗨𝗟𝗘 𝗨𝗣𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘

Our game at Utah has been moved to Friday, Nov. 27.

🔗 https://t.co/vNjCFqIAkg pic.twitter.com/IRQ0EYzv3y
— West Virginia Football (@WVUfootball) April 10, 2026

The game was originally scheduled to take place on Saturday, November 28th. This game against the Utes marks the final game of the Mountaineers 2026 regular season. No times or dates have been released for any of WVU football’s games as of yet.

With the game being moved to a Friday on the West Coast, Mountaineer fans can reasonably expect this game to have a similar kickoff time to last season's road contest against the BYU Cougars. This game ended up having a kickoff time of 10:30 p.m. on a Friday. Mountaineer fans on the East Coast will most likely have to stay up late to watch Rodriguez and the Mountaineers finish off their regular season against a quality opponent.

History has not been kind to the Mountaineers against the Utes

The Utah Utes are one of the most recent teams to join the Big 12 Conference, joining in 2023. The Mountaineers have never defeated the Utes in football. The two programs have met three times in history, once in 1964, once in 2017, and most recently last season in 2025. The Utes soundly defeated the Mountaineers 48-14 in Morgantown. Rodriguez is certainly hoping for a better outcome this time around.

The Utes have had one of the most consistently good football programs over the last decade, producing multiple 10-win seasons and making several appearances in New Year's 6 bowl games. However, their longtime head coach, Kyle Whittingham, left for the Michigan Wolverines job this past January.

Whittingham coached the Utes for 21 seasons and was undoubtedly one of the biggest reasons for their success over his tenure. However, Morgan Scalley has been the head coach in waiting for several years inside the program and has high expectations for year one. The Utes' win total for the upcoming season is set at 8.5 games, compared to the Mountaineers 5.5.

Rodriguez and the Mountaineers will now have to travel across the country on a short week to take on a Big 12 title contender. Make sure to bookmark West Virginia on SI for all of your WVU football news.