What Rich Rodriguez Might Reveal at Big 12 Media Day About WVU’s 2026 Season

This week, Rich Rodriguez and a few Mountaineers will be headed to Frisco, Texas to participate in Big 12 Media Days. The event will begin tomorrow, but the Mountaineers won't be available to speak until Wednesday.

Although there's usually not much that comes from these press conferences/interviews, every now and then, some big news will drop. Even if that doesn't happen, the types of responses we hear from Rodriguez could give us some clues about where he thinks the program is heading into the new season.

There are three things in particular that I will be closely listening for.

Will he publicly announce Mike Hawkins Jr. as QB1?

Pat White, Mike Hawkins Jr. — WVU Athletics Communications

There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it. Mike Hawkins Jr. will be the Mountaineers' starting quarterback in 2026. It's just a matter of when Rich Rodriguez decides to publicly announce it.

To be fair, there's no incentive for him to announce the decision because it only further helps opponents scout. At the same time, it's one of the worst-kept secrets out there, so it's not going to matter that much if he doesn't announce it at all and just rolls Hawkins out there on September 5th against Coastal Carolina.

Wednesday could be the day he makes it public, though.

The confidence in saying, "The goal is to compete for a championship"

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

This is the mindset of ever coach and Rodriguez had a championship on his mind this time a year ago, despite knowing the uphill battle he was about to face. If you don't have that as your goal, then what's the point? He'll say it again, but I'm curious to see how he says it and how in-depth he goes about his belief. I have a feeling he'll speak it with a little more confidence, but to what degree?

This team is much improved, but can they be a dark horse no one is talking about? Or just a bowl team that shows some flashes of a program headed in the right direction? He may not even know the answer to that yet, since fall camp is still a few weeks away, but he has to have a pretty good idea of where this group is at.

Why this roster flip will yield better results immediately

For the second straight offseason, Rich Rod flipped a huge chunk of the roster. Last year, it didn't work out so well, but there are a bunch of reasons for that. They missed out on the first big wave of the transfer portal and while the second and third waves were going down, Rodriguez was still trying to put the finishing touches on a coaching staff.

This time around, they had an entire year to evaluate players, including their own, knowing exactly what the needed. Any time a roster flip of this size happens, everyone jumps to the assumption that it's going to take two years or so for things to turn around. I don't get the sense that's what this staff believes, Rodriguez included. They have more experience and production across the board, even if it didn't occur at WVU. They believe they can win games now.

I'm eager to see which players he names outside of running back Cam Cook, if any, and why he believes this team can find its stride early. despite having so many newcomers.

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