What Rich Rodriguez Said at His First Radio Show of the 2026 Season

West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez had his first radio show of the season tonight at Kegler's Sports Bar & Grille in Morgantown and gave his thoughts on several areas of the roster.

No, he did not confirm what everyone already knows: Mike Hawkins Jr. will be the starting quarterback, saying it "provides no benefit" to tell the public. He also mentioned that the kicking battle is still wide open between Nate Flower and Western Kentucky transfer Jack Cassidy.

Here are some of the other highlights from the night.

The intent behind building this roster

“We had a little bit more time and obviously a little bit more funding NIL-wise. We had a lot of one-year guys, and it was a good group of guys. Not a lot of them were NFL prospects; I think one of them made it, Michael Coats. We knew purposely we were going to try and get a little bit less seniors and a little more balance in our recruiting class, and we did that with 39 high school guys, a couple junior college guys, and 20-some transfers. We’re still a pretty young team; even with turning over that many guys, I saw something the other day that we were like the 65th or 66th youngest team in the country.”

The depth of this team

“I thought we did a pretty good job in recruiting. Recruiting is going really well for next year, really well. I think some of the transfers that we brought in fill some immediate needs and gave us some competition. I think overall, looking at our football team, there’s a lot more competition to play at all the positions. We’re not as deep as I’d like at a couple, but we have competition at just about every position where we couldn’t have said that a year ago.”

Thoughts on the offensive line

“We got five or six guys out of the portal that have played multiple games at the Division I level and wanted to prove themselves moving up. You can tell the difference. We feel a lot better on the o-line. At least there’s been some guys that have played some football at this level. There’s a certain attitude (they play with), and they go through really hard practices. There’s not another position group in the country that will work like our o-line works. I think we can play nine very easily, and we’re hoping there could be eleven.”

Evaluation of Amari Latimer

“He’s not a freshman body-wise. He’s 230 pounds. He got offered early by Georgia, but we offered him early too as a freshman. It’s neat that Geimere got in the portal and came down because that helped, obviously. Amari is a big, physical guy. He’s still learning, so we try to temper the expectations a little bit, but he’s got everything. He’s going to have a great career here.”

How DJ Epps has looked

“He has been good. We wanted an experienced guy there (at slot), and he’s kind of earned his way up. Walked on, nobody wanted him, became the leading receiver at Troy. Very, very productive and has made most of the highlight catches in camp and not trying to show off or anything, just got great ball skills.”

Thoughts on LSU WR TaRon Francis

"Initially, it took him a little while to kind of adapt to our tempo & pace. But in the last week or so, he's really made some strides and shown some good things. He's got good speed, but he's a big, strong guy. 210 lbs, very physical and great ball skills."

If the inflatable helmet is coming back

“No. It’s not. We have a pretty neat entrance, but we are coming out of the tunnel now, which I really like. We’re coming out of the tunnel like the Gladiators. Last year we were coming out of the weight room, and that’s kind of average. There’s going to be a tunnel cam, so when we go down the tunnel you can see on the big screen as we walk out.”

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