What Rich Rodriguez Said Following the One-Score Win Over Coastal Carolina

Rich Rod wasn't too pleased with how things went in the final 30 minutes of the game.

Sep 5, 2026; Morgantown, West Virginia, USA; West Virginia Mountaineers head coach Rich Rodriguez talks with West Virginia Mountaineers quarterback Michael Hawkins Jr. (3) before an offensive possession during the second quarter against the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers at Milan Puskar Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Ben Queen-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

It was far from pretty, but the West Virginia Mountaineers ended the afternoon singing, "Take Me Home, Country Roads," and that's all that matters at the end of the day. WVU held off a pesky Coastal Carolina squad 31-24 to begin the season 1-0, and yes, they have a TON to work on.

Here is everything head coach Rich Rodriguez said after the game.

Opening statement

“I thought our crowd was fantastic. Really neat to see everybody in white for Pat White’s special day, and I thought the Mountaineer Maniacs were phenomenal. Just a great atmosphere. Hats off to West Virginia fans and the fans that came here and created a good atmosphere.”

“Really felt coming out of the first half, we played really well in all three phases. In the second half, we stunk; we didn’t do anything good. Not really happy about that, but it’s hard to win. I don’t know what the results in any games were today, but you can see in the last week what’s happened in college football in some games. Credit to those guys. They played hard, and their quarterback made a lot of plays for them. We got a lot to work on.”

The difference between the two halves

“In the first half, we played good football. Smart football and executed. Second half, we played bad football and didn’t execute. I don’t want to say it’s a lesson learned; hell, I’ve had 300-some games, but for our players, they’ll learn from it. Our guys are really conscientious, but we’ll get what we demand. There’s a couple things; I’m not going to go into detail, but there were some things that were really frustrating in the second half that we did not get corrected, and that falls on me.”

Going with Mike Hawkins Jr. at QB

“It was really close, and I think have two starters with him and Scotty. I’d like to have played Scotty, but the flow of the game, the second half, we had no possessions hardly. But Mike showed some explosive stuff in practice and made a lot of plays. There’s a few mistakes that he would take back; I’m sure he would tell you, but I think he’s going to grow out of every game because he’s a very conscientious guy and knows that we can play better as a unit on offense.”

Kevin Brown’s first start

“Okay. I’ll have to watch the film to see how they graded. To start as an offensive lineman as a true freshman is really rare. And I thought Kevin looked like he played pretty good.”

Any update on Darius Wiley’s injury

“I’m not a medical person, and it was a tough injury there, but he’s in great hands with our medical staff. I haven’t heard anything.”

Evaluation of RB Cam Cook

“Yeah, I thought he ran pretty hard. There wasn’t a lot of holes in there in the second half. He’s a competitive guy. You could see he was straining for some yards. He’s a good football player, and it was good to get Amari (Latimer) some reps too. I thought he ran pretty hard. There’s a lot that we can clean up in our run game.”

Thoughts on the special teams units

“I thought our special teams played pretty well. The last pooch punt wasn’t Bryan’s best, but I thought he punted well. I was really proud of Jack (Cassidy). He was in a close battle, and I thought he kicked off great, and he kicked field goals. The special teams, I thought, did a nice job today.”