What Rick Trickett Brings Back to West Virginia That Was Missing Up Front

Tough, hard-nosed football. That's what Rich Rodriguez is about. That's what Rick Trickett is about. The two are cut from the same cloth, so it's no wonder that the duo has produced such great results in the past, where they spent nine seasons together (WVU 2001-06 and Jacksonville State 2022-24).

The assumption this time a year ago was that Trickett would follow Rodriguez back to West Virginia. Instead, he ended up sticking around at Jacksonville State for one more year as his son and former Mountaineer quarterback, Clint, was hired as the Gamecocks' offensive coordinator and QBs coach.

With Clint landing an opportunity to be the quarterbacks coach at Arkansas, it opened the door for Trickett to return home, so he did. The move will be made official in the coming days as he will step in as the new offensive line coach, replacing Jack Bicknell Jr.

One of the things Rodriguez prides himself on is that his teams play hard, they strain, and are the bully you don't want to see in a fist fight. For the offensive line unit this past season, there wasn't a whole lot of that, if at all. They had a couple of moments here and there of finding success on the ground, but even when they started off well against Houston, it fizzled out.

Rodriguez's goal is for you to be able to easily tell that West Virginia is playing when you're flicking through the channels on TV. With Trickett back at the helm, that will happen. He's been widely regarded as one of the best offensive line coaches in college football for a long time now, and for good reason.

His players are technically sound, physically dominant, and know how to climb to the second level in a hurry. There's not much thinking going on. It's just playing. How many times this past season did we see a lineman just flat out look lost on the fly? Confused as to which defender to take on, which blitzer to pick up, when to double team vs. when not to — it was a mess.

That won't happen under Trickett's watch. It'll be a buttoned-up operation. Sure, you'll have some moments every once in a while because no player or coach is perfect, but you'll notice a difference from day one. Hard edge football is on its way.

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