When Will WVU Start Landing Transfers? Why a Patient Approach is Likely for Rich Rod

Aside from a bunch of folks asking me who I expect to enter the transfer portal and which coaches Rich Rodriguez will hire, the one question that's been asked the most is when West Virginia will start heavily pursuing and even landing players out of the transfer portal.

Sit back, relax, and prop your feet up because it could take a minute.

I pulled some data from the last two years of how Rodriguez and his staff recruited out of the portal in their two years as an FBS program at Jacksonville State. In 2023, they landed seven transfers in total, six of which came to the program after the start of the New Year. Three of them came in from Power Four schools. In 2024, Jax State landed 19 kids out of the portal, 17 of which came after the New Year, including ten that came between March and August. Ten of the 19 were from the Power Four.

Now, one could argue that the reasoning for that approach is that Jax State, being a Group of Five school, had to wait for the upper levels to fill up and take on some of the kids who were still searching for a new home come springtime. G5 programs get picked apart every year, and sometimes, it takes a little longer to find the right guys to replace the talent you've lost.

Rodriguez told ESPN that he had a total of 60 newcomers in the summer prior to the start of this past season. It took them a few games to get acclimated, but once they got comfortable, they ripped off a bunch of wins and were one of the hottest teams in the Group of Five.

Given that he has yet to officially announce a single coaching staff hire, the patient approach to the transfer portal may be the route he takes once again. It's hard to recruit anyone out of the portal when you don't know who your position coach or coordinator is. I'm sure Rodriguez is dropping some hints to potential recruits as to who it may be or what scheme they'll run defensively, but it's a hard sell until someone is officially announced.

The other part of this, obviously, is figuring out who on the current roster is going to come back. Over the last 24 hours or so, we've started to see some players trickle into the portal, and that will continue to be the case up until the portal closes on December 28th. Once players are in the portal, you can talk to them even after it closes. Once they're in, they're in.

Rodriguez is going through and evaluating the roster and following that up with one-on-one meetings with every player to get a feel for their situation and whether or not they're a fit. But just like recruits and potential portal targets, they, too, want to know who will be on staff and the scheme that will be run. It's a big waiting game at this point, mostly hung up by the staff being put together.

There could be movement by WVU in the portal before the portal closes, but it likely won't pick up until the 28th passes. Rodriguez will then have a good idea as to who plans to be there and what holes he and his staff need to fill after that date. The spring transfer portal window will be key.

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