WVU Football is Quietly Setting the Stage for a Breakout Year

Expectations have heightened in Morgantown as Rich Rodriguez enters year two in stint No. 2 as the West Virginia head football coach.

After a brutal 2025 season, the Mountaineers flipped the roster, bringing in a top-25 high school class and a strong showing in the transfer portal, giving fans reason to believe that this fall will be a step in the right direction.

Could it be the first step toward WVU returning to national relevance?

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

Every year, there's always a team that comes out of nowhere and is firmly in the college football playoff discussion come mid-late November. Unfortunately, I don't expect West Virginia to be that team this fall, but they do have the talent to compete on a weekly basis and maybe even pull out a win or two that you don't expect.

Even in this era of needing instant results, a program can take small steps toward becoming a contender, and with how WVU's roster is currently constructed, they are positioned to do exactly that. This isn't a group that is full of seniors and fifth-year guys who have played a ton of football. Nor is it a group that they spent a boatload of money on to try and go "all-in" on winning in 2026, leaving them with an unsustainable future.

The core of this team is extremely young, yet very talented

There will be some growing pains they will have to navigate, but a year from now, we're going to be talking about how valuable it was for those youngsters to go through some of those inevitable struggles.

QB Mike Hawkins Jr. is only a redshirt sophomore, so he will have two more years of eligibility remaining after this season. Four of the five projected starting offensive linemen will be able to come back, and of course, the talented true freshman trio of RB Amari Latimer, OL Kevin Brown, and S Matt Sieg will have a full year of experience. Not to mention, RB Cam Cook might be able to come back for another year, and wide receivers Prince Strachan, TaRon Francis, John Neider, Keon Hutchins, and Kedrick Triplett can all return.

That's just the offense.

Defensively, the front seven is full of youth.

You'd like to think that, among the group of young defensive linemen — Darius Wiley, Taylor Brown, Wilnerson Telemaque, Brandon Caesar, Cam Mallory, Will LeBlanc, Yendor Mack, and Noah Tishendorf — Zac Alley will be able to find a solid core to build. Older guys such as Nate Garbiel, Corey McIntyre Jr., Jaylen Thomas, and KJ Henson can lead the way for another year as well.

Linebacker is the one spot that feels a little concerning, but that's something they can address in the transfer portal in addition to the four backers they have committed in the '27 recruiting class.

And then in the secondary, N/S Maliek Hawkins, and corners Nick Taylor, Da'Mun Allen, Jaire Rawlison, and Vincent Smith are all full of potential and can be pieces that develop into starters.

Of course, retention is going to be a key part in all of this, and they're not going to bat 1.000 on all of these guys I just mentioned, but there is reason to believe they have enough to start trending in the right direction.

If Hawkins and the offense show flashes of being an elite unit this fall, it will attract more top-tier talent out of the transfer portal.

A favorable schedule helps, too

It's hard to project who will be good or bad a year from now. Heck, no one has any idea what this year will look like in the Big 12. That being said, not having Texas Tech on the schedule next year is probably a good thing. Also, WVU will avoid Utah, which will continue to be one of the better teams in the league.

In non-conference play, WVU should be able to go 3-0 as they have home matchups with Southern Miss, VMI, and Ohio. No power conference foes? All at home? Yeah, that's a good way to get some momentum early in the season.

2027 has the makings of a breakthrough type of year for the Mountaineers, but it all starts by setting the tone in 2026.

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