WVU Provides Behind the Scenes Look at Rich Rodriguez's Message to the Team

Rich Rod speaks with his team for the first time.

WVU Athletics Communication

West Virginia head football coach Rich Rodriguez addressed the team for the first time on Thursday, shortly after he arrived in Morgantown. The WVU digital media team did a great job of capturing parts of his speech and released the video on X.

Rodriguez's message

“First of all, it’s an honor to be here. To be back here. This is my home. It was a tough decision to leave the team I left because they accomplished so much, but it was an easy decision because I’m coming to the place that I love so much.

"It won’t be easy. I promise you. You’ll probably work harder than you’ve ever worked in your life. You sometimes hear coaches brag about I got 25 years of experience. But if they never learned or they never grew, they got one year of experience repeated 20 some times. I’m a better coach now than I was a year ago. I’m a better coach now than I was 20 years ago. I’ll be a better coach next week than I am today.

"People ask me, what’s hard edge mean? That means you’re going to be mentally and physically tougher than anybody and everybody that you go up against. You’ll be mentally and physically tougher than anybody we play or you won’t be playing. Some of you will kind of lounge down in your seat. If you’re going to be a lounge down in your seat guy, you’re not going to make it. If you’re going to sit up in your seat and you’re eager to get after somebody’s a**, you’re going to be just fine. If you’re going to play fast, you better be in shape, right? We’re going to be in shape. Most of the time, we’re going to get after their a**.

"They didn’t hire me because Rich Rodriguez played at West Virginia or because Coach Rodriguez went to a bowl game 20 years ago. I didn’t get hired because of that. I got hired because they thought my staff and I could help take us to another level.”

Mentally & physically tough.

Non-negotiable 💪 pic.twitter.com/uUFsDheBBQ

— West Virginia Football (@WVUfootball) December 13, 2024

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