'It's still old West Virginia to me': Rich Rodriguez discusses his return to a program eager for past glory

MORGANTOWN, W. Va. – Rich Rodriguez leans back into a leather couch next to a wall of coal bricks in his office at the Milan Puskar Center. He pairs a white hat and blue polo – both emblazoned with the gold "WV" logo. He is comfortable. Home again. 

Rodriguez knows the question is coming. He led West Virginia to a 60-26 record from 2001-07 before leaving for Michigan. The Grant Town, W. Va., native still hears that question, and it took nearly two decades and a journey Rodriguez describes by invoking Forrest Gump to find an answer. 

"I went to the Bayou, I've been in the South in Mississippi, out in the desert at Arizona, and have all these experiences," Rodriguez told The Sporting News. "There might have been a moment or two where I was like, 'Aw, I wonder what is going on at West Virginia' but I never really got back much."

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Rodriguez is back with the challenge of moving forward with a program trying to find its footing in the Big 12 in a sport undergoing a complete transformation. 

He is welcome, too. A large billboard featuring Rodriguez's sideline scowl and an edict – "This is Mountaineer Football" – is more than a little conspicuous near the West Virginia Coliseum. So the question stands for the most intriguing hire of 2025 not named Bill Belichick. What did he learn from all that time away from home? 

Rodriguez leans forward and puts both feet on the floor. Then, the truth. 

"It was a mistake leaving, but I've also learned more by leaving, I think," Rodriguez said. "I would like to think I was learning every year I was here the first time around, but inevitably you probably learn more with different experiences whether it's a different league or whatever we're put into. I do think it wasn't a wasted 17 or 18 years.

"Even at Michigan, that was a short stint there but my kids, some of their best friends are from Michigan. Arizona, we still have a place out there," Rodriguez continued. "I loved Tucson. I loved the town and still have great friends that are there. Shoot, Jacksonville, Alabama will always be a part of our proud history. I don't want to say it all happened for a reason, but it happened and I'm better because of the places where I was at."

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Rodriguez led Jacksonville State to a Conference-USA championship in 2024 in the program's second season in the FBS. That happened almost as fast as the hiring process when the West Virginia job opened up. Rodriguez recalled his reaction after being one of 20 candidates interviewed on a Zoom call. "So, you're telling me there's a chance, right?" 

A few days later, Rodriguez was lined up for an in-person interview. 

"That is when you know, 'Geez. This is real,'" Rodriguez said. "Then, they came down to our house in Alabama and we had a good talk. It really happened a lot faster both realistically and in my mind mentally, too."

On Dec. 12, 2024 – 10 days after Neal Brown was let go after six seasons – Rodriguez was hired back in his home state.

West Virginia football radio analyst Dwight Wallace understands the dynamics of Rodriguez's return. When Rodriguez left for Michigan, the coach turned his back on a fan-base that plans holiday vacations around the Mountaineers. How long do grudges last? 

"When he left for Michigan, they were hurt," Wallace told SN. "There were some of them that still are hurt, but overall they're still West Virginians – and he's a West Virginian. He grew up here. He played for Don Nehlen. He came back as a coach. That loyalty is still there." 

So are the numbers. West Virginia's winning percentage in the College Football Playoff era is .562. That is well below the .697 mark Rodriguez had the first time around.

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Rich Rodriguez brings back WVU legends 

Wallace scribbles into his notepad during the open portion of practice on Aug. 7. The sun breaks through the clouds at almost the perfect time. Players shout "Ooh!" in unison through the chorus of "Ms. Jackson" – the Outkast hit released a few months before Rodriguez took the job the first time – in 2001. 

Pat White – the quarterback who wrecked defenses from 2006-08 with his break-away speed – is on the field, too. He is now the assistant quarterbacks coach. White and running back Steve Slaton combined for 5,349 rushing yards and 65 TDs in a two-year period from 2006-07. The Mountaineers were 23-3 in those two seasons and just missed a shot at the Bowl Championship Series championship in 2007. 

White was running Blueprint Performance in his hometown of Daphne, Ala., with his brothers when Rodriguez called. White said he also got a nudge from Pat McAfee – the West Virginia punter turned media superstar who is arguably the most popular former alum in 2025.

Jeff Casteel – who stayed at West Virginia when Rodriguez left for Michigan – is a linebackers coach, and his son Jeff is a defensive assistant. Star running back Noel Devine – who played for Rodriguez for one season – is an assistant running backs coach. Rasheed Marshall – the first star quarterback for Rodriguez at West Virginia – is the director of player development. The nostalgia is back, but that is not Rodriguez's intent to recreate the early 2000s. 

"I didn't hire them necessarily because of what they did 20 years ago – I hired them for what they could do now, which is talk about our system, our program," Rodriguez said. "How do we get our guys to be their very best and not telling them how to coach? They all have great abilities." 

Rich and Rita Rodriguez have passed the tradition to their children, too. White works with Rodriguez's son Rhett, the quarterbacks coach. Raquel Rodriguez is the assistant director for football management and strategy. She's also on the sideline snapping pictures and taking video. With seven quarterbacks taking snaps in fall practice, however, it is easy to get back into game mode. White sees a familiar pattern with Rodriguez on the field. 

"He's expanded the playbook, but in terms of passion – it's still just as strong as it was 15, 20 years ago," White told SN. "He has the same amount of fire. He likes to call it 'hard edge.' I think it's grown." 

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Rich Rodriguez and the 'hard edge' of coaching 

Pacman Jones – who played cornerback at West Virginia for Rodriguez for 2002-04 – loved the hire. Leave it to Jones to provide the broad definition for what "hard edge" means. 

"We don't want no soft-ass guys in West Virginia," Jones told SN. "It's not made for those type of guys. Anybody knows about West Virginia, it's coal mines, you know what I'm saying? We want guys who have a tough edge that enjoy playing football." 

A clip of Rodriguez screaming at that Aug. 7 practice made the rounds on social media. This sort of behavior was over scrutinized during his time at Michigan, but it worked at West Virginia back then. Will it work now? Rodriguez explains with the "run into a wall" analogy. That worked 20 years ago. Now?

"They'll still do it, but they want to know why," Rodriguez said. "If you don't give them an informed answer, then they'll Google it and say, 'That's not what it says on Google.'"

So Rodriguez is with the times, but he has no plans on changing his coaching style.

"People say you can't coach guys as hard now as you used to because they will just wind up and quit and go to the transfer portal," Rodriguez said. "I think good players want to be coached, and now that we're paying them we can coach them harder. They have more to lose."

Linebacker Reid Carrico transferred from Ohio State to West Virginia in 2024. He compared Rodriguez to Trevon Pendleton, his coach at Ironton High School in Southeast Ohio. So when Carrico heard the Rodriguez rumors, he had a curious reaction. 

"I heard that he was a difficult, tough-nosed, old-school coach and found that kind of exciting," Carrico told SN. "(Pendleton) was really tough, too. He was fresh out of college. He was hard on us, and coached us hard. I wouldn’t say I knew what to expect with Coach Rod." 

What Carrico found is that Rodriguez is more than a tough exterior. Rodriguez knows how to pronounce "Ironton" the way it's pronounced there. In turn, Carrico appreciates the small-town charm of Morgantown, and the importance of playing for West Virginia's de facto professional team. 

Devine – who rushed for 4,315 yards and 29 TDs for the Mountaineers from 2007-10 – knows that feeling. He was training athletes at his youth track club Devine Speed in Cape Coral, Fla. He worked at local schools as a guest teacher – but when Rodriguez recruited his son Andre Devine to Jacksonville State – that connection was different. 

"It was an amazing feeling," Devine told SN. "He boasted about me in front of the parents and the people that were visiting the recruits. He was saying, 'I was his five-star recruit and the last five-star recruit and highest recruit ever.' It meant everything." 

This was not the language Devine recalled when he ran the wrong way on a zone read in the indoor facility in 2007. Rodriguez called Devine about an assistant running backs coach position the day after Christmas. Devine peers out at Mountaineer Field through the window and smiles. This is the under-publicized side of the "hard edge." 

"It is a true testament of Coach Rod and who he is and his respect and loyalty for us," Devine said. "You can see what myself, Pat and Rasheed have done for that program. Family looks out for family. Coach Rod definitely looked out for me."

How will WVU handle transfer portal?  

Rasheed Marshall's arrival with the Mountaineers coincided with Rodriguez's first season in 2001. He was a three-year starter at quarterback. Now, Marshall is helping manage the Mountaineers' roster, which includes a stunning 74 players from the transfer portal. 

It is the program's comprehensive challenge for the 2025 season. 

The first time around, Rodriguez was able to cultivate two- and three-star gems with players like Marshall – who still ranks fifth in school history with 7,598 yards of total offense and 69 total TDs.

"One major difference if people are going to compare years past and his first time around to now, back then once you had a recruiting class in, you knew you were going to have them. You could develop them. You could redshirt them," Marshall told SN. " Now, it is a very sped-up process in terms of developing talent. They almost need to come in ready to go. Guys can transfer. We all know that, and it needs to happen right now. It's just a different game. I think the pressure to get your team ready to go now is the main goal." 

That means team-building with all those new players, too. Carrico – a fifth-year senior – said the staff has encouraged "Fireside Chats," a term last popularized during the Franklin Roosevelt administration – but yet with the same get-to-know effect. 

"We will go into a team meeting and split into groups and go to a different meeting room. There were 15 people and 10 groups," Carrico said. "Everybody talks about where they're from and a little bit of their background. That has been great, too." 

The facilities are a significant upgrade, too. Marshall said the pre-fueling stations, recovery stations, sleep rooms and other resources have helped push West Virginia into its next chapter. Rodriguez frequently jokes about the difficulty with instilling a "hard edge" when there is a fully-loaded ice cream machine with sprinkles in the dining area. 

Rodriguez is forthright about the expectations in the Big 12 this season. He talked at length about the importance of evaluation – which is equal between transfers and high-school players. How do you determine who to pay what amount? He said the key is to "think like an NFL-type program."

"The first year is the hardest, because I'm still figuring out what we got," Rodriguez said. "I've evaluated the Big 12 a little bit, but hell, I'm so busy evaluating my own – I don't know what I've got yet. That's the truth. I better know what I have in about two weeks." 

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Why Rich Rodriguez's return is pivotal for West Virginia

Rodriguez admitted to not knowing what the true reaction would be when he returned to his alma mater. He is able to laugh now telling the story of offensive lineman Xavier Bausley, a Dunbar, W. Va., native who followed Rodriguez from Jacksonville State. In a recruiting questionnaire, Bausley mentioned that his father burned all his Rodriguez memorabilia when the coach left for Michigan. 

"I think there was a little bit of nervousness about whether people would still be mad about when we left – which I understood – but you know, I said, 'Well, I've gotta show them that hiring me was the right decision,'" Rodriguez said. "We're trying to win them over."

How does the second stint work? Pitt's Johnny Majors did not have anywhere near the same success when returned in 1993-96. Kansas State's Bill Snyder and USC's John Robinson also saw their winning percentages slip on the second stint. Mack Brown finished 44-33 (.571) at North Carolina after returning in 2019, which was a slight decrease from his .599 winning percentage from 1988-97. Can Rodriguez break the trend? West Virginia finished No. 20 in the final 2018 AP Poll. The Mountaineers have not been ranked since. The fans are looking for a winner.

At his press conference on Aug. 8, Rodriguez was cornered into a hypothetical whether running back Jahiem White – who had 844 yards and seven TDs – would have to carry the workload by himself this season. 

"If a frog had wings, he wouldn't bump his butt when he tried to fly, right?" Rodriguez replied. 

Rodriguez's style still plays in Morgantown, and those closest to him can see it. 

"He's at home, but he's maybe not as boisterous off the field but he's just as intense with his intentions," White said. 

"The overall energy in the city of Morgantown and throughout the state of West Virginia picked up when he was announced as the head coach," Marshall said. "The amount of players that we were able to get just over the spring for an alumni picnic that just blew it out of the water. Say what you want, but the excitement definitely will be there. It will prove itself on Saturdays." 

West Virginia also remains one of those special locales in college football, too. It does a full-body lean into the John Denver song. "Almost Heaven" and "Take Me Home." Those lyrics are displayed in the Milan Puskar Center. 

That combination is why Devine felt the need to come back. 

"It's amazing when you win," Devine said. "Everybody is happy. Everybody's happy. The town comes alive when the football team is winning and thriving and doing great. It makes the mood better around town. It makes the fans better around the state. Everything is just better. The air is better." 

Devine laughs at that thought. Now, whether there is a resurgence might be an indicator of sorts for those programs trying to keep up in the Power 4. That starts with Rodriguez. He sandwiched a one-year television stint between head coaching jobs at Michigan and Arizona. He was an offensive coordinator at Ole Miss in 2019 and UL-Monroe in 2021 before three years at Jacksonville State. What did he think when he finally returned home? 

"The town has grown a bit, but it's still old West Virginia to me," Rodriguez said. 

What will he do when the Mountaineers open the season against Robert Morris on Aug. 30? For at least a few moments, Rodriguez believes that will feel like it did on his first home game as head coach on Sept. 8, 2001. That is when the Glenville State coach who replaced Don Nehlen made his first impression. Rodriguez remains in that forward posture – with his hands gripped together.  

"That was like my big moment," Rodriguez said. "You know what I mean? I've been around, but I'm a lot older now so it probably won't be as nervous. It will be kind of a 'Gosh, is this really happening?' kind of deal. I'm looking forward to that."

Now, Rodriguez leans back into the couch. 

"Then and after we run out of the tunnel or whatever we run out of it will be about 30 seconds later," he said. "Then it will be, 'Let's win the coin toss.'"