Dec 22, 2025 By Spencer Ripchik 3 min read

The initial reactions when West Virginia’s 2025 schedule was released looked favorable. At least in the sense of being .500 and making a bowl game. Then, some winnable games became tougher with Houston having success, and Utah turning things around from last year’s disaster.

The 2026 schedule hasn’t been released yet, but WVU’s opponents for next season have been revealed. It looks pretty favorable again because there’s been a lot of change throughout the Big 12 and college football in recent weeks.

Four of the teams WVU faces will have new head coaches in 2026. The Mountaineers open the season against Coastal Carolina, who just hired new head coach Ryan Beard. Then, three conference schools WVU faces will also have new leaders. Iowa State lost Matt Campbell, who took the Penn State job, Utah’s long-time head coach Kyle Whittingham stepped down and Oklahoma State fired long-time head coach Mike Gundy during the middle of the season.

Rich Rodriguez will face a lot of first-year head coaches in Year 2. That doesn’t mean those will be shoe-in wins, especially the Big 12 games, but should favor a coach with a year under his belt.

Some of the schools made strong acquisitions, though. Oklahoma State hired North Texas’ Eric Morris to be its next head coach. Morris led the Mean Green to the American Conference Championship game and had them ranked in the top 25. Iowa State filled its vacant job with Washington State’s Jimmy Rogers. Rogers finished his lone season with a 6-6 record, with strong performances against College Football Playoff teams. Washington State only lost to JMU by four and Ole Miss by three. Utah promoted defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley to be its head coach.

Those are three coaches who had success at their previous stops. Scalley was just promoted, so there might not be much fall off from this season. And Rogers and Morris made their lower-level schools competitive last year. It’ll be interesting to see how those new coaches adjust to having a better job.

It depends on each situation. Luckily for the Mountaineers, the Cowboys were a mess last season, so Morris has a lot of work cut out for him. Campbell took most of his staff, and will probably take some players to Penn State, so Rogers also has some work to do. Cyclones quarterback Rocco Becht just announced his intentions of entering the portal. With the transfer portal, it could be a quick turnover. It seems more unlikely, which is favorable for WVU.

Then, Cincinnati starting quarterback Brendan Sorsby, who led the Bearcats to a 7-5 record and was fifth in the Big 12 in passing yards, announced he plans on entering the transfer portal. Cincinnati is on WVU’s schedule in 2026. TCU quarterback Josh Hoover also announced he’d be portaling, so Sonny Dykes will have a new quarterback when he faces the Mountaineers in 2026.

Losing a quarterback doesn’t have the same effect as losing a head coach. All over college football, most of the successful teams have transfer quarterbacks. Fernando Mendoza at Indiana and Carson Beck at Miami stand out this year. But it’s still something to note.

Tallying up those changes, WVU faces six teams with either a new leader or a new quarterback, and there very well could be even more change. WVU will have some change of its own, but it should be in better shape after Rodriguez has spent a year laying the groundwork.

But, you never truly know until the season plays out, which is a long way away, and a lot more could happen.