Jan 6, 2026 By Spencer Ripchik 4 min read

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — It didn’t take long for Rich Rodriguez to make some additions in the transfer portal. West Virginia has already added three players since the portal opened on Jan. 2. Just with those three transfers and some of the reported targets, it’s clear Rodriguez has a vision for what he wants in this cycle.

Rodriguez said he doesn’t want a big portal class this year. It’d be hard to replicate WVU’s portal class last year, which had 70-plus players added in the two periods. The only way Rodriguez was going to compete was by adding numerous transfers, because Rodriguez took the job in December, so there was no time to bring in a recruiting class.

Even with the recruiting class, there were too many players leaving that he needed to add players to field a roster. That happens to most teams when there’s a head coaching change.

Instead of adding 70 players, Rodriguez spent a lot of time, money and effort on signing a big high school and JUCO class for 2026. That’s how Rodriguez wanted to fix long-term problems.

“Obviously, it’s a player’s game,” Rodriguez said in October. “From a recruiting standpoint, I think we’re fixing the best way to fix our problem, get really good players and coach them up to be really good, that’s what we’re going to do.”

He kept his word and signed a 2026 class of 49 players, which was the highest-rated class of the modern era. The class contained three 4-stars and a top 10 WVU recruit in recent history.

Building young has now carried over to the transfer portal. Two of the three players WVU signed out of the portal have three years of eligibility left. That leaves a lot of time to develop the players under the system.

It also means they’re cheaper. WVU isn’t going to compete with top spending teams, like Texas Tech, who just signed Cincinnati QB Brendan Sorsby for a contract worth more than some backup NFL QBs. It costs less to sign younger players because they are unproven.

The issue is that it’s all on the coaches to develop those players. Rodriguez is betting on himself to grow that player’s potential, which is reassuring that he believes in himself, but it didn’t go too well after Year 1, and he’s already changed his offensive line coach, who didn’t cut it.

The other issue is that developing players takes time. Curt Cignetti at Indiana and Texas Tech have made their programs powerhouses instantly because they’ve gone heavy in the portal, getting proven impact players. They can compete now because those players don’t need to develop.

Rodriguez’s strategy of investing in the youth will take time. But now, time is against Rodriguez after a 4-8 first season. There are already antsy fans after Year 1. If Rodriguez falls below .500 once again, who knows if he’ll be back for a third year when his young players will be starting to make more of an impact.

WVU gave Neal Brown six years to get things going in the right direction, so that’s good for Rodriguez. But, as time goes on without a great season, fans will get more impatient, which doesn’t help Rodriguez’s case.

Rodriguez will probably add some veteran players. The reported USC receiver has played three seasons, and there could be more. But it seems like he has a clear plan, which is nice in some ways because fans know what they’re getting. Time will tell if it pans out.

“Sometimes it’s painful to wait or have to understand you gotta have a little luck, and have a plan to get fixed what you need to get fixed,” Rodriguez said in October. “Trust me, we’re in the process of fixing. Some of that involves external things that we’re in the process of doing, but it’s not fun right now to go through some of the stuff that we’re going through.”