Revamping

Jul 14, 2026 By Spencer Ripchik 4 min read

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The fullback is back for West Virginia football. The days of a player who has the size of a tight end but can carry the ball like a running back will be displayed on Mountaineer Field once again.

Rich Rodriguez turned some heads when he picked up fullback Kayden Luke from Arizona in the transfer portal. Luke is completely bald in his WVU football photo — he had a full head of hair at Arizona — and comes in at 251 pounds and 5-foot-11. Nicknamed “Cowboy Luke, he fits the description of a guy who isn’t afraid to do the dirty work and is all about ball.

But, in football, and especially college football, it’s more about pushing the ball vertically, and it’s even more the case in the Big 12. It’s about whose quarterback can throw the ball deep to a receiver down the numbers and who can get to 30 points the fastest. The days of the fullback are a thing of the past. If you don’t think so, Luke was named to the preseason All-Big 12 team as a fullback, and there wasn’t much excitement around it. It might’ve been because he was one of the few options to take the honor, but still, he was one of two Mountaineers named on the team.

“Yeah, the fullback position kind of went away for a long time,” Rodriguez said. “A lot of times nowadays you just use the tight end in that role.”

Rodriguez has a use for Luke. If you remember the Pitt game last year and for a couple of plays in 2025, he used a heavy package, or the “Phat Package,” as he called it on the “Pat McAfee Show.” He used an offensive lineman in a short-yardage situation as a big blocker to create a running lane to pick up a couple of yards. It worked in the Backyard Brawl when running back Tye Edwards punched it in for the go-ahead score.

Instead of using a lineman, Rodriguez wanted a fullback.

“But we wanted a guy that — there’s no secret that we like to run the football, and I didn’t know if we had a guy that was a true fullback in the old-school ways,” Rodriguez said. “Kayden kind of popped up there in the portal, and I’m like, he’s got a role to play.”

Luke was primarily used as a lead blocker in his sophomore season at Arizona. He played in all 12 games and helped the Wildcats rush for 1,981 yards and 20 touchdowns. Arizona running back Ismail Mahdi was eighth in the nation in yards per carry (6.41). Like Rodriguez said and has shown in the past, he wants to pound the rock. He upgraded the offensive line and brought in last year’s nation’s leading rusher, Cam Cook, to carry the ball. Adding Luke can only provide more production.

Luke’s not afraid to stick his nose and block a pass rusher, defensive tackle or a linebacker, creating a hole. Most of the spring, Luke worked with the tight end room and coach TEs coach Michael Nysewander. He didn’t get too many reps with the ball in his hand, focusing more on blocking, but Rodriguez had plans for him to carry the ball, and he’s capable of doing so.

“We really didn’t have a true fullback kind of guy, and we wanted to use in our offense,” Rodriguez said. “Kayden was a guy that popped up. He fits the bill. He doesn’t care if he’s going to run it. You can block him every day. So he’s going to play a role for us there.”

Rodriguez approached the transfer portal and roster building differently. He wanted to make sure he had a dedicated player for every position, so he doesn’t have linebacker Curtis Jones carry the ball at running back, or offensive lineman Donovan Haslam in the backfield as a lead blocker.

Now, we’ll see if all the checked boxes make the Mountaineers more competitive than last year’s four-win season.

“Part of what’s so neat about coaching in football, you’ve got so many different — it’s unlike any other sport,” Rodriguez said. “You’ve got 11 truly different positions on offense, maybe 12 if you count a fullback, all different positions on defense. When you’re putting together a team, you want to make sure that you have every kind of position with a guy that’s a quality player.”