West Virginia
Rich Rodriguez is back at West Virginia and taking stand against player entitlement
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This ain’t about dancing, OK? Don’t get caught in the minutiae.
This is about how badly you want it, and how much you’ll sacrifice to get it.
“There’s a bigger sense of entitlement with our youth than ever before,” says West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez.
And if you think he’s done there, clutch your pearls. We’re just getting started.
So I ask how he deals with the entitlement, and that sent Rodriguez – in the news earlier this week because, sin of all sins, he told players he didn’t want them dancing on TikTok – to a rare place only few coaches can go in this age of player empowerment.
The place of I Don’t Care.
“You don’t have to put up with that. We won’t,” Rodriguez said. “That’s just the way it is. It’s not really a conversation. It’s more of a directive. I’m not making a suggestion, I’m giving you a command.”
He pauses momentarily, and chuckles, “Sometimes I’ve got to yell a little louder.”
Welcome, everyone, the return of RichRod in Morgantown. The coach who had West By God one win from playing for the 2007 BCS National Championship, is back in his old stomping ground — and it’s like he never left.
In some ways, anyway.
It’s still finding three-star players and developing them into All-Americans (hello, Pat White and Steve Slaton). It’s still doing more with less, while dealing with blue blood football programs with more money and more advantages.
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It’s also still about Chris Borland.
Years ago, I found Rodriguez at the NCAA annual coaches convention, and he was trying to explain why it didn’t work at Michigan. He brought up Borland, a marginal linebacker recruit because of his size (5-feet-11 on a good day), but a beast of a player hours south of Michigan in Kettering, Ohio.
Before Rodriguez turned down Alabama and stayed at West Virginia (and Nick Saban later accepted the job), and after he eventually left for Michigan and it went bad, he pointed to Borland as a microcosm of the failure.
The Rodriguez of West Virginia would’ve snapped up Borland, developed him, and had an All-America linebacker (like Wisconsin did). But the Rodriguez of Michigan passed, opting instead for more stars, and height and weight that fit the mold — and fit what Michigan should be recruiting.
Instead of what made Rodriguez, and by extension West Virginia, a team that could win it all despite the inherent disadvantages.
He’s not making that mistake again, everyone. And now he has coaching capital.
West Virginia was desperate, and the fanbase was raging and restless after Bill Stewart, Dana Holgorsen and Neal Brown couldn’t recapture the magic of RichRod. So the university brought back the one coach who broke its collective heart nearly two decades ago.
Because now it finally made sense.
So if you think Rodriguez, whose coaching motto is Hard Edge, who was 32-5 from 2005-07 at West Virginia before leaving for Michigan, is backing down from players who want to put me before we, you clearly haven’t been following along.
NIL has a place and a purpose in football, he says. It doesn’t run football.
“You used to be able to tell a player to run through a wall, and he’ll run through it no questions,” Rodriguez said. “Now they want to know why, and when you give him the answer, he’ll say, ‘That’s not what it says on Google.’ I still think good players want to be coached hard. I still think you can be demanding. It’s our job as coaches to get you better than you ever thought you could be.”
Nothing about this reunion will be easy. West Virginia slipped late under Holgorsen, and then ran out of gas under Brown. The program that had elevated to national prominence under Rodriguez, struggled against rivals Pitt and Penn State and couldn’t compete in the Big 12.
The roster has been turned over, and Rodriguez doesn’t yet have a quarterback. Heck, he may even turn it over at some point in 2025 to freshman Scott Fox Jr., who enrolled early and has been a revelation of sorts in spring practice.
It should come as no surprise that Fox was a three-star recruit, and overlooked by blue blood power conference schools. He wants it. It’s important to him.
“There’s a lot of more things in your life than this sport. Your family, your religion,” Rodriguez said. “But when we’re practicing, when we’re playing, that next play is the most important thing in your world.”
Or as his friend Mike Leach always said, if you’re not coaching it, you’re allowing it.
In a few weeks, they’ll open up Milan Puskar Stadium for the annual spring game, and they’ll lock arms in the stands and sing “Country Roads”. The rebirth will have begin.
Somewhere in that crowd will be Rodriguez, call sheet in hand, looking for some help.
“I’m going to go in the stands and give fans a chance to call plays,” Rodriguez said. “I did it at Arizona, and when they called a play that didn’t work, I booed them at the top of my lungs. What a terrible call! Fire the bum!”
He’s laughing now, because it’s good to be back home and good to be wanted. And good to have that coaching capital again.
He’s talking about competing at a high level early, and not settling. About toughness and intensity and a core belief that players want to be coached hard.
All of those key building blocks of football that have gotten lost at times in a social media world.
“I’m still sticking to it,” Rodriguez said. “(Players) have to get refocused on exactly what the hell they’re supposed to be doing. They’re not on that team to be the best dancer on TikTok.”
The world of I Don’t Care has returned to West Virginia.
Don’t get caught in the minutiae.
Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The following events happened on these dates in West Virginia history, compiled by the West Virginia Humanities Council from its online encyclopedia, e-WV.
April 19, 1896: Writer Melville Davisson Post was born in Harrison County. His best-known works are the Randolph Mason series, published in three volumes, and the more successful collection Uncle Abner: Master of Mysteries.
April 19, 1902: Author Jean Lee Latham was born in Buckhannon. She wrote a number of children’s books, including Carry On, Mr. Bowditch, which won the 1956 Newbery Award.
April 20, 1823: Gen. Jesse Lee Reno was born in Wheeling. He graduated from West Point in 1846 with another cadet from western Virginia, Thomas J. Jackson, later known as “Stonewall.” Reno was the highest-ranking officer from present West Virginia killed in the Civil War.
April 20, 1863: President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation that in 60 days, West Virginia would become a state. The occasion was marked 100 years later during the state’s Centennial celebration with a special ceremonial session of the West Virginia Legislature on April 20, 1963, in Wheeling.
April 20, 1909: Fiddler Melvin Wine was born near Burnsville in Braxton County. A favorite of old-time music enthusiasts nationally, he was chosen as a National Heritage Fellow in 1991 by the National Endowment for the Arts — the highest recognition given to a folk artist in the United States.
April 20, 1939: Poet Irene McKinney was born in Belington, Barbour County. Gov. Gaston Caperton appointed her state poet laureate in 1993, and she served in that capacity until her death in 2012.
April 21, 1908: Musician Phoeba Cottrell Parsons was born in Calhoun County. Parsons’ traditional clawhammer banjo style, unaccompanied ballad singing, riddles and storytelling have influenced countless younger musicians.
April 21, 1936: President Franklin Roosevelt established the Jefferson National Forest. The West Virginia portion of the forest includes about 19,000 acres in Monroe County.
April 22, 1908: Marshall “Little Sleepy” Glenn was born in Elkins. Glenn coached basketball at West Virginia University from 1934 to 1938 and football from 1937 to 1940. He was inducted into the WVU Sports Hall of Fame in 1992.
April 22, 1948: Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter and musician Larry Groce was born in Dallas, Texas. He is best known as the longtime host and artistic director of the Mountain Stage radio program.
April 22, 2003: Activist Judy Bonds, a Raleigh County native, received the Goldman Environmental Prize for her fight against mountaintop removal mining. Her efforts inspired thousands and turned a local West Virginia issue into a national cause.
April 23, 1857: Andrew S. Rowan was born in Gap Mills, Monroe County. Rowan, a military officer, was chosen as the messenger when President William McKinley wanted to send a message to Cuban Gen. Calixto Garcia during the Spanish-American War. The 1899 pamphlet A Message to Garcia made the incident famous.
April 24, 1865: McNeill’s Rangers surrendered to Union troops at New Creek — now Keyser. The Confederate guerrilla force probably never numbered more than 100 men at any time but managed to inflict regular damage on Union operations.
April 25, 1863: In what became known as the Jones-Imboden Raid, about 1,500 Confederate soldiers under Gen. William “Grumble” Jones advanced through Greenland Gap, a deep pass through New Creek Mountain in present Grant County. The Confederates encountered 87 Union soldiers who held off several assaults before finally surrendering.
April 25, 1923: Union leader Arnold Ray Miller was born at Leewood on Cabin Creek in Kanawha County. In December 1972, he defeated Tony Boyle to become president of the United Mine Workers and served until 1979.
e-WV is a project of the West Virginia Humanities Council. For more information, contact the council at 1310 Kanawha Blvd. E., Charleston, WV 25301, call 304-346-8500 or visit wvencyclopedia.org.
During the Gold-Blue spring game on Saturday, the West Virginia coaching staff named wide receiver Cyrus Traught the recipient of the 2026 Tommy Nikolich Award.
The award, which is always given out at the end of spring ball, recognizes a walk-on team member who has distinguished himself through his attitude and work ethic. The award is presented in memory of Tommy Nickolich, a former WVU player (1980-82) who passed away from cancer in 1983.
Traugh is a Parkersburg native and graduate of Parkersburg South High School. He began his career at Youngstown State before transferring back home to play for the Mountaineers last season. In his final year with the Penguins, he logged 36 receptions, 409 yards, and a team-leading five touchdowns, two of which came against Pitt.
During the 2025 campaign with the Mountaineers, he saw action against Robert Morris and Kansas, playing 10 snaps against the Jayhawks, but did not record any stats.
Head coach Rich Rodriguez has mentioned him twice this spring as someone who has been doing some good things and making progress. Wide receivers coach Ryan Garrett also showed him some love during his press conference last week.
The Mountaineers completely revamped the wide receiver room this offseason, upping the level of talent at both inside and outside receiver spots, but perhaps Traugh can work his way into the mix if he puts together a strong summer and fall camp. If he’s not a regular in the rotation, he’ll serve as a quality depth piece who can play special teams.
Past Nickolich Award winners:
2025: Clay Ash, RB
2024: Avery Wilcox, S
2023: C.J. Cole, WR
2022: Nick Malone, OL
2021: Graeson Malashevich, WR/H
2020: Osman Kamara, S
2019: Jake Abbott, LB
2018: Evan Staley, K
2017: Nick Meadows, LS
2016: Jon Lewis, DL
2015: Justin Arndt, LB
2014: Michael Calicchio, OL
2013: Connor Arlia, WR
2012: Tyler Anderson, DE
2011: Ryan Nehlen, WR
2010: Matt Lindamood, FB
2009: Josh Taylor, DL
2008: Adam Hughes, LS
2007: Andy Emery, LB
2006: Tim Lindsey, LS
2005: George Shehl, H/DB
2004: Jeff Noechel, LB
2003: John Pennington, WR
2002: Moe Fofana, RB
2001: Jeremy Knapp, TE
2000: Ben Collins, LB
1999: Bryan Lorenz, LB
1998: Mark Corman, TE
1997: David Lightcap, DB
1996: Matt Ceresa, OL
1995: Rob Keys, DB
1994: Randy Fulmore, DB
1993: Matt McCulty, WR
1992: Brett Parise, WR, Ray Wilcox, LB
1991: Keith Taparausky, RB
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