One thing is clear when it comes to the future of West Virginia football — this is going to be built the old school way, for the most part. And no, Rich Rodriguez isn’t going to go full Dabo Swinney and completely neglect the transfer portal (I’m not sure where that narrative comes from), but there will be a heavy emphasis on the high school ranks, as there should be.

“The idea would be if you had a choice to get the same guy player-wise that’s got one year left or four years left, you’re going to take the guy that’s got four years left because he’ll grow in your program,” Rodriguez said on Wednesday. “Now, if the guy that’s got one year left or two years left and is a whole lot better player or is more ready to go right now than the other guy, then you’ve got to take that guy. The ideal thing would be to get 2:1 or 3:1 freshman or JC guys compared to the one-year or two-year guys. It’s probably a lesser cost to get the high school guy because they’re unproven at the college level. The portal guys seem to be more expensive, and you’ve got to pay more to get the true experienced, plug-and-play guy out of the portal.”

WVU took a large freshman class because it had to. They were losing 40-some seniors, and you’re not going to be able to go into the transfer portal and fill a bunch of those vacancies, while addressing the depth at every position. Doing so would put you in a very similar situation to last offseason, where you’re spreading your dollars thin, taking yourself out of the running for top-tier talent in the portal.

The other part of this is this group making up for a very watered-down recruiting class a year ago. Yes, the recruiting staff that’s no longer here did a great job of getting things to the finish line with the majority of the class, but a good chunk of those players either ended up requesting release from their NLI (National Letter of Intent) or entered the transfer portal after spring ball, leaving a small group of freshmen.

Rodriguez isn’t going to sign 40 freshmen every year, mainly because you simply can’t, as there are roster limits in place. This class is going to be the group that truly sets the foundation. If they can hit on 15 to 20 of these kids, the rebuild will be accelerated. That sounds like a small number, but it’s really not. Signing 15 players who have starting potential is really strong for a singular recruiting class.

Rodriguez does plan to add somewhere in he neighborhood of 12-15 transfers in January, but with such a large percentage of the roster being freshmen, some more patience will be required in 2026.

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