Rich Rodriguez signing day press conference summary
West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez addressed the media to discuss the 2026 early signing class and WVSports.com provides a summary of what was said.
–Rodriguez says that a lot of work went into this but they’re still not done. Could be a few more today, or tomorrow and then a portal period in January. They have 44 guys from 24 different states. They cast a wider net and did a good job with that. They had a lot of needs and things to fix and the best way to do it is get a lot of really good players and they felt they did that. Being part of the rev share and being committed to that will help so he has to make sure he raises money.
–Rodriguez said they have had exit meetings and will have meetings with their position coaches for the current roster to determine the future of players.
–There were needs at every position and he isn’t discouraged and is confident that he can fix the problems. They had a bunch of seniors and they played hard but as opposed to last year they didn’t want to go as portal heavy. They’ll still use it but not nearly to that extent. They felt they could get that caliber of player as a freshman or junior class. There are going to be a handful of portal guys that they go after in January but they got a lot of high future potential all-conference guys on the defensive line, a couple quarterbacks, wide outs that can run, a couple tight ends, they need to address more defensive line and linebackers. The secondary will be almost all new so they signed some guys and running back they signed a few there and there are a couple more that they are hopeful. Recruiting is an every day thing.
–Rodriguez said he expects 35 or so to be able to enroll in January. They think they can get seven or eight portal guys in as well so that will be 40 some guys that should be here for the second semester. The majority of the class they signed today are early enrollees.
–Rodriguez said every program should be a developmental program but if you had the chance to get the same guy player wise four years or one year, you’d take the first guy. But if the guy that has one year left is a much better player they’ll take that guy. It’s probably lesser cost to get the high school guy because they are unproven and you have to pay more to get players out of the portal.
–A lot of those rankings turn out to be accurate but he doesn’t get paid to be the top 25 in the recruiting rankings. Are the players going to help them win? That’s all he is focused on.
–We had an open date before the last game, but a week before the signing period is usually the most hectic. Last night they were on phones with guys until 2 a.m. in the morning but they didn’t have anything else to do.
–Rodriguez doesn’t guarantee a guy that they can start but they don’t recruit anybody to be backups. He tells the coaches recruit guys that are as good or better than what they’ve got. You don’t know for sure until you get them and that competitiveness is something they’ve lacked here. He wants a competitive environment every day and the best way is to have a bunch of players that are competing to be the starter and they didn’t have enough of that last year. They have to hopefully get that solved.
–Rodriguez got Kevin Brown to come down to camp and it made his feelings hurt even more after watching him workout. He said they have to get him somehow because he was everything he thought they would be. He kept plugging away and when they had their change there was a crack and his family came down here and it was a great visit. He is everything you want in a football player. Worked hard at it, Travis Trickett did a great job because he had a connection there. He is a really good player and is only focused on football. Matt Sieg was solidly committed to Penn State but every time you talked to people in Western Pennsylvania it was always about how good he was. They weren’t sure they were in it, but he saw there is a great opportunity for him at safety and he thinks he can help them on both sides of the ball. They made a long hard run at it.
—Noah Tishendorf is a defensive end and outside linebacker but could be a fullback and tight end too. They signed guys with them in mind to be able to play on both sides of the ball. Xavier Anderson could play wideout or tight end and is a really good pass rusher.
–Rodriguez said it isn’t a non-negotiable to be a dual threat at quarterback.
–Rodriguez said they need to have a presence down there in New Orleans because a lot of those guys if they don’t get an LSU offer they will go anywhere.
–Rodriguez said they will look at every position in the transfer portal. You don’t want to have to flip the entire roster but this time next year they won’t have 40 seniors. If they’ve evaluated right they will have a lot more guys returning and they’ll do their job in evaluating.
–Rodriguez said that it’s easier now to get a legit time but the film watching is the most thing when determining speed. You have to watch the film and see what type of football player he is. You’re never going to take a guy without watching his film and seeing if he is a good football player. They weren’t big enough on the offensive line, defensive line and they needed more length. They weren’t big enough at corner so they tried to address some of those issues.
–Rodriguez said they’re going to tell the players they have a spot or not on the current roster. There are going to be some guys that are called to ask and they need to show them that they’re right for the program or they will need to find another spot. If everybody isn’t disciplined and focused and doing the right things the right way they’ll need to go somebody else.
—Malachi Thompson has great ball skills. He stood out from the jump and the first spring here through the summer.
–Rodriguez said they didn’t set out to just take a lot of junior college players it was just about finding the right guys. There are some really good J.C. programs out there but when you get the junior college guys they aren’t spoiled. They are used to grinding a little bit and they come to a place like this and see the facilities they wonder how they can be a part of it.
–Rodriguez said that players will have to earn their spots every week when it comes to a depth chart. They hope they have somebody close to that ability when they come in there and have success.
–Every day you recruit and there’s no easy answer to it when it comes to the calendar and preparing for conference title games and recruiting.
–Rodriguez said that he’s from West Virginia and understands it but when you come here and all the recruits come to visit he says that aren’t the people friendly? You come to West Virginia and you find out things that you didn’t know you liked the first time there.
–Rodriguez said that he hopes they’d never have another year where they had so many injuries. Mostly for quarterbacks they want to go somewhere they want to play or where the system fits them better. If it does happen it would sure help to have another experienced guy. They will look at the portal at quarterback but will look at every position.
–Rodriguez said you’d have to ask Keon Hutchins why he decommitted the first time but there is a lot of people in their ears. Staff did a good job.
–Rodriguez said that most of the recruits where where they were at with negotiating. They aren’t done recruiting and there are several more they could add. There is a little bit of an exhale but they still have more spots to fill. It’s a little different dynamic. A lot of guys are finishing up finals and a lot of guys want to go home but he doesn’t really want to let them go home early so why would they reward them for not being in a championship game? They’re going to keep working recruiting and keep working the off-season and try to get better next year.
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