The last year has offered college football—and WVU—fans plenty of changes. As we recently discussed, a federal court just approved the House settlement that allows schools to share revenue directly with players for the first time. Mountaineer Athletic Director Wren Baker made a short statement telling fans that West Virginia would be fully participating in revenue sharing immediately. This means that Mountaineer fans can expect West Virginia to share revenue among its athletes up to the current cap of $20 million. In that context, we take a look at how West Virginia rebuilt its roster after firing Neal Brown and bringing Rich Rodriguez back for a second tenure.
West Virginia Worked to Keep on Pace with House
We start by noting that the West Virginia legislature worked to keep pace with the expected House settlement. Absent legislation that expressly permitted it, West Virginia schools may not have had the ability to share revenue with student athletes. Unlike the earlier decision of the NCAA to allow name, image, and likeness compensation, where the West Virginia legislature lagged many months behind sister States in passing appropriate legislation, they passed, and the Governor signed laws effectuating (and protecting) its NCAA schools in advance of House.
We understand that Rich Rodriguez and Wren Baker had a hand in encouraging that legislation. Thus, while fans might worry that House means West Virginia will fall further behind the blue bloods, keeping abreast of these developments with legislation that offers the Athletic Department plenty of safe harbor helps to keep that playing field as level as possible. The impact here cannot be understated, as that ensures that the ways West Virginia rebuilt its roster, and how it can do so in the future, withstand scrutiny.
How This Might Have Influenced the Coaching Search
We heard plenty of rumors through the coaching search that followed Neal Brown’s departure that the largest donors were initially fractured. Some found themselves firmly in the Rich Rodriguez camp. Others wanted anyone but Rodriguez. Baker’s own preferences were lost in the rumor mill, and we may never know exactly how much those preferences played into what happened.
We do know that, shortly before the search commenced, Baker made public comments that showed he was forward-looking in his approach to balancing revenue sharing, NIL compensation, and ballooning budgets. Baker showed an aptitude for balancing these concerns and directly told his interviewers that an athletic director had to put any incoming coach in the best position to succeed, which meant maximizing the resources available to recruit talent.
Certainly, these factors weighed heavily into Baker’s coaching search commenced just weeks after making those comments. We know, without knowing the precise details, that certain influential donors promised to make resources available to the school as it navigated the twin peaks of a football coaching search and the looming House settlement.
Whether those donors actually forced the decision on Baker or not remains something fans will debate for months. We may never possess a sure answer. Suffice it to say, the influence and pull over pocketbooks certainly mattered somehow.
Rebuilding a Roster in the Image of House
One thing the West Virginia legislature did in its pre-House lawmaking was to exempt certain payments to athletes from public disclosure. As a result, we may never learn precisely how the athletic department will choose to balance the revenue sharing among the various sports. We may also never know precisely how—or whether—creative efforts were made to balance available NIL revenue sources among those sports. West Virginia has invested plenty, at least in terms of its available resources, in football, men’s basketball, baseball, and women’s basketball over the last few years. Fans can anticipate that revenue sharing will follow this order of priorities.
We also know from public comments that Rodriguez prioritized retaining and bringing in certain players. Jahiem White, for example, was prioritized, and we expect revenue sharing and NIL compensation to shift in his favor. We can imagine some of the other efforts that were made by looking at who was added and where.
Offensive Line – Quantity, then Quality?
Prior to House, we thought of a football roster as a team with 85 scholarship players and 25 or so walk-on players. After House, rosters will be capped at 105 with a caveat. The downsizing of the roster, intended to include traditional walk-on spots, is being grandfathered. As of today, the Mountaineers’ roster features 118 players. That might decrease before the season. It might not. Of those 118, the offensive line boasts 22 players. The room does not yet have clarity, and the experience (measured by snap counts) seems lacking.
Rodriguez and his staff, however, clearly prioritized volume, and perhaps they did so for a reason. If you can add plenty of bodies and you know you need eight to ten of them to keep fresh legs for his high-octane rushing attack through the season, why not add quantity? The question remains whether Power Four conference quality will bubble to the top. The offense will sink or swim with the answer to that question.
Prioritizing the Running Backs
Rodriguez prioritized the retention of two running backs this offseason. The previously mentioned White represents the top priority there, and for good reason. We identified him as a top returning running back in the conference. The other was Diore Hubbard. Both offer similar skill sets to the types of running backs Rodriguez has formed into conference and national leaders.
The staff, however, was not content with just those two bodies, regardless of how much they would rely on their talent. They also brought in Jaylan Knighton, who had 745 yards and seven touchdowns two seasons ago. They also brought in Tye Edwards, a bruising running back weighing in at 237 pounds, to shake things up.
Competition at Signal Caller
Nicco Marchiol made himself a fan favorite by agreeing to return to Morgantown for the 2025 season despite his recruiter and coach leaving town. Marchiol, at first blush, may not fully fit the mold of a Rodriguez quarterback. He has not run much so far in his college career. That said, we wrote in our own high school scouting report of him that nobody would mistake him for a run-first quarterback. That does not, however, mean that Marchiol will not take off and flee into space when the situation calls for it.
That said, the staff also brought in former Texas A&M backup Jaylen Henderson. Henderson did not see action in 2024, but he played 5 games for the Aggies in 2023, going 2-1 in the games he saw significant usage. He has flashed some dual-threat traits. Watching the film, however, Henderson’s biggest plus is his ability to move the pocket and throw accurate passes on the run.
Defense Wins Championships
Through the years, and particularly during his tenure at Michigan, Rodriguez caught plenty of criticism for doing little to build championship-caliber defenses. It seems he may have learned his lesson. Indeed, Rodriguez arranged his assistant coaching staff to maximize the potential for him to poach the desired young coordinator Zac Alley from Oklahoma, despite a rumored late bidding war. Rodriguez clearly wanted Alley’s defensive mind, and he even gave the title of assistant head coach to get him here.
What does that have to do with how West Virginia rebuilt its roster? Well, of the heavy dose of transfers Rodriguez and company will rely on in 2025, the highest concentration of talent features on the defensive side.
Jimmori Robinson and Eddie Kelly Jr. were the two big additions to the defensive front. Robinson comes off an All-Conference performance, leading the AAC with 17 tackles for loss and 10.5 sacks. Alley likes to dial up pressure, and Robinson gives him a highly-touted player to do so.
At the second level, the staff brought in potential gems in Chase Wilson and Ashton Woods, though the former should make the earlier splash. In the secondary, the Mountaineers added some quality players in needed areas. Michael Coats, Jr., and Jordan Scruggs will compete for starting spots immediately. Fred Perry at safety may be the most underrated addition to the roster. Perry offers a balance between coverage, ball hawking, and backfield disruption around which Alley can pivot his defense in the ways he tends to do, bringing pressure from different directions to keep opposing units off balance.
Is This the New Normal?
Despite the defined transfer windows, Rodriguez entered the fray seven to ten days behind his peers. How—and whether—West Virginia truly had the resources to compete for its preferred additions was uncertain, until it wasn’t. Rodriguez has always preferred a mix of seasoned players with hungry up-and-comers. Unlike Brown, Rodriguez has not shied away from playing younger players who were deserving of the repetitions.
As a result, we would expect things to normalize somewhat. The way West Virginia rebuilt its roster should not have to be normal every year, but combined with traditional development, it could take it to the next level. With West Virginia utilizing revenue sharing and NIL in combination, the Mountaineers can start managing a two-deep that fits into the Rodriguez system and competes at the top of the Big 12. It might just take another season for us to realize it.
Main Image: Ben Queen-Imagn Images
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