Rich Rodriguez isn’t pretending NIL has solved everything at West Virginia. He’s saying the Mountaineers finally have a plan for how they want to handle it.
In an interview with the Big 12 Conference, Rodriguez was asked directly about WVU’s NIL situation and whether the program would be able to keep its best players. His answer centered on one idea: reward the guys who have already proven themselves.
“The most important factor to me is retaining the ones who have earned it. We don’t have a lot of fluffy slogans, but one of those is earned success.
And if you do well, we’ll take care of you the best we can. We’ve told them that, and we did that last year, this year, and we’ll do it going forward.
We got to reward the guys that have done well and proven themselves. But you still also got to have a little bit of money for the high school guys and new guys - that number is just going crazy.
High school guys getting $1.5 million based on what? They had a great high school career, and they earned something, but they haven’t earned as much as what current college players have earned.
For us, we want to make sure that when guys come, we take care of them the best we can. If they do well, they’re going to get rewarded, and we’re not going to let them leave.
Now, someone may give them like double the salary somewhere, and they have that $40M-$50M roster, but we’re going to try to keep all our good players.”
That message lines up with what Rodriguez and athletic director Wren Baker have been saying for months: the financial situation is better than it was. The bigger question is how far that improved footing can actually go when other programs come calling.
There’s no shortage of skepticism around WVU’s ability to keep talent in this NIL era, especially in football. And that skepticism isn’t baseless. When NIL first arrived, West Virginia wasn’t positioned as well as it needed to be, and that showed in the departures that hit during the Neal Brown years.
The coaching change after the 2024 season added another layer to that turnover. Josiah Trotter, Trey Lathan, Tomas Rimac and others moved on, and while stronger offers elsewhere were part of the picture, that wasn’t the whole story. West Virginia also had to replace a massive number of players, effectively an entire roster, and couldn’t match every number that was out there.
What’s different now is the resource base around the program. WVU has benefited from increased fundraising from the administration, and the MAC has reached an all-time high with over 7,934 members and growing.
So the idea that West Virginia will definitely struggle to keep its best players is too early. The flip side is true, too: it’s too early to declare the problem solved. The answer is going to come on the field, and then in the retention battles that follow if some of these guys put together a strong season this fall.
In Other News...
Rich Rodriguez Is Giving West Virginia Fans Real Reason To Believe
West Virginia footballs latest behind-the-scenes look offered a clearer picture of how much ground the program has covered since the start of Rich Rodriguezs return. The video walked through winter workouts, spring ball and summer training, with Rodriguez and the strength staff talking through the teams progress and the culture shift that has been taking shape along the way.
What stood out most was the level of buy-in. Rodriguez sounded genuinely encouraged by how the players have responded to the work, and that matters for a program trying to build momentum before fall camp fully gets rolling. There is still a long way to go, but the tone around the team suggests a group that believes it is moving in the right direction. [Read more 🡒]
West Virginia Fall Camp Is Already Reshaping Key Position Battles
Five practices into fall camp, West Virginia is already seeing several competitions start to take shape as the coaching staff sorts through new faces, position changes and a few young players making a move. A Youngstown State transfer at wide receiver has put himself in the mix for playing time, while Kings switch from left guard to center has given the Mountaineers a clear leader in that battle. Griffin has also stood out for his ability to move around the offensive line, giving the staff some flexibility as it tries to build depth up front.
The other side of the ball is offering its own intrigue, with Mack moving closer to a rotation role on the defensive line and redshirt freshman Torbor challenging for a starting linebacker job. Coaches have been encouraged by the way both players have handled the early part of camp, and the overall tone suggests these spots are far from settled. For a team still sorting out its identity this early in August, that kind of push from across the roster could end up shaping more than just the depth chart. [Read more 🡒]