Rich Rodriguez didn’t hide what he wanted when West Virginia went shopping in the transfer portal: Cam Cook was the back he had circled.
That pursuit says plenty about where Rodriguez thinks the Mountaineers need to go. Last season’s ground game was functional on paper, averaging 157.5 yards per game, but it never came close to matching the standard Rodriguez wants.
West Virginia’s leading rusher finished with just 335 yards, 19 different players took handoffs, and every quarterback who played also ran the ball. By the end of the year, especially in the final two games against Arizona State and Texas Tech, the rushing attack had clearly become a problem.
So Rodriguez went after the biggest name available to him at running back. Cook, who led the nation in returning rushing production, piled up 1,659 yards last season at Jacksonville State. That total came within 231 yards of what WVU produced as a team.
“He was the first guy that we targeted at the running back position in the portal,” Rodriguez admitted.
The fit got even better when West Virginia brought in some familiar faces from Jacksonville State. Rodriguez hired back Rick Trickett, Cook’s offensive line coach with the Gamecocks, and also added two of Jax State’s top linemen, Amare Grayson and Cam Griffin.
Trickett’s return carries its own history in Morgantown. During his second stint at West Virginia in 2002, the Mountaineers ranked second nationally in rushing at 283.6 yards per game.
That team used a two-back approach with Avon Cobourne and Quincy Wilson, while quarterback Rasheed Marshall added another layer on the ground. Trickett also recruited Pat White out of Daphne, Alabama, helping set the stage for the success that followed later in the decade.
Now Rodriguez is betting that same connection can help spark something similar.
“Thankfully, some of my coaches coached him. Coach Trickett had a relationship with him, and it was a good fit,” Rodriguez said.
Cook’s numbers help explain why West Virginia made him such a priority. Pro Football Focus credited him with more than 1,100 yards after contact, which accounted for more than 65% of his rushing total.
He also led the country with 101 missed tackles forced. Rodriguez likes the combination of those traits, especially the way Cook can turn a play that looks blocked one way into something more.
“You want a back who can make the first guy miss, and I know some of it is who you are playing against and all that, but Cam kind of has a sneaky way about him,” Rodriguez observed. “He's faster than you think, and he's a really athletic guy. For a lack of a better word, he just understands football.”
West Virginia junior offensive lineman Nick Krahe sees the same thing.
“Coach Trickett always preaches that Cam Cook is never going to get tackled by the first guy - he's always going to make him miss - so I think if we were to mess up, he's going to make us right,” Krahe said, adding, “you still want to be as good as you can, obviously, but if there were to be a problem, he can make us right.”
That kind of insurance matters in Rodriguez’s offense, where the run game is the engine. The coach also pointed to Cook’s football IQ and how quickly he has picked up the system.
“He's just one of those guys that understands like, 'This is where I've got to go on this route' or 'this is where the play is supposed to go,'” Rodriguez said of Cook. “You tell him, 'This is the design of the play, and this is the press point after the exchange' and he just gets it.
He is a very, very intelligent football player. Even though our system is not exactly the same (as Jacksonville State's last year), there are a lot of similarities.
“And he's fit in very quickly,” Rodriguez added.
The preseason respect is already there, too. Cook was the lone West Virginia player named to the 29-man Preseason All-Big 12 team voted on by conference media and released earlier this week.
Rodriguez still knows the blocking won’t be perfect, no matter who is coaching it.
“I hope (the blocking) will be better, but I know it's not going to be perfect. I can tell you that,” he laughed.
That’s why landing Cook mattered so much. West Virginia will open preseason work in August before starting the season against Coastal Carolina on Saturday, Sept. 5, at Milan Puskar Stadium.
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The timing, though, comes with one last wrinkle before the number is taken out of circulation. Head coach Rich Rodriguez announced the plan, and the university has opted to delay the formal retirement for another season, leaving one more chapter to play out before No. 5 is permanently set aside. [Read more 🡒]