Rich Rodriguez didn’t have any issue with West Virginia fans venting after the Mountaineers’ down-to-the-wire loss to Texas Tech. What he wanted to draw a line on was the way some of that frustration has spilled over onto players and coaches online.
The reaction after the loss was loud, and not just because of the result. West Virginia’s defense has been struggling, and the chance to knock off a top-15 team on the road slipped away. That combination pushed the online backlash into familiar territory, with some fans tagging players and coaches on X and Facebook and taking their criticism well past the edge.
Rodriguez said on his radio show Monday night that emotion is part of the deal, but personal attacks are not.
"The thing that I would ask the fanbase to do is: you don't have to remind our players or our coaches, I don't care about me, but you don't have to remind us how upset you are that so and so didn't play well or West Virginia didn't win, because trust me, our guys really care; they really do. Our staff really cares.
There's nobody that’s going to take it harder than the people over in our building right now," Rich Rod said during his radio show Monday night. "I don't want to give the illusion that our players don't care; they really do.
That's a great group of young men. If you want to be negative, and that's who you are... you know, somebody else's opinion of me is none of my business, right?
But you don't need to promote a player if he doesn't play well either. You don't have to say, 'You're the greatest no matter what.'
No, if he played crappy, then it's okay to say he played crappy because that's the reality of it. But don't think for a second that those guys don't realize when they play good or when they play bad because we, as coaches, make sure they know it."
Rodriguez’s comments echoed a point WVU men’s basketball coach Ross Hodge raised a couple of weeks ago on his own radio show, when he said he wasn’t ready for the personal attacks and harsh criticism players can face online.
The bigger point, according to the reporting around the program, is that players, coaches and even recruits and agents are seeing all of it. That’s not unique to West Virginia, but the message is that it still matters. One bad tweet can leave a player cold on a school, and repeated negativity from the same accounts can do more damage than a single angry post after a loss.
The frustration is understandable. Making it personal is where it goes too far.
In Other News...
Rich Rodriguez Just Put West Virginia's Defensive Concerns In Focus
Rich Rodriguez used his 10th coaches show of the 2026 season to put a spotlight on where West Virginia stands after the loss to Texas Tech, and the picture was not limited to the scoreboard. He talked through injury updates for Amare Grayson and Jacob Bradford, looked ahead to Kansas, and spent time on the defensive issues that have been nagging the Mountaineers, especially the way deep passes have exposed them. Rodriguez also pointed to the broader challenge of keeping a roster steady in a season shaped by turnover, saying the answer has to include simplification.
The defensive conversation carried beyond scheme and into mindset, which is where the concern gets sharper for West Virginia. Rodriguez said the team has to clean up the mental side as much as the physical execution, even as he noted progress from Taron Francis and Keon Hutchins. With mid-season assistant coach firings becoming a talking point across college football, Rodriguez also addressed the reality of constant change around the sport, but for the Mountaineers the immediate question is whether the defense can settle in quickly enough to give them a chance against Kansas. [Read more 🡒]
Zac Alley Sends A Clear Message As WVU Defense Faces Heat
West Virginias defense has spent enough time under the microscope that every rough series seems to spark a fresh wave of outside noise, and defensive coordinator Zac Alley is making it clear how he wants his players to handle it. Alley said he takes responsibility for the units performance, but he also wants his group to stay locked in on the people inside the building rather than letting social media shape how they see themselves.
There was at least a small sign of progress against Texas Tech, when the Mountaineers settled in after a shaky start and turned in a better second half with multiple stops. For a defense that has been trying to steady itself through a difficult stretch, the message from Alley is as much about mindset as it is about scheme, and the next step is proving those adjustments can hold up when the pressure builds again. [Read more 🡒]
Dana Holgorsen's WVU Turning Point Looks Worse Than Ever
Dana Holgorsens coaching path has taken another sharp turn, and it naturally sends the conversation back to Morgantown, where his West Virginia run once looked like it might settle into something lasting. His time with the Mountaineers had enough highs to keep hope alive, but the 2018 season became a clear reminder of how difficult it was to sustain momentum there, especially when expectations and results started drifting apart.
Now, after being fired as offensive coordinator at Nebraska by Matt Rhule, Holgorsens career arc looks even more complicated in hindsight. The West Virginia chapter already carried plenty of debate about where things started to go wrong and why the success never fully held, and his latest exit only adds another layer to that discussion for Mountaineers fans who remember how promising it all once seemed. [Read more 🡒]