Rich Rodriguez 'blessed, fortunate' to be back at West Virginia despite unclear QB picture

Nearly seven months after he was hired, Rich Rodriguez is still beaming about his return to West Virginia.

Rodriguez originally coached for the Mountaineers from 2001-07, leading them to three straight AP top-10 finishes from 2005-07.

“I’m blessed, and I’m fortunate because this doesn’t happen very often,” Rodriguez said at Big 12 media days Wednesday in Frisco, Texas. “There are so many things that gotta take place for that to happen, and, thankfully, for myself, I’ve been blessed for the opportunity.”

West Virginia had an up-and-down 2024 season, finishing 6-7 and losing to Memphis in the Frisco Bowl to end the year. Neal Brown was fired after six seasons at the helm, opening the door for Rodriguez to make his return.

After leaving West Virginia to go to Michigan in 2007, Rodriguez went to Arizona from 2012-17, winning the Pac-12 Coach of the Year award in 2014. His most recent stop was at Jacksonville State, where he led the Gamecocks to back-to-back nine-win seasons, earning him the Conference USA Coach of the Year award for 2024.

For Rodriguez, being back at West Virginia means so much more than just returning to a place he where he coached for a while two decades ago.

“There is no other pro organization in the state, so (West Virginia football) means so much to people,” Rodriguez said. “I take a lot of responsibility in that because I played there, have coached there and grew up in the area.”

The Mountaineers will also have a new quarterback this season, replacing two-year starter Garrett Greene, now with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

“As of right now, I like our quarterback room,” Rodriguez said. “It’s going to be an interesting competition because we have four or five guys that we feel have the talent to have success in our QB room.”

The two returning quarterbacks are Nicco Marchiol and Scott Kean. Marchiol started two games last season, throwing five touchdown passes. Kean did not see any game action his freshman or sophomore years.

West Virginia also brought in transfer QB Jaylen Henderson. Henderson is now at his third school, starting out at Fresno State before transferring to Texas A&M. The other three QBs on the roster are freshmen: Khalil Wilkins, Scotty Fox Jr. and Max Anderson.

“There are a lot of really good quarterbacks returning to the Big 12 this year,” Rodriguez said. “In this day and age, if you don’t have a good quarterback you have no chance to win.”

Rodriguez admitted some trepidation with the state of the game today.

“College football is such a great entity. It’s kind of hard to screw up it,” Rodriguez said. “We did everything we could the last four or five years, looks like, to try to do it, but you can’t really screw it up too much because of the passion of college athletics, especially college football.”

Rodriguez said he thinks revenue sharing represents a step forward, though there is still work to be done. He also said whenever he feels like complaining about it, he tries to have perspective.

“Being a head coach is a hell of a lot better than working in the coal mines or digging a ditch,” Rodriguez said. “You’re taking a job because you love coaching, and being in that winning locker room after games and seeing everyone hugging each other is the kind of thrill that keeps me going.”

West Virginia opens its 2025 season at home against Robert Morris on Aug. 30. Two weeks after that, the Backyard Brawl returns to Morgantown, as Pitt looks to win the rivalry game for the second straight season.