West Virginia University officially announced Rich Rodriguez as their 36th head football coach last Thursday.
Rodriguez will come to WVU from Jax State, where he compiled an 18-8 record in two seasons, helping lead them to the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) level.
Rodriguez and the Gamecocks went 9-4 on the season, winning the C-USA Championship 52-12 over Western Kentucky.
Both West Virginia and Jax State were similar in some areas, yet different in others in how they statistically ended the 2024 regular season.
Offensive Breakdown
It's important to note when looking at how these two teams stack up the difference in competition. WVU was in a 16-team Big 12, while Jax State was in a 10-team C-USA. WVU played a total of 11 games against power four opponents, while JSU played just one, a loss to Louisville.
On offense, Jax State put up much better numbers. They ranked first in their conference in yards per game, points per game as well as rush yards per game. They scored 8.2 more points per game than WVU and rushed for 73 more yards than the Mountaineers per game on average.
Jax State did not throw the ball particularly well, throwing for 23.4 fewer yards than WVU, as they ranked 6th in C-USA. 3rd down offense was very similar, while they converted fourth downs at a much lower clip as well. Out of all these categories, WVU ranked in the top half of the Big 12 in just two — rush yards per game (5th) and fourth down percentage (7th).
Looking at grades from Pro Football Focus they use a 1-100 scale to determine the success a team has in a specific area.
Jax State and West Virginia were very similar in many areas. Overall offense, passing, receiving, and run block were all within a 5.1 difference of each other as far as how they graded out. However, WVU was much better in pass blocking as they graded out almost 13 points higher, while Jax State was 11.2 points better in the run game, though that was still WVU's highest grade listed.
Looking at the 26 combined teams in C-USA and the Big 12, Jax State was first in rushing, while WVU was 12th. Both WVU and Jax State were two of the top six teams in overall offense, while WVU had the sixth-best pass block grade compared to Jax State, which ranked 18th.
Defensive Breakdown
On defense, Jax State consistently outperformed West Virginia in terms of most statistical categories.
There was only one category WVU performed better in and that was opponents rushing yards per game where the Mountaineers gave up almost 30 fewer yards per game. Other than that, Jax State consistently was better. They gave up almost 25 fewer yards, allowed 5.3 fewer points, and 53.4 fewer pass yards per game.
Both teams were somewhat similar in opponent third down conversion percentage, but they allowed opponents to convert fourth downs 23 percent less often than WVU.
West Virginia graded out better in three of the five categories below, as they were 8.3 points better in rush defense, 4.5 points better in tackling, and 6.6 points better in pass rush.
Overall defense, Jasx State was 5.2 points better, likely in large part due to WVU's secondary issues. WVU's 51.1 coverage grade was 31.3 points lower than Jacksonville State's 82.4 coverage grade. Out of the combined 26 teams in both conferences, WVU had the worst coverage grade and was 21st in overall defense grades.
West Virginia had the best tackling grade out of the group, with Jax State behind them at 4th. Jax State was 23rd in pass rush, while WVU was 13th.
Overall
Statistically speaking, there were areas that West Virginia that performed better than Jax State and vice versa. The difference in competition likely could have something to do with it, but the overall themes are both teams wanted to run the ball and did so at a very efficient rate in terms of grading.
On defense, Jax State played the pass much better, but it's likely safe to say offenses in the Big 12 are better than offenses in Conference USA. Both teams did not rush the passer at a high rate, while West Virginia was much better playing the run than Jax State.
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