College football is quite different from the last time that Rich Rodriguez roamed the sidelines as the head coach of the West Virginia football program.
One of those areas is certainly in the realm of recruiting.
Now, that isn’t necessarily a major adjustment for Rodriguez considering he has remained a head coach most recently overtop the Jacksonville State football program. But it still presents different challenges at the power four level and from when he was last in Morgantown.
“We’re recruiting right now because we’re in the transfer portal. Typically December was a quieter time. The first couple weeks of January was a quieter time and then you hoped you signed everybody in February. Now, you got guys in the portal,” Rodriguez said.
The transfer portal will remain open until Dec. 28, which only means that players need to enter their names into the database by then in order to select a new school. That makes the first priority for Rodriguez and his eventual coaching staff to retain those already on the roster.
“I don’t want to lose any really good players going into the portal,” Rodriguez said.
The second portion of that is then combing through the available options in order to find the best fits to bring into the programs. There also is the piece where Rodriguez will need to evaluate the current players on the roster and be up front with them on where they fit into the picture.
That makes things a revolving door of sorts as Rodriguez starts the process of putting together what the roster will eventually look like next season. The program also will have the benefit of the spring transfer portal window as well to address any remaining needs.
Given his experience at the group of five level, Rodriguez might actually be uniquely equipped to deal with the challenges of the transfer portal with how much turnover happens at that level.
“I’d like to see it slow down a little but unfortunately that’s the landscape we’re in so we have to constantly evaluate every day about not just building your program but building your team,” he said.
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