Rich Rodriguez has made some changes since he was the head coach during his first tenure in Morgantown. But even with all the shifts in college athletics, one area remains very much the same.
Rodriguez is still known for a hard-edge approach to coaching even in an era that makes it hard to tip-toe around that with the rise of the transfer portal and name-image and likeness.
“From that standpoint, I’m still not your touchy-feely guy. People say well this guy’s a player’s coach and I’m like ‘What the hell is that?’” Rodriguez told the 3 Guys Before the Game Podcast. “Players play, coaches coach and administrators administrate. That’s the way it’s going to be.”
Rodriguez outlined that even now in his meetings with players, while he doesn’t want to see any elect to leave the program and enter the transfer portal there is an element that is missing at times.
“Good players still want to be coached. And what I would want that player to do is for some point in that 20-minute talk is to tell me this is what I want to do for the team,” Rodriguez said. “This is what I like for the team to be. Somehow the team part got lost in the translation. It’s about the guy.”
That team element is critical for the culture that Rodriguez and his coaching staff want to establish in Morgantown. That’s because if team success comes first, individual success should follow. Then it’s about managing that along with the rest of the challenges there.
That’s an important aspect for all good teams in any sport and something that the coaching staff even stressed to those incoming transfers that signed with the program at the mid-term.
“The team's success has to come first,” Rodriguez said.
The message from Rodriguez and his coaching staff is about both finding and paying the right guys in the transfer portal even with those one-year options.
“They still have to fit in your culture. They still have to get coached. We tell them that when we recruit them. We’re going to take care of you, we’re going to do everything we can to make sure you have a great experience but you’re playing for West Virginia,” Rodriguez said. “And you still have to fit our culture.”
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