West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez arrived in Morgantown for his second stint in December and throughout the course of the off-season, we’ve gotten an idea on how recruiting will operate.
Recruiting itself is a constant, whether that comes to evaluating players or communication. That spills over from the traditional high school and junior college avenues into the rise of the transfer portal.
And it’s clear that the Mountaineers will be active in each of those opportunities to improve the roster.
“We don’t want to neglect any of them. I don’t want to lose out on a player in any of the categories but I’ve got a big enough staff now we got a whole recruiting staff,” he said.
When it comes to high school recruiting, Rodriguez outlined the plan to circle a three-hour radius around Morgantown in areas such as in-state, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. The Mountaineers also plan to recruit both Florida and in the South.
“We have a lot of ties,” he said.
On top of those regions, Rodriguez has also encouraged his assistant coaches to recruit the areas that they know and are comfortable with over their careers.
“I tell them areas they know that there’s players at and they got ties,” he said.
With the transfer portal piece, Rodriguez and his coaching staff has already shown the willingness to use the database to address key needs on the roster with 50 transfers added this past off-season.
There isn’t necessarily any set formula for how the roster will be constructed each year between the traditional recruiting or transfer options; it simply comes down to getting the best players possible, whether that means they have their entire eligibility clock or only a year or two left.
“Just get the best players you can get. We hope they have more than one year, but if all they have is one year, we’ll take them for one year,” he said.
It’s a new era when it comes to roster construction and it’s apparent that Rodriguez and his coaching staff are more than willing to adapt in this new era.
“Get guys that can play and give them something they can execute,” Rodriguez said.
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