MORGANTOWN — Presumably it was some sort of early WVU depth chart Rich Rodriguez carried in his right hand Thursday.
Some of it was highlighted in gold, other parts in blue.
No matter the color, all of the names on the page had one thing in common.
“Lot of new guys, still learning all of their names,” said Rodriguez, who begins his second stint as the Mountaineers head coach on Tuesday with the start of spring practice. “There’s a lot of wide-open competitions at every position.”
Rodriguez guessed WVU may have the most starters to replace than any other team in the nation.
As it stands, the Mountaineers will have 11 new starters on defense when the 2025 season opens against Robert Morris on Aug. 30, perhaps nine more new guys on offense.
Forget about players playing like their hair is on fire — the phrase Rodriguez used 25 years ago to describe his system at WVU — Rodriguez and his coaches now must have that same sense of urgency just to find the right guys to compete in the Big 12.
Based on Rodriguez’s shaking and turning of that paper, there’s a challenge there.
“There’s not a returning two- or three-year starting guy we can say is a team leader,” he said. “Hell, there aren’t any. Some of these guys have played at other schools. Jahiem (White) has played a little bit of offense and Rodney Gallagher has played a little bit of offense.
“Who else on here is like a guy that was a two- or three-year starter and you pencil in as one of your leaders? There aren’t any. That’s OK. There’s enough talent there and guys to work with.”
It begins Tuesday and will wrap up with the annual Gold-Blue Spring Showcase on April 5.
“Now, part of spring will be about evaluation to see what we got,” Rodriguez said. “The other part is the teaching of the schemes and the fundamentals. The first spring is always the most important from that aspect.”
Roster number concerns
As part of the settlement in 2024 in the national antitrust lawsuit brought against the NCAA, scholarship distribution numbers will change, and roster limits will be put in place for FBS college football teams this season.
The current 85-scholarship limit for football will basically be eliminated this summer and the roster limit for FBS schools will be set at 105.
In previous seasons, rosters had no limits on the number of players other than only 85 players could be on scholarship, while other players were considered walk-ons.
Now, all 105 can receive full or partial scholarship money — each individual school will make their own decisions — but the roster can’t exceed 105 players.
WVU’s current roster is at 107, which doesn’t include the incoming freshmen who will enroll this summer or fall.
“It looks like there’s going to be a reduction in roster size. They’ve cut it down to 105,” Rodriguez said. “There are going to have to be guys that you have to cut. That’s really going to be hard.
“A guy who does everything right, but maybe isn’t quite good enough to be on your 105, you’ve got to cut him now. I wish that wasn’t the number. There’s going to be some good players and some hard-working young men we have to cut just to fit the roster size. That’s not going to be any fun at all.”
Good QB room
The biggest question on WVU’s offense will be at quarterback.
Last year’s backup, Nicco Marchiol, returned after playing in eight games last season and leading WVU to a win against Arizona as a starter.
Marchiol passed for 434 yards and five TDs and added 120 yards and two scores on the ground last season.
Through the transfer portal, Rodriguez added former Texas A&M quarterback Jaylen Henderson, who did not play last season with the Aggies, but started four games in 2023 before going down with an arm injury in the bowl game.
Max Brown, who has also played at Florida and Charlotte, was also brought in as a transfer.
“I watched a little bit of film. I thought Nicco, in his opportunities he played, played really well,” Rodriguez said. “I thought he had a great command about him. I’m really pleased he’s coming back.
“We think we have good competition in that room. Nicco’s got some experience and some of the other quarterbacks do, too, at other schools. That’s one position I feel more comfortable with. I think we’re in good shape at the quarterback position. There’s some good skill in that room.”
Looking for a new coach
Former WVU interim head coach Chad Scott has accepted a position to become the running backs coach at Texas.
Scott, who took over for Neal Brown for the bowl game, was kept on the staff after Rodriguez was hired last December. Scott was set to coach running backs at WVU.
“Chad got the job at Texas,” Rodriguez said. “I’ve had agents and coaches blowing me up over the last 24 hours since the word got out. I’ll be able to hire a really good coach. I’m not too concerned with that, but it seemed like a really good opportunity for Chad.”
Plan for revenue sharing
The NCAA will also enact a revenue sharing plan with college athletes beginning July 1, which will basically take all Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) fundraising groups that were previously not an official branch of a school and bring those groups in-house.
Schools that opt into the plan will have a salary cap of $20.5 million next school year to pay athletes for their NIL rights, with each school making their own decisions on how much to hand out to each sport.
Where WVU football is concerned, Rodriguez said a preliminary percentage plan is being put into place.
“We’re not going to pay our quarterback 18% of your salary cap like they do in the NFL, simply because you don’t have enough money for the rest of your team,” Rodriguez said. “We are going to have an earned-success model, where if you are the starting left tackle after August camp, you’re probably going to get more money than the scout team tackle. You have to have a fair system with your players. A lot of that will be implemented after June 30 when the revenue sharing comes into play. On July 1, schools take ownership, and that model will start to take place.”