Phil Steele on Rich Rod’s Five-Year National Title Plan: ‘Why Not West Virginia?’

Year one in stint number two for Rich Rodriguez in Morgantown is off to a sluggish start as the Mountaineers are staring into the face of a 2-4 (0-3) start as they enter tonight's game versus No. 23 BYU as massive underdogs.

If we're being truthful, this season is going nowhere. Even if redshirt freshman Khalil Wilkins happens to show some promise tonight and in the coming weeks, this team doesn't have the depth or the talent across the board to navigate this challenging schedule and truly make some noise.

In future years, the expectation is that Rodriguez will have the Mountaineers back to being nationally relevant, and according to the man himself, in a position to be a national championship contender.

"As much as we're still hopeful that there's a lot of games still out there for us to win and all that, it is a process, and we're working as hard as we can. I know what the hell I'm doing, so I take comfort in that," Rodriguez said earlier this week on his radio show. "But I also understand the frustration, but there's nobody more frustrated than our players and coaches. You just got to let the process go on. We'll be better in a month than we are today. We'll be better in a year than we are today. We'll be a lot better in two years than we are today. And in five years, we're going to be playing for a national championship."

Before we let college football expert Phil Steele take off this morning on the In the Gun Podcast, I just had to get his thoughts on this and whether or not reaching a national title game by year five was feasible for this program.

“I think Rich Rod can get it done, and playing in the Big 12 gives you that opportunity. It’s a wide-open conference. There’s no longer a Texas or an Oklahoma here, so why not West Virginia? We’ve seen Arizona State rise from the ashes, and if you win the Big 12, you’re in the playoff. And if you make the playoffs, especially with Rich Rod’s offense, I think that offense can move on anybody, especially if they’re healthy, unlike this year. And especially if they have a veteran team and have players that are built for the offense and have been there… I would agree. I think West Virginia has that opportunity to advance deep into the playoffs in a few years.”