No Major Weaknesses? Rich Rod Gives Surprising Evaluation of WVU's Roster

What a difference a year can make.

This time last year, WVU head coach Rich Rodriguez was unsure of what his team could do well, what their identity would be, and who would emerge as starters/key contributors.

Although he has essentially flipped the entire roster, this group is in a much better spot, and they are finding answers much sooner, largely because they had a full calendar year to recruit the high school ranks and were in place when the transfer portal began. Rich and his Chief of Staff, Dusty Rutledge, had to try to recruit guys out of the portal without any coaches in place, including a defensive coordinator there for a while. Do you know how hard that is to do? That's why this year's portal class, on paper, is much better. They had time (and more money).

There would be several practices where Rodriguez would be frustrated with the level of intensity and physicality, as guys didn't understand the hard edge mentality. There are still some moments here and there, which is to be expected for a brand new group, but in large part, he seems to be pleased with the effort, and judging by his comments and the things I've been hearing from folks inside the building, it's night and day in just about every way.

Earlier this week, Rodriguez was asked if he feels like there are any glaring weaknesses or major concerns on the roster.

His response?

“There’s not a position here we’re like, oh my gosh…there’s not another portal period to find somebody, and we’re in trouble, right? I don’t catch that at all. Now we have some that are thinner than other positions. We got some positions that we’re going to be deeper there than maybe we thought. Some guys, I don’t want to say, have been a pleasant surprise because we wouldn’t have signed them if we thought they wouldn’t be good, but some of them have maybe been a little bit better or quicker to pick up the stuff than before. And then some are taking a little longer, and that’s kind of typical.”

Of course, you don't truly know what you have until you line up against somebody else, but you can still get a pretty good idea of where you think you will be and what needs to happen between now and the start of the season.

This team isn't perfect. They will have flaws. There will be areas that are maybe a little thinner than others, but what hasn't been evident to this point is a group underperforming so greatly that it's stirring panic within the staff. After last season, that in itself is a W.