Rich Rodriguez searching for the bottom, but West Virginia can keep falling

It has been a rough season for Rich Rodriguez and the West Virginia Mountaineers.

Rich-Rod made his long-awaited return to Morgantown ahead of this 2025 season. He had won a ton of games as WVU's head coach from 2001-07 (he boasted a 62-31 record in his first stint with the Mountaineers), but college football has changed in many ways since the early 2000s.

Rodriguez is finding that out the hard way, because his West Virginia team is an afterthought in the Big 12, and rock bottom doesn't seem to be here just yet.

This is despite the fact that WVU has now lost four games in a row and five out of its last six after losing to UCF, 45-13. This is also despite the fact that Rodriguez is hoping beyond hope that the worst for his program has come and gone.

“We looked slow and out of position. We missed tackles and didn’t block. Hell, we had two holding penalties on draw plays; that should never happen. Again, poorly coached, poorly executed, poorly played and poorly everything," Rodriguez said after the loss to UCF, according to Steve Samra of On3. "I’m hoping this is bottom."

West Virginia has a tough stretch of games ahead

West Virginia, now at 2-5 and 0-4 against Big 12 opponents, has been outscored 216-147 this season. This stretch of games against Kansas, Utah, No. 23 BYU and UCF has been especially brutal, though. The Mountaineers have been outscored 172-61 during this losing streak. You read that right. Their opponents have scored more than double their total over the last four games.

It's been bad, and it's worth noting that WVU has been playing two young quarterbacks in Scotty Fox Jr. and Khalil Watkins, but things could always get worse.

In fact, the Mountaineers' last five opponents have a combined record of 25-10. Up next is TCU (currently 5-2) and then Houston (currently 6-1). Colorado (3-4) on Nov. 8 is a winnable game, but WVU finishes the season against Arizona State (currently ranked No. 22) and Texas Tech (currently ranked No. 14).

West Virginia could very well finish this 2025 season on a nine-game losing skid, and that would absolutely have to feel like rock bottom for Rodriguez. 

“There are a multitude of things we’ve got to fix, and that falls on us as coaches,” he said. “We’ve got to do everything we can to get fixed what we can fix now.”