BIG 12 CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA DAYS

July 8, 2026

Rich Rodriguez

Ford Center at The Star

West Virginia Mountaineers

Press Conference

RICH RODRIGUEZ: I don't have much of an opening statement. If you want to know how I feel or felt, I guess all you've got to do is look at that picture that they had up there with kind of my facial expressions.

It's great to be here. I guess I'm the last one going, so appreciate you hanging around.

I also want to mention Mike and Mike, Mike Montoro, our media people -- where is he at? He got a plaque, some kind of award he got, and he's carrying it around like it's his prized possession. If you all were involved in it -- there he is down there. Congratulations, Mike. Get a round of applause for Mike and Mike over there. It's all good.

No, appreciate you hanging around. That's all my opening statement. We'll open it for questions.

Q. Looking at Scotty Fox as well as Michael Hawkins and the battle going into the fall, what it's done for this team, how it's nighted the offense, and what you see from the guys as the Mountaineers get ready for 2026.

RICH RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, I guess I'll have a loaded answer to an easy question. We kind of flipped the roster again, 80 new guys again this year. We just had to because we had a lot of seniors last year. We had a little bit more money this year, a lot more time, a little bit more intent on who we wanted to get out of the portal. So now we've only got, I think, 14 or 15 seniors.

But we wanted to have competition at every position and legitimate competition, and we wanted guys that had production, not potential. So at the quarterback spot, Scotty coming back. He played as a really young true freshman last year and competed well. He's gotten better.

But we wanted a guy that we think can compete for the starting job and maybe take us to another whole level, and that was Mike Hawkins, who had a great spring. He can run. He can throw.

The thing that I thought was most impressed with Mike and Scotty both in the spring is their decisiveness. A lot of times the quarterback is still learning the system and they hang on to the ball too long or they hesitate, and Mike and Scotty were both really, really decisive in their actions.

I'm excited about those two leading the charge there, but I also think we were able to get competition at just about every position.

We looked more for production as opposed to potential, guys that have been very productive, whether it's at a Group of Five school or what have you, that started and played in college games and wanted to try to play at the highest level.

I thought our staff did a good job of that. I think the few returning players we have coming back have done a great job of helping us establish the culture, reestablish the culture I guess you could say.

I feel pretty confident we're better all the way around.

Q. Coach, one of the storylines we followed last year was kind of the dual homecoming of you and Scott Frost back to the programs where you had a higher level of success. Last year you told us you know where the traps are laid, you know where the bodies are buried, and that made the transition easier. Now, we know that probably you and Scott Frost did not experience the success you were hoping for last year --

RICH RODRIGUEZ: On a couple of those tracks. I knew where they were at and still got tripped up by them.

Q. We know about frost coming from outside of college ball and coming in late in the process, but it had been a handful of years since you had been in Power football, a Power football conference. What experiences did you have this past year that's going to change how you move forward and how you conduct your business?

RICH RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, the game is constantly evolving. I said this last year; you could brag about having so many years of experience, but if you never learned or grew from your experience, you don't have 20-some years of experience, you've got one year repeated 20-something times.

Now it's especially true with where college athletics is at and college football in general. You've got to be able to manage your money. You're paying players, so you've got to pay the right guys. If you make a mistake, you've got to own up to it and make adjustments. If you made the right move, you've got to make sure you lock them in.

Money helps solve a lot of problems. You can make more mistakes if you've got more money, but you've still got to make the right decisions on staffing, on players and play calls, all that kind of stuff.

As tough as it was at times last year, I think it was our biggest learning year going forward to this year because we knew we'd have a little bit more -- we have a full redshirt now. Last year we didn't have that. We had more time to find guys that were productive at the other schools that played college football as opposed to we didn't have any offensive linemen that started games last year. We were able to get more guys we thought were ready to play and more competition at all the positions, and you've got to constantly evolve a little bit.

I guess I've been around long enough to know that college football in my opinion is such a great entity, it's hard to screw it up, but there's so many things going on right now that are trying to screw it up, but you've got to try to overcome it the best way you can.

We have a good plan for that.

The good part that -- I felt this way last year and I feel it even more so now. To win in college athletics, you have to be aligned all the way from the top down, from your board, your president, your athletic director, obviously your coaches and your players. And your fan base, as well.

We have that at West Virginia. We have aligned with where we want to go to.

I feel confident we'll be a lot better this year, probably a lot better than people predict, but we've got to prove that first.

Q. What's one thing fans may not know about this group that you think they'll see once the season starts?

RICH RODRIGUEZ: About our school? "Country Roads." It's become viral, has it not? It used to be kind of just a little thing we played after we won a game. We started it in 2002. Then our baseball team makes the great run, and they see it, and then all of a sudden there's World Cup teams playing "Country Roads."

I don't know if they truly know the meaning of it, but I'm glad they do that because I'm a West Virginia native, I'm a West Virginia guy, so it's not really a secret to me how fabulous our state is. But every time "Country Roads" gets sung, every time it gets played, the people in our state have a lot of pride because if you're from West Virginia or you went to West Virginia or you're a West Virginia fan, it means something to you.

I take a lot of personal pride in the fact that we're such a small state. I think we might be the smallest state that has a Division I Power Four program.

But we're the only Power Four program, no NBA, no NFL team. So there's a lot of pride that goes into our sports teams and particularly our football program. I want our players to understand that.

Our players are from all over. We've got 20-something different states, three different countries. But when they get to West Virginia, those country roads kind of bind them all together, and it's kind of a neat place to be. Not kind of; it is a neat place to be at.

Q. Talk about Nick Krahe's leadership from last year to now. How has that grown, especially in your culture and the tradition that you guys continue to grow?

RICH RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, Nick last year was probably our most productive and best offensive lineman. Nick had played tackle, but when we brought in Coach Rick Trickett, a new O-line coach, he wanted to try him at guard. He thought that would be Nick's natural position. He had a great spring at guard.

But he could play guard. He could play tackle. He knows the system. He's kind of the leader up front. I don't need rah-rah leaders. Nick is not that guy. But from his work ethic, from his talent, the way he represents our program, he's everything we want and leading the guys up front.

I think Nick will be one of the best linemen in our league this year. He's still getting better. With Coach Trickett's coaching and with Nick's ability and work ethic, I think he's an all-conference guy.

Q. You talked about changes in college football and how the game is constantly evolving. You have Kayden Luke who is coming in as a true fullback from Arizona. Can you talk about what you can expect from him contributing to your offense and also the challenge of finding fullbacks in this day and age of playing spread football?

RICH RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, the fullback position kind of went away for a long time. A lot of times nowadays you just use the tight end in that role. But we wanted a guy that -- there's no secret that we like to run the football, and I didn't know if we had a guy that was a true fullback in the old-school ways. Kayden kind of popped up there in the portal, and I'm like, he's got a role to play.

Part of what's so neat about coaching in football, you've got so many different -- it's unlike any other sport. You've got 11 truly different positions on offense, maybe 12 if you count a fullback, all different positions on defense.

When you're putting together a team, you want to make sure that you have every kind of position with a guy that's a quality player. So we really didn't have a true fullback kind of guy, and we wanted to use in our offense. Kayden was a guy that popped up. He fits the bill. He doesn't care if he's going to run it. You can block him every day. So he's going to play a role for us there.

It's different constructing a roster now than it was just five or six years ago, so you've got to try to bring guys in there that all have a value to your program and then try to use them as best you can to make that value show up.

Q. The Backyard Brawl is one of the best rivalries in college football, but we're going on hiatus. The fans want it; what needs to happen to keep that non-conference rivalry going?

RICH RODRIGUEZ: Well, I think we tried. I think we got Pitt coming back in '28 maybe, in three years, and that will be great. We should be playing them every year. So we'll get them back.

Now, I don't know how long that's going to keep going after that, but I think all of what's happened in college athletics, part of the conference expansions and breakups, whatever, has caused a lot of those traditional rivalries to go by the wayside.

I've got my own opinions. I'm not afraid to share my own opinions. I love the Big 12, but it would be nice to have some regional -- having us all come together. Here we all come together and shake hands and give each other a group hug and have an eastern regional and a north regional and a south regional and everybody share the money. There's money for everybody, we all can get along, like 60 of us or so. I think that would be great.

Did anybody else say that? Probably not. They might be afraid. I don't care. I think that would be great. I'm going to put in my pitch right now. I'm not speaking for anybody other than Coach Rod, that he would love for all the Power Four teams to come together, shake hands, and let's get the biggest TV package in the history of TV packages and we could have Pitt and Virginia Tech and Penn State and Maryland and Cincinnati and maybe Virginia and North Carolina, all those right there and our fans can drive to it.

We'd have a rivalry every year and everybody make money. Nobody gets fired. Players get good. Then this place will be packed again and we can have -- this will be the -- how would you call it, the Texas regional.

Wouldn't that be fun? Can we put that together? I've got all the ADs out there shaking their head like I'm nuts. I've got more time -- a lot more time behind me than ahead of me. I want to see us get this thing right before I leave.

Q. Coach, with Houston on your guys' schedule again this year, what are your thoughts on Willie Fritz and what excites you about the match-up?

RICH RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, Willie, that was probably the best game we played last year. We didn't play very good most of the year, but we played decently that game.

But I've known Coach Fritz since his time at Tulane because I used to coach at Tulane so I actually went down there and visited with him. I think he's one of the best coaches in college football. He's a proven winner, and he's proved it at all levels.

A lot of us got started at small school levels, whether it's Division II or junior college or high school, whatever, and Willie has proved himself at every level. He's won at every level he's been at, and he's grinded his way to where he's at now, leading a top-25 team. I think he's one of the best football coaches in America. I've got tremendous respect for him and the Houston Cougars and what they do on the football field.

Q. What are you expecting from Cam Cook in his return to the Big 12?

RICH RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, our running back was going to be completely new. Not one person returning. So we wanted to get a veteran guy that we knew could play at this level and had some experience. Cam was a leading rusher in the country. He played in a similar system at Jax State last year. Has played in the Big 12 before. He's a complete player. He can run, obviously. He's a great pass protector, a smart guy. Got great ball skills.

So he's kind of the bell cow in that room and really pleased he had an outstanding spring.

He was a target from I think maybe when we first (audio interruption) where is the first running back at, and Cam Cook was the first guy, and fortunately we got him.