MORGANTOWN, West Virginia — West Virginia University announced the hiring of Rich Rodriguez as its next head coach earlier today and Rodriguez hopped on a plane from Alabama and flew into Morgantown this afternoon. Rodriguez toured the new facilities and met with the team today at 4:00PM. A clip of his speech to the players on the team was posted on the official West Virginia social media account. Here’s what Rodriguez had to say to his team today:
“It’s an honor to be here, to be back here. This is my home. It was a tough decision to leave the team that I left because they accomplished so much, but it was an easy decision to come back to the place that I love so much.”
On what it will be like for the players, Rodriguez said, “It won’t be easy. I promise you that you’ll work harder than you probably ever have before. Sometimes you hear coaches bragging about having a bunch of experience, but if they never grew, but I am a better coach than I was 25 years ago and I’ll be a better coach next week than I am today. People ask what ‘hard edge’ means and it means that you are going to be mentally and physically tougher than anyone and everybody that you go up against. You will be mentally and physically tougher than anyone than you play, or you won’t play. Some of you are lounged down in your seat right now. If you are going to be a guy that lounges down in your seat, you aren’t going to make it here. If you are sitting up in your seat and ready to get after someone’s ass, you are going to be just fine. If you want to be able to get after someone’s ass, you better be in shape. You will be in shape.”
Rodriguez continued, “They didn’t hire me because Rich Rodriguez played at West Virginia or because Rich Rodriguez won games 20 years ago. I didn’t get hired because of that. I got hired because they thought that my staff and I could take us to another level. I appreciate you guys. It’s an honor for me to be back home, to be in the place that I love, in the place where I am going to finish my career, and the place where I can finish it right. We’re going to finish it right with you all leading the way.”
See the full clip below:
Mentally & physically tough.
Non-negotiable 💪 pic.twitter.com/uUFsDheBBQ
— West Virginia Football (@WVUfootball) December 13, 2024
Rodriguez will be officially introduced tomorrow at 1:30PM inside the WVU Coliseum with The Pat McAfee filming live from Moragntown!
