MORGANTOWN, West Virginia — Rich Rodriguez is ready to move on.
During the Rich Rodriguez Radio Show on Monday night, the West Virginia head coach made it pretty clear that he has heard enough questions about the Mountaineers’ loss to Oklahoma State. Rodriguez appeared increasingly frustrated as the conversation continued to circle back to what went wrong against the Cowboys, eventually warning that his patience with the subject was running out.
“I’m tolerating questions right now, but hey, I won’t tolerate for more than another minute. You know what I’m saying? We’re about to give you a shi**** answer,” Rodriguez said.
That’s about as direct as it gets.
WVU Rich Rodriguez sounds frustrated that he's even having to talk about Oklahoma State. "I'm tolerating questions right now, but hey, I won't tolerate for more than another minute. You know what I'm saying? We're about to give you a shi**** answer."
— Spencer Ripchik (@RipchikSpencer) September 28, 2026
Rodriguez clearly understands why people are still talking about the Oklahoma State game. West Virginia entered the weekend undefeated, playing at home in front of a fired-up crowd and with an opportunity to continue building momentum after a huge win over Virginia. Instead, the Mountaineers suffered a disappointing loss in a game where they gave up 609 yards of total offense and missed an opportunity to potentially move into the Top 25.
There is plenty to criticize and plenty to fix. Rodriguez knows that better than anyone. But at some point, you have to turn the page.
That seemed to be the message Rodriguez was trying to get across Monday night. The Oklahoma State game is over. Nothing said during a radio show, press conference or film session is going to change the final score. West Virginia can learn from what happened, correct the mistakes and make sure it doesn’t happen again, but continuing to dwell on the loss isn’t going to help the Mountaineers beat Iowa State.
And Iowa State is now all that matters.
Rodriguez has always been an emotional, intense football coach. That intensity is part of what made him successful during his first run in Morgantown, and it’s a major part of what West Virginia brought back when it hired him again. He isn’t interested in spending an entire week feeling sorry for himself or allowing his players to do it, either.
In some ways, his frustration Monday night may tell us exactly what the mentality inside the football facility is right now: Oklahoma State happened. It was ugly. They weren’t good enough. Now move on.
The Mountaineers have an opportunity to make that loss feel a lot less significant if they respond the right way against Iowa State. A win would immediately change the conversation again and show that Oklahoma State was a bad night rather than the beginning of a larger problem.
That’s why Rodriguez doesn’t want to spend another minute answering the same questions about Saturday.
There will be plenty of time at the end of the season to look back and determine what the Oklahoma State loss ultimately meant. Right now, Rodriguez has another football game to prepare for, and based on his comments Monday night, he’s officially done looking backward.
Oklahoma State is over.
Iowa State is next.
