West Virginia

There is no other major-college program in West Virginia. No NFL franchise, no rival flagship, just the Mountaineers — and Milan Puskar Stadium on a night game, with 60,000 people singing 'Take Me Home, Country Roads' at the end, is the most communal sound in the sport. That singular weight is what made the Rich Rodriguez saga so devastating and what makes his return so loaded. His 2005-2007 Mountaineers ran the spread option before the sport knew what to call it: Pat White at quarterback, Steve Slaton in space, and a 2006 Sugar Bowl rout of Georgia that announced the program nationally. Then came the 2007 Pitt game — No. 2 West Virginia, a home win over a 4-7 team from the BCS title game — and the 13-9 loss that became the program's permanent scar. Rodriguez left for Michigan within two weeks.

The reunion was always going to be complicated. Neal Brown's tenure ended after 2024, and the university made the call that only one person carried the symbolic weight to restart the program: the coach who caused the wound. His first season back, 2025, went 4-8 in the Big 12, the offense clearly a work in progress, the quarterback room rebuilt around Scotty Fox Jr. The one cathartic moment came in the Backyard Brawl — Rodriguez beat Pitt 31-24 in overtime, his first win in that game since 2007. Morgantown held onto that one. The portal arm being recruited for 2026 is the most-watched variable in the offseason; the offense needs a real upgrade.

The 2026 season is the actual test, not the homecoming. A prove-it year for a coach who spent his first year back losing too many games in a league that doesn't forgive slow starts. The internal fracture hasn't closed: there is a faction that forgave 2007 and staked the future on Rodriguez's return, and a faction that watched 4-8 in Year One with its arms crossed. The Big 12 schedule will adjudicate which side was right.