MORGANTOWN — The final memory of the 2025-26 WVU athletics school year came 980 miles away in Omaha, Neb., where Steve Sabins and his baseball players celebrated after advancing to the national semifinals.
“Couldn’t be more proud of this group of kids,” Sabins said after the Mountaineers were finally eliminated by North Carolina. “What they were able to do and what they were able to accomplish is nothing short of miraculous. I’m so thankful for these players, thankful for the seniors.”
There were other causes for celebration. The rifle team captured yet another national championship – that’s No. 21 now in the trophy case – and the football team erased a 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter and came back to beat hated rival Pitt, 31-24, in overtime.
Mark Kellogg and the women’s basketball team captured the Big 12 tournament title with a 62-53 win against TCU and then went on to host the program’s first NCAA regional since 1992.
Both of those NCAA tournament games in Morgantown were played in front of sold-out crowds.
“I guess a phenomenal college basketball game, phenomenal environment,” Kellogg said after WVU was eliminated by Kentucky, 74-73. “Thank you Mountaineer fans for that. I think I’m speaking for all of us that that was special. That was something we’ll never forget.”
The list of accomplishments continued from there, from Ross Hodge leading the men’s basketball team to a championship in the College Basketball Crown during his first season as head coach to both the WVU men’s and women’s soccer teams hosting opening-round games in the NCAA tournament.
To encapsulate it all – not an easy thing to do – we give the overall grade for the school year for all 17 sports at WVU a B. The grade reflects plenty of promise. It was one of the most overall successful seasons at the university. It also leaves room for improvement from the other programs.
Here are the individual grades, comments and areas to improve for WVU’s sports – the good, the bad and the ugly – for the 2025-26 school year:
Baseball: A+
It’s hard to say the baseball team exceeded expectations because before the season started, the goal for the team was to make it past the super regional and make it to the College World Series. The Mountaineers had made it to the super regionals the two years prior, but couldn’t get over the hump. In 2026, they finally made it to the CWS meeting, meeting expectations.
In a sense, that’d be an A rating, but it deserves an A+ for not only the success, but the history, the fans and the publicity the team received during the postseason.
WVU hosted a regional for the first time since 2019. A week later, Morgantown hosted its first super regional in program history. Then, it made the CWS for the first time and even made it further to the semifinals.
The fans showed up at every stop. They sold out both regionals and set a record for attendance at a WVU baseball game in Game 2 of the super regional. Then, they headed out to Omaha and the fans showed up again and downed plenty of Jell-O shots at Rocco’s Pizzeria and Cantina.
There was a lot of attention nationally on the program, too. The fans singing “Take Me Home, Country Roads” went viral everywhere. It was on national news, and ESPN personality and former WVU kicker Pat McAfee made the trip to watch a game and even hosted his show from Omaha, with the focus being on the Mountaineers.
After saying all of that, it’s hard not to give WVU baseball an A+. But, next year, all that history, fan turnout and national attention won’t be unique, so getting an A+ will require a national championship, which is the standard now.
Football: D
The West Virginia football season fell below a lot of fans’ expectations. Rich Rodriguez came in, and everyone thought about the Sugar Bowl win in 2006 and being a top team in college football and in the Big East.
Those were unreal expectations. It was Rodriguez’s first year back in a new era of the sport, and he didn’t have a recruiting class, being hired in December. He constructed a team of over 70-plus transfer students and had an all-new coaching staff. There were too many moving parts to work together in unison to meet the expectations of at least being bowl-eligible.
WVU finished the season 4-8. There were some highs, including beating Pitt in the Backyard Brawl in overtime and beating top 25-ranked Houston on the road later in the season.
But the lows were too low to be anything higher than a D. It started when WVU went to Athens and lost 17-10. The Mountaineers lost in Athens, Ohio, not in Georgia to the Bulldogs, but to the Group of Six Ohio Bobcats in what was supposed to be a pay-to-win game. Rodriguez’s squad rebounded and won the Backyard Brawl, but it was a false sense of hope because it lost its next five games, all in the Big 12, including a blowout loss to UCF, who also had a first-year head coach returning to a former program.
WVU ended the season at home, being blown out by Texas Tech, 49-0, to finish tied for the third-worst record in the Big 12. It was one of the worst football seasons in recent history.
There’s a lot of room to grow in Year 2 under Rodriguez.
Men’s basketball: B
West Virginia basketball was put in a tough spot. The Mountaineers lost their head coach late in the spring, so they had to scramble and find a new head coach, which ended up being Ross Hodge.
In Year 1, with an entirely new roster, the season could’ve been a lot worse, but Hodge assembled a team that was competitive in the Big 12 and even won the Crown tournament for what it’s worth. Hodge had his team on the outside of the NCAA tournament, a few spots away from making the Big Dance. There were also some big wins, like against Kansas at home, and WVU ended the season 21-14 and finished seventh in the conference.
There’s still a lot of room for improvement. WVU was bounced in its first game of the Big 12 tournament and didn’t make the NCAA tournament.
Men’s, women’s soccer: B+
Both the soccer teams had strong seasons.
Both teams hosted and won an NCAA tournament game. Women’s soccer beat Wagner 5-0 and men’s soccer beat St. John’s in the first round, 4-3.
Women’s soccer didn’t have the strongest postseason run in the Big 12 tournament, though. The Mountaineers were upset by No. 7-seeded Kansas in the first round as the No. 2 seed, 4-0. They still earned an NCAA tournament berth and won a game, finishing the season 14-3-4.
Men’s soccer had a bit better conference tournament run. Head coach Dan Stratford’s squad knocked off Old Dominion in the first round of the Sun Belt Conference tournament and just barely lost to Marshall in two overtimes in the semifinals. Men’s soccer was also a No. 2 seed in the tournament and ended the season 13-5-3.
Both teams had the chance to move into the As if either team made it to the conference championship game, or a deeper run in the NCAA tournament.
Rifle: A+
The West Virginia rifle team has become an old reliable for penciling in an A+ every year. The Mountaineers captured their 21st national championship. It was the second-straight title for WVU.
You can’t really ask for a better season than winning the national championship and losing just one match all season, 12-1. WVU went on a 12-game win streak at the end of the season and hadn’t lost since Nov. 8.
Griffin Lake became the fifth Mountaineer to win the Most Outstanding Performer award at the NCAA National Championships. Four WVU players also took home eight Collegiate Rifle Coaches Association All-American team honors.
The gold standard for a program is the rifle team.
Women’s basketball: A
West Virginia women’s basketball, like baseball, had a historic season as well.
The Mountaineers were ranked in the top 25 for most of the season, and went on a tear in the Big 12 tournament, winning it for the second time and first time since 2017. WVU beat No. 10-ranked TCU, who beat it twice in the regular season, in the process.
The Mountaineers were named as a host school for an NCAA tournament regional for the first time since 1992. The fans, like baseball, showed up, too. Lines wrapped around the Coliseum for both rounds of the tournament and set a program record in the first game against Miami (OH).
WVU advanced to the second round of the tournament, where it eventually lost to Kentucky in a competitive game, failing to make it to the Sweet 16.
Even if it was a historic season, there’s still some work to do to earn the A+ rating, like making it past the first two rounds. But winning the Big 12 tournament was a plus.
Wrestling: B
West Virginia wrestling had one of its better seasons in recent years, record-wise. The Mountaineers finished 11-5 on the season and placed fifth at the Big 12 Championships. Six of WVU’s wrestlers qualified for the NCAA tournament as well.
There were some ranked wins throughout the season, like over Northern Iowa, Wyoming and Oklahoma, but the Mountaineers also had their fair share of ranked losses, like to Pitt, Iowa State, Missouri, Oklahoma State and North Carolina.
At 157 pounds, Ty Watters has developed into a top wrestler in his weight class. He was named an All-American and placed sixth at the NCAA Wrestling Championships and made it to the semifinals. Watters finished his redshirt sophomore season with a 26-6 record and had 12 victories against ranked opponents.
While Watters led the way, WVU wrestling showed improvement from last season at the Big 12 Championships and had a similar finish to where the Mountaineers usually end up. WVU was No. 16 in the NWCA coaches’ Top 25 poll. Still room to grow.
The rest of the field: C
The rest of the sports had highlights and lowlights as well that kind of went under the radar.
The golf team finished eighth in the NCAA regionals, the cross-country team won the NCAA Mid-Atlantic championships and finished ninth at the NCAA Championships and the swimming and diving teams had a strong year.
But, the grade is brought down by the other sports, like tennis, who won just one conference match, and the volleyball team, who finished with three conference wins and went 15-15 on the season.
Works and plays well with others
Gavin Kelly: The WVU sophomore tied a school record with 19 home runs in a season, but never once did he make his amazing season about himself. In a season in which Kelly also batted .382 and drove in 63 runs, he was always a team-first guy.
“I’d like to say one more thing,” Kelly said during his final press conference of the season. “Thank you to all the seniors, the staff, the people behind the scenes making WVU baseball what WVU baseball is. And it’s been a tremendous season. And just really thankful to be a part of it and share it with my best friends.”
Maximizing their potential
Jordan Harrison: For basketball, men’s or women’s, it pays to be tall and have some size. Harrison didn’t have that. She was 5-foot-5, but it didn’t show. Harrison used her speed and her smaller stature to earn Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year and the Most Outstanding Player of the Big 12 tournament. She averaged 13.1 points per game, 3.2 steals per game and five assists per game.
“She’s a phenomenal kid, great character, raised the right way, works her ass off, has talent, defends, does everything that you would want,” Kellogg said.
Class Clown
Eddie Vesterinen: This isn’t an award for the biggest fail of the season, but it’s an award for the player who made us laugh the most when attending the press conferences. When the West Virginia defensive lineman walked up to the stage inside Milan Puskar Stadium, you just knew you were getting an entertaining availability.
From Call of Duty to talking about what it’s like growing up in Finland and the stories that came with it, Vesterinen always had a smile and left a smile on everyone’s faces.
Top of the class
Honor Huff: The WVU men’s basketball sharpshooter was likely the most recognizable athlete on campus. Kelly, Harrison and even WVU quarterback Scotty Fox Jr. were options, but Huff was the standout. He set the WVU single-season record for the most 3-pointers (120) and averaged 16.5 points per game. Huff was a big help in the Mountaineers’ march through the Crown tournament, beating multiple Power Four schools. Huff had 38 points in the championship against Oklahoma. Basketball players are also easier to recognize, because they don’t wear hats or helmets when they play, and he was the leader of the 2025-26 season.
