WVU football embracing underdog mentality, using it as motivation to prove experts wrong
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MORGANTOWN -- West Virginia football finished 4-8 last season and had the third-fewest wins in the Big 12. But that year is in the past, and now during "talking season," experts and sportsbooks are placing their predictions for the Mountaineers’ 2026 season.
The team should be better on paper, with a talented recruiting and veteran transfer additions, and some experts have adjusted accordingly, but it hasn't been the major shift like most fans want. According to FanDuel Sportsbook, WVU's win total is set at 5.5 and has the fifth-worst odds to win the Big 12. The Athletic released its rankings of all 138 FBS schools, and the Mountaineers were 63rd, sitting behind Northwestern, Memphis and Southern Florida. If you looked at the USA Today Big 12 preseason rankings, WVU was 14th, exactly where it finished last year.
It's an improvement from last season. The Mountaineers’ win total was set at 4.5, and had one of the lowest odds to win the Big 12. Still, it's not looking like WVU will be above .500 this season.
There were times when the experts were wrong predicting last year's team. The Mountaineers shocked Houston on the road last season, upsetting the ranked team, and WVU ended the year 7-5 against the spread, meaning it made every game a lot closer than the sportsbooks thought. Record-wise, the Mountaineers were still 4-8.
Like last year, Rodriguez's squad is embracing the underdog mentality this season, hoping to prove the experts and sportsbooks wrong.
"There’s not a lot of people predicting us to do very well," Rich Rodriguez said. "I hope that’s motivation. It should be motivation when people are picking you last or next to last, whatever it is."
After speaking with multiple players on the team this fall, they all have similar stories to how they ended up at WVU. They weren't highly recruited out of high school, or didn't play a ton at a Power Four school, and transferred down a level, lighting it up at the lower FBS, FCS or JUCO level.
Running back Cam Cook is a perfect example. Cook didn't play much in two years at TCU, and then transferred to the Group of Six school at Jacksonville State, where he became the nation's leading rusher.
Wide receiver John Neider has a similar story. Neider was a walk-on at UConn and worked his way up to earn a Power Four offer. Now, he's expected to be a contributor on offense this year and is one of the most consistent players on the team.
"Just being an underdog my whole life, just being doubted, so I know I have to do extra," Neider said. "Do more to get the attention of people, just my DNA."
Rodriguez bringing together this group of overlooked players works to his benefit in a couple of ways. First, the players are cheaper than big-name guys out there in the portal, and second, they have a chip on their shoulder that he hopes translates to the field.
The question is if Rodriguez can pair the underappreciated talent and motivation to overcome some of the issues revolving around the team, including the talent gap of expensive rosters and that this is a new team working together for the first time.
There's a good chance after the first two games (Coastal Carolina and U.T. Martin), WVU isn't favored in the next two against Virginia and Oklahoma State. So the first test to prove everyone wrong will most likely be down in Charlotte against the Cavaliers on Sept. 19.
"We’re all just hungry," Neider said. "We want to win. We’re all a bunch of underdogs, and not many people know about a lot of us. But we want to win, and we want to make change."