COLUMN: WVU football needs boost of confidence to start 2026 season over Coastal Carolina
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MORGANTOWN -- It's been over 275 days since Texas Tech took three kneels after the two-minute warning to cap off a 49-0 victory over West Virginia football. It ended what was a long season of highs, like beating Pitt in the last Backyard Brawl for a while and the ranked win over Houston, and a lot more lows, like losing getting rolled by UCF and losing to Group of Six Ohio.
A lot has happened since then. Mostly good around the athletic department. WVU men's basketball won the Crown, women's basketball won the Big 12 and hosted an NCAA tournament, baseball made the College World Series, and the rifle team won a national championship.
It was a nice break and washed away the fact that the football team went 4-8 in Rich Rodriguez's first season back in Morgantown.
With all the success from the other programs in the past, and as the calendar turned to September, the attention is back on Rodriguez and football. The 2026 season, and Year 2 under Rodriguez, starts on Sept. 5 against Coastal Carolina at noon.
Like the other programs around the school, Rodriguez had a busy last couple of months, trying to get this program back on track.
He started by bringing in a monster high school recruiting class just a few days after getting stomped by the Red Raiders. He added multiple 4-stars, highlighted by offensive lineman Kevin Brown, running back Amari Latimer and two-way player Matt Sieg.
Just a few weeks later, Rodriguez whipped out the wallet and brought in a bunch of veteran transfers, including last year's nation-leading rusher Cam Cook. The goal of the portal was either to bring in veterans, who played a lot of snaps no matter where it was, or talented young players who didn't play a lot at Power Four schools.
Then, Rodriguez made staff changes. It started at offensive line, which was not very good as Rodriguez has said, and he brought back Rick Trickett to coach the line over Jack Bicknell Jr. who was one and done. Bandits coach Jeff Casteel retired, so he filled that spot with veteran coach Deke Adams. Running backs coach Larry Porter took the same role at Auburn, and Rodriguez hired Jay Boulware to fill that spot.
The roster on paper is better. The team is faster and definitely bigger at all three levels on offense and defense. Now, it's just seeing if this team can put it together on the field.
Luckily, we don't have to wait long, as the first game against the Chanticleers is here. And more fortunately, it seems to be a soft landing spot. This isn't the same Jamey Chadwell team from a couple of years ago that was ranked in the top 25 in three straight years and beat BYU's Zach Wilson. This is now Ryan Beard's team.
Beard is in Year 1 as head coach of the Chanticleers after coming over from the former FCS school Missouri State as one of the youngest coaches in the FBS. He's in his 30s and so is the rest of the staff.
The roster is also really new. But a few pieces came over from Missouri State, including its potential starting quarterback, Deuce Bailey. Like WVU, Coastal Carolina had a long quarterback battle between Bailey, JUCO transfer Tre Guerra and Arkansas transfer Trever Jackson, but it seems like Bailey, who knows the system, has emerged as the favorite.
The defense will probably have to carry the load for Coastal Carolina as the offense figures it out early in the season. The Chanticleers have a bunch of returning and new experienced players to make that a decent unit.
Even with uncertainty on WVU's new-look roster, Coastal Carolina might win the war of the most questions, which bodes well for Rodriguez and crew. It should be a win. You might have concerns since the last Group of Six school the Mountaineers played was Ohio, and that didn't turn out well, but the Bobcats were a lot more established than this rebuild at Coastal Carolina.
It’s going to be more about how the win looks. WVU smoked Robert Morris to open the 2025 season if you just looked at the final score, but if you watched the game, the FCS school was in it at half. It kind of foreshadowed the season ahead.
This WVU team is a lot better than the 2025 team, and I feel confident the Mountaineers will dominate, as they should, and inject some confidence for the rest of the season. If not, the flashbacks of last year's 4-8 season will be front and center.
West Virginia 38, Coastal Carolina 17