Rich Rodriguez convincing players to earn success amidst contract negotiations
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MORGANTOWN -- Rich Rodriguez was visibly frustrated after West Virginia football's 53-48 loss to Texas Tech. The Mountaineers had the lead in the third quarter, but the defense that had been bad all game let the Red Raiders retake the lead.
Rodriguez's frustrations carried over to the plane ride home. Most of the players and staff on the plane were sleeping, but Rodriguez wasn't. He was watching film, getting angry and talking loudly, probably keeping his team from sleeping.
"The plane was really quiet, other than my loud mouth watching film," Rodriguez said. "That wasn’t very considerate of me to watch the film on the way home."
The team arrived back in Morgantown early Sunday morning. Rodriguez didn't sleep much, two hours maybe, and he got right back to work. The team didn't have practice Sunday, but had meetings with the staff and the players.
Rodriguez said he vented in the team meeting quite a bit, and he gave a central message to the team: "Play for West Virginia."
"Everything in society today is about being an individual," Rodriguez said. "There’s more sense of entitlement than there’s ever been, right?"
In this era of college football, and college athletics as a whole, players aren't playing just for a team anymore. There's now a monetary incentive to playing well through NIL. Players are paid to play better. That wasn't the case in the early 2000s when Rodriguez was first coaching.
Some, not all, are just playing to make the most money. Former Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava held out because he wasn't getting paid enough and decided to transfer because he didn't get what he wanted. With the ability to transfer, players hold the power.
Rodriguez felt like, obviously, the loss hurt the players, but not for the right reason. He felt like the players felt bad about the loss because it hurt their own individual stock, and not that it looked bad for the state of West Virginia.
Rodriguez speech is relevant now because the program is discussing contracts with numerous players, trying to retain them before the transfer portal opens on January 4th. Rodriguez wants to have deals done before the National Signing Day in the first week of December, so he can see where he has to add in recruiting and use the returning players to draw recruits.
Rodriguez said there have been players who have agreed to return for 2027, but nothing is official yet.
"I don’t want to release any names until we get majority of them," Rodriguez said.
When speaking about contract discussions, he reiterated that he has two slogans: Hard Edge, and earned success. Rodriguez only wants to retain players who have had success, or show that they are capable of having success.
Rodriguez isn't going to overspend on a player who doesn't fit into those categories. And, agents are going to play tough. They'll probably value their client a lot higher than what he's shown, and then threaten to transfer. That's part of the game.
"If they haven’t earned success yet, just because the market says they’re supposed to be getting paid that, I think you have to earn that part of it," Rodriguez said. "We’re having those discussions every day with the staff."
Part of that earned success is playing for West Virginia rather than for an individual. He wants to get to a point where every player, coach and staff member is working toward the common goal of winning for the state. Rodriguez's not even opposed if players fake it; at least it's still playing for West Virginia.
It's hard to get that type of buy-in because of how transactional college football is with the portal and NIL. But Rodriguez is still trying to instill that sentiment in the final games of the season.
"Let’s play for West Virginia," Rodriguez said. "Let’s play for your teammates. Let’s play for each other. You know what I mean? First, and then you can play for yourself as well."