By: Justin “Couz” Walker | WV Sports Chat
CBS Sports’ Shehan Jeyarajah released his 2026 Big 12 Football Preseason Power Rankings. While not surprising, he ranked WVU football near the bottom of the conference. What was surprising, though, was how low he ranked the Mountaineers in year two of the Rich Rodriguez 2.0 era. He ranked WVU 15th out of 16 Big 12 teams. That is lower than other teams in year two of a head coach, and even some with a brand new coaching staff. Here are Jeyarajah’s thoughts on West Virginia football heading into the 2026 season.
15. West Virginia
West Virginia had some exciting moments and some forgettable ones in Rich Rodriguez’s first season back in Morgantown. Amazingly, the Mountaineers now bring in 69 new players to completely reshape the roster once again. Even exciting young quarterback Scotty Fox Jr. wasn’t safe, as the Mountaineers added Oklahoma quarterback transfer Michael Hawkins Jr. There’ll probably be a few more highs the second time around, but at some point, we simply have to see some consistency.
The biggest surprise was seeing Oklahoma State (#8) so far ahead of the Mountaineers, when they too lost a lot of players from last year’s roster. The Cowboys will be in year one of the Eric Morris era. The young, offensive minded coach is bringing 17 players with him from North Texas, including star quarterback Drew Mestemaker. However, it is still a tough ask for a coach to rebuild a program that has not won a single Big 12 Conference game in two seasons.
This is not Rodriguez’s first experience rebuilding a roster. He had to do it nearly every season he was at Jacksonville State after frequently losing his top players to the transfer portal. Prior to the 2024 season, the Gamecocks replaced over 60 of their players from the previous season and still went on to win the Conference USA Championship.
It is fair for Jeyarajah to have concerns about this WVU squad. After all, history has not been kind to teams who replace that many players from the previous year. Continuity is typically a huge advantage in college football. In today’s landscape, though, it’s hard to achieve.
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