By: Justin “Couz” Walker | WV Sports Chat
The Indiana Hoosiers just achieved the unthinkable: a perfect 16-0 season and their first-ever college football National Championship. They defeated Miami 27-21 in the 2025-26 College Football Playoff title game on Monday night. Under head coach Curt Cignetti, the Hoosiers transformed from a perennial doormat (with a record of 3-9 just two years prior) into the top team in the sport. This historic turnaround has sparked excitement among some WVU football fans: If Indiana can do it, why not us?
It’s a fair question, but the answer isn’t simple. In this two part series, we are going to look at both sides of the argument. We will be drawing from the realities of conference revenue, alumni support, coaching philosophies, recruiting, and program culture.
In part one, we will explore reasons why WVU football can indeed win a National Championship, just like Indiana.
- Historical Brand Power: WVU has a stronger football brand historically than Indiana ever did. Players still reference icons like Tavon Austin in recruiting. While that shine has faded in recent years, a strong run could restore it quickly.
- Similar Coaching Philosophies: Both Curt Cignetti and Rich Rodriguez are old-school coaches who emphasize hard work, discipline, a blue-collar mentality, and culture-building. Rodriguez, a West Virginia University alum, brings a familiar intensity that could mirror Cignetti’s success.
- Building Without Blue-Chip Talent: The Hoosiers won it all without a roster full of four and five-star recruits. Many of their transfers, and much of their roster as a whole, included players from lower levels. Cignetti even brought 12 players with him from his previous school, James Madison. JMU, which is part of the Sun Belt Conference, was an FCS school just four years ago. This proves that the right evaluations and fits matter more than rankings. The WVU football program has relied on similar strategies and will likely continue that into the future.
- Transfer Portal and Spring Practice Focus: Indiana succeeded by getting transfers on campus early for Spring ball. In Rodriguez’s first year (2025), many incoming transfers arrived late to the program, hurting integration. But in 2026, the majority of the incoming transfers will participate in Spring practice. This will give each player a crucial head start on bonding, learning the system, and physical development.
Stay tuned to WV Sports Chat for part 2 of the series, where we will dive into the challenges that could prevent WVU from ever achieving National Championship status.
You can also catch a video version of this series by checking out a recent episode of Couz’s Corner on YouTube.
Photo Credit: WVU Athletics
