(Graphic Illustration - Monday Morning Quarterback - WVU Football - Image rendered through the use of ChatGPT)

For WVU Mountaineer football fans, the beginning of every season always has an element of uncertainty. Sure, we may have a general idea of whether there are reasons for optimism, but how the year will actually play out always remains in question.

In 2025,however, we have graduated from uncertainty to the total unknown.

College football has changed dramatically over the last few years. There was a time when we anxiously looked at each year’s recruiting class of high school athletes, anticipating with occasional exceptions that these were the players we would follow in Morgantown for the succeeding 4-5 years.

But that has all changed. With the transfer portal and players now being paid, rosters from year to year for most college teams have substantial turnover. Trying to project how a newly constructed roster will play out on the field is no more than an educated guess. And with coaching changes, that turnover of players becomes even more pronounced.

West Virginia has a reconstructed roster with upwards of 70 new players, along with a new coaching staff. It is perhaps too much to expect that these new players with a new coaching regime can be molded into a winning football team in its first season. And this is not an indictment of Rich Rodriguez, who returns to WVU for a second stint after 17 years elsewhere. Except for the few elite football powers, other football programs with new coaches and rosters face the same uphill challenges.

That is not to suggest that that we can’t hope for a better outcome. There appears to be a lot of talent and experience which has been added to the roster. The current depth chart on defense, for example, has 11 seniors listed as starters at every position.

The Mountaineers are projected last in the Big 12 by a couple of well known prognosticators. But we only need to look at the last two years to see that projections of failure turned out to be way off base. In 2023 WVU was picked last in the Big 12 preseason media poll, but went on to a successful 9-4 season. In 2024 it was Arizona State picked 16th in the 16-team league, coming off consecutive 3-9 seasons, yet it was the Wildcats who won the Big 12 Championship and were within an overtime playoff loss of getting to the national semifinals.

So while expectations may not be high, there is always some hope until there isn’t. Which is why we as fans look forward to the beginning of every new year.

THIS SATURDAY: In 2023 and 2024 the Mountaineers began their season against Penn State, which quickly became unwelcome reality checks. But this year they thankfully open with FCS opponent Robert Morris.

This is one game on the schedule that we can look for a win with reasonable confidence.

WEST VIRGINIA 38 ROBERT MORRIS 16.