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Moving Mountaineers: ‘We haven’t been the same team’ since Rich Rod left

West Virginia players Michael Villagrana (88), Warren Young (90), Phil Plank (50), Pat McAfee (40), and Jeff Noechel (59) greet fans after victory over Louisville on Oct. 15 2005, in Morgantown at Milan Puskar Staduim. (AP Photo)

MORGANTOWN — Rich Rodriguez coached against Rutgers multiple times when West Virginia was part of the Big East in the early 2000s. One year, an article came out that Rutgers’ personnel were talking trash about West Virginia ahead of their matchup.

Rodriguez got the article and showed it to his team before the matchup. He yelled this to his team.

“Rutgers talking sh*t? Are you sh*tting me?”

Rodriguez repeated it throughout the week leading up to the game. In Rodriguez’s tenure, West Virginia never lost to the Scarlet Knights in seven meetings, even beating them 80-7 one year.

“He kept saying it, and it was cracking us up,” former linebacker Jeff Noechel said. “That’s a saying we said forever and still say.”

Players receive a snack each day after training camp before going to the hotel at night. The linemen were last; by the time they received their snack bag, there were no cookies in there. They were upset, missing out on dessert.

Rodriguez found out, and there was hell to pay. Rodriguez went off on his team for stealing their brother’s cookies. He made the team run because of it.

“Until this day, it pops up once or twice a year on Facebook, somebody is talking about stealing your brother’s cookies,” former defensive back Anthony Mims said. “Coach Rod is full of gems, man. He always had something going on that was hilarious or eye-opening.”

In the seven seasons Rodriguez was at WVU the first time, there were endless stories to come. He made an impact on restaurants, fans, regular West Virginia folk, and most importantly, the hundreds of players that donned the gold and blue for him.

Since Rodriguez left, his former players scattered. Some went into coaching, others pursued different careers, but they hadn’t really returned to West Virginia since Rodriguez went to Michigan.

“Since then, we’ve been back some,” Noechel said. “We’d go to some game, but they didn’t really have much alumni stuff going on. They tried. It just wasn’t the same.”

Some former players had some investment in the program, whether that’s a former player who was on the staff, or a coach who was still there, but since Rodriguez left, WVU didn’t feel the same. It wasn’t just former players, either. Fans thought WVU lost that blue-collar feel when Rodriguez left.

Two of the coaches that followed Rodriguez, Dana Holgorsen and Neal Brown, didn’t have the WVU roots like Rodriguez had, and that was felt with the on-the-field product.

Noechel played for Rodriguez when he walked onto the team in 2001 and played four years. He helped in WVU’s 2006 Sugar Bowl win over Georgia. He said that the team played with a hard edge, was blue-collar and tough, which mirrored the people of West Virginia. He hadn’t felt that way watching WVU games over the past decade.

“I feel like that’s kind of been missing since coach Rod’s been gone,” Noechel said. “Those guys and those guys on the staff, we were a group that played well together. We just wanted to win. We played physical, and we took a lot of pride. Especially as a defense, we took pride in being physical and just physically beating them. I think that West Virginia connections, I think that’s a big part of West Virginia football. Nothing against the coaches, Holgorsen and Brown, I think they were good coaches, and there were some good players. We just haven’t been the same team.”

It all changed once Rodriguez was announced to return for 2025. Once Rodriguez was named head coach, the text messages started flying between the former players, getting excited that WVU might be “all the way back” as former WVU kicker and ESPN personality Pat McAfee said.

“I was excited because I knew what he brought to the program,” former linebacker Mortty Ivy said. “I knew how he made sure everybody, at the time for us, it was hold the rope. He made all of us play together as a team. It was a good fit. He should never have left in the first place.”

Now that Rodriguez is back, all three players said they have more interest in going to games this season. Noechel said he’s already been back twice since Rodriguez took back over, and the season hadn’t even started yet.

They returned with the hopes of WVU winning games again, but Rodriguez also made a big impact on their lives. Rodriguez talked about how part of McAfee’s success is his own, but part of his work ethic came from Rodriguez pushing him every day in practice to be the best version of himself.

That sentiment is true, whether the former players use what Rodriguez taught them when coaching high school teams, a job in business, or being a great husband. Rodriguez’s coaching style isn’t easy, but it’s worth the impact it’ll have later on in life.

“It was tough mentally because you’re just getting beat on every day,” Noechel said. “They’re throwing you in there to do a little bit of everything. There were times when I thought about transferring, going to a Division II or III school, and being to play right away, but I wanted to stick it out. It’s helped throughout my life and into my professional career and being a dad, being a husband. All that’s definitely impacted me for sure.”

The hype around Rodriguez is real, not only for the fans, but for former players, too. If you tune in during any weekday during the Pat McAfee Show, McAfee brings up Rodriguez being back at least once.

The former players are excited that Rodriguez can bring back the good old days of West Virginia football in the early 2000s and win games.

“You’re gonna expect a coach that demands perfection,” Ivy said. “He’s gonna demand that you play hard, play fast, you play physical. It’s not gonna change. The era of how it is today might be different, but for him to be coaching the way he needs to be successful, that’s not going to change. He’s a winner.”

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