On the second day of National Signing Day, West Virginia had a lot of players coming in, but players started to leave. Offensive lineman Jude Edwards announced his plans to enter the transfer portal once it opens in January. Soon after, linebacker Mike Hastie planned to do the same.

Then, more ears perked up when starting running back, and WVU’s leading rusher in 2024, Jahiem White, announced his plans to transfer. Then, 2025 leading rusher Diore Hubbard also declared, and a little bit later, quarterback Khalil Wilkins joined them. Hubbard and White were crucial pieces that were expected to make an impact in 2026. There were more transfers after, but those are the three big names to enter so far.

Earlier in the year, there was a report that quarterback Nicco Marchiol planned on entering the portal as well. Marchiol has made no official announcement and has been on campus and appeared at games while recovering from his season-ending mid-foot injury. He’s another that could be gone.

These transfers were expected. Maybe not who was transferring, but WVU will probably have another big transfer class going out.

This early, before the portal even opens, makes sense, too. Rich Rodriguez said on Dec. 3, in the coming weeks, WVU will do a lot of evaluation and have player meetings to let players know their status in the program. Most of the early transfers are because of those exit meetings.

“Talk about the guys that are returning, what their status is, and what’s going on,” Rodriguez said. “We’re gonna have to make some tough decisions going forward with some of the guys on the roster, and then there’s others that may choose to leave on their own, or something like that.”

There are also a lot of players coming in. WVU signed 49 players for the 2026 recruiting class, and that was for just the early signing period. There’s still the signing period in February. There’s also the transfer portal, where Rodriguez plans to add some more players. It won’t be 70-plus like last year, but there will definitely be seven to 15 additions. Naturally, with players in, some players have to go out, even with all the seniors leaving.

Most of the players on the roster aren’t Rodriguez’s guys either. Yes, the players chose to stay with Rodriguez, but a lot of them expected to play under Neal Brown. Some of them might not like how their one season went under Rodriguez and want to look elsewhere. There might be a couple who join Brown at North Texas.

White and Hubbard’s departures could be because they knew running backs coach Larry Porter would be leaving, but they were committed to WVU before Porter even arrived in March.

These early transfers aren’t going to be it either. There’s a lot of time until the Jan. 2 portal window opens, and a lot more will take the time and decide if they want to leave. The quarterback room will definitely have some movement.

With the three quarterbacks coming in from the 2026 class, it tallies WVU’s quarterback room to seven, heading into next season. Marchiol will probably transfer, and Wilkins has already made his intentions clear. Even without those two, that’s still a lot, knowing only one quarterback can play at a time. And Rodriguez said he still plans to add another veteran quarterback in the portal.

This is just the beginning of the offseason, and there will definitely be more change. At least, there shouldn’t be as much turnover as there was last season, with Rodriguez finally laying the groundwork and having a full year as the head coach under his belt.

“This is such a fluid situation these days in college sports,” Rodriguez said. “We’re navigating through all that.”