With new NCAA rules, the roster for all teams is capped at 105, Rich Rodriguez gives an update on that process in his first media session back from break.
Rich Rodriguez will have some decisions to make in the coming weeks as it gets time to trim the size of the roster, which means making tough decisions to cut players and decide which 105 is best for the team. Also, the second wave of the transfer portal will open on April 16th, which makes it even harder to have a finalized roster by the end of spring practices.
“It’s not going to be fun to have to reduce the roster down because of the squad size, I still think the NCAA should allow us to grandfather clause or whatever, shouldn’t have to cut guys that you don’t want to cut to make the 105, I think if they’re already here they should be able to stay here and have a bigger roster size,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez spent much of his week break evaluating the current team and scouting other recruits in next year’s class.
“I did more evaluation of our recruit list, I had 110 that I had evaluated their tape, high school tape, high school guys, than I got that done, I did some evaluation of our current players,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez talked about position versatility as something that may be trending upward in college football, 2024 Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter playing both ways could start a trend for coaches to get more depth on the roster despite the smaller size.
“You still may need to have a few guys that go both ways; I think you’ll see a little more of that, I know Travis Hunter did it at Colorado, and he was a freak athlete, but there are guys on our team now, or guys that we will recruit that can play maybe defensive end and tight end or linebacker and tight end, or maybe play wideout and safety or something. That’s a part of our evaluation in the class of 26 guys,” Rodriguez said.
West Virginia will have their hands full in the coming weeks trying to trim the roster down while also having to bring in additional talent to boost the roster even more.
