Happy 2026, everyone! As we turn the page on yet another year, it’s hard to believe just how much happened over the past 12 months. At this time last year, WVU fans were still adjusting to Rich Rodriguez’s return (he was hired in December 2024), Darrian DeVries was the basketball coach, baseball fans were wondering how well WVU could fare in Steve Sabins’ debut season as coach, and WVU’s rifle team was still looking for its 20th NCAA title.
While it is the offseason for WVU football, the next few months will be critically important for the fall season. The transfer portal is now open for football, and, as expected, a good chunk of the roster has already entered the portal. In some cases, these are players who are looking for a better situation. Some might have been holdovers from the Neal Brown era, who aren’t necessarily a fit for the schemes under Rich Rod (example: Nicco Marchiol, who I sincerely wish success wherever he lands). Other might be players who were buried on the depth chart, and decided to find a place where they could play more (many of these may have been advised by the coaches to seek a new home). There might be a few cases where a player was simply looking for more money. There are a few players who might have been interested in staying, and the coaches interested in keeping them, but at an NIL value below what the player wanted. Regardless, this will be a time where WVU will evaluate the over 1000 players in the portal, and hopefully find some who are good fits that will be able to contribute this fall.
Last year, WVU took dozens of portal players, which nowadays the norm after a coaching change. The on-field results were decidedly mixed at best, as the 4-8 final record would indicate. Rich Rodriguez had to hit the portal heavily last year out of necessity. This year, he is taking a different approach, and one I think is more sustainable. He signed over 40 high school and Junior College players in the December early recruiting period. So the focus is going to be on getting good high school players that are a good fit, and hopefully developing them. He ended up with a highly ranked recruiting class (it has been rated by the recruiting services as the top or second best class in the Big 12). Then he wants to use the portal to fill in gaps where there are immediate needs – especially at positions where the incoming talent signed in December may need time to develop, or where they didn’t get as many numbers as they would have liked. It looks like WVU could be targeting around 20 transfer portal signings this spring. Hopefully, nearly all would be expected to contribute either as a starter or key backup this fall.
In basketball, January means conference play is starting for the men and women. There is still plenty of optimism for the women, who should be in the upper quartile of the Big 12. They got 2026 off to a good start with a win at Kansas, 79-72, to move to 2-0 in conference play.
The men, on the other hand, seem destined for a bottom quartile finish in a very difficult Big 12 (four teams ranked in the Top 10 nationally). They started there play with about as tough a draw as you can get: at #3 Iowa State. To make things even more difficult, starter Brennan Lorient was out with an undisclosed injury. It went about how you might expect. WVU did play hard and well for a while – it was tied 21-21 with seven minutes to go. However, the Cyclones went on a 12-2 run over the next five minutes, and held a 41-28 lead at halftime. A brief flurry in the second half did trim the lead to single digits briefly, but ISU pulled away and maintained around a 20 point lead most of the second half, and WVU ended up on the wrong side of an 80-59 score.
The most concerning aspect of might have been the three point shooting. ISU was over 50% on the game, including 6/8 (75%) second half. They were led there by Milan Momcilovic, who was an amazing 8/10 from threepoint territory. By contrast, WVU was just 7/24 (29%), and their best outside shooter, Honor Huff, was only 1/8. It won’t get much easier. They hosted Cincy last night, which is almost a must-win game, and then welcome Top 20 Kansas to Morgantown for a game this Saturday. Then they travel to Top 10 Houston next Tuesday.
Notes: Upcoming men’s basketball games: home against Kansas, this Saturday at Noon (FOX or FS1), Tuesday Jan 13 at Houston (8:30pm, FS1)…upcoming women’s basketball games: Wednesday Jan 7 home vs Texas Tech (7:00pm, ESPN Plus), Sunday Jan 11 at Iowa State (3:00pm, ESPN Plus)…The gymnastics team gets its season underway on Friday. They travel to Florida, where the preseason #3 Gators will host a quad meet with #35 WVU, #24 UNC, and Temple. That competition starts at 6:45 and will be streamed on ESPN Plus. The Mountaineers are optimistic after a strong finish to last season put them in the NCAA Regionals. They return most of the team that made that run, and should be able to get a strong start to the season. WVU must replace three of its gymnasts who were regulars on the Uneven Bars last year, so that could be an event to watch, but the other three should be strong.
