It’s no secret that the 2025 football season was, on the whole, disappointing. There were good moments, to be sure (the Pitt win, of course, and the win over Houston). And while WVU tended to play hard, there were too many games they were just downright uncompetitive.
When you look back, it wasn’t all that surprising. There was a massive roster turnover, which is not unusual in this day and age when there is a coaching change. With that said, the turnover for WVU was on the high side, even for the current standards of coaching changes.
But that makes sense, given the change from a fairly conservative style (Neal Brown) to a more high-octane aggressive style (Rich Rod). But when you looked closely at the incoming players, most weren’t really at the level WVU needed them. Players who should have been backups on a Power 4 team were thrust into starting roles, in most cases playing in a system they hadn’t played before. The results were inconsistent, at best.
Once again, WVU has plenty of roster turnover, but upon further inspection, the incoming talent appears to be a higher caliber this time. ESPN’s Bill Connolley rated WVU as his ninth favorite transfer class (a subjective ranking, but rooted in an analytical approach). He noted that the incoming transfers have combined for 198 FBS starts, and no one else added more. The incoming transfers, on paper, have played more and played better as a whole, than last year’s group. Add to that, the high school recruiting class is also apparently very solid.
During spring practice, a couple of the highly rated players (OL Kevin Brown and DB Matt Sieg) certainly looked like they could live up to their billing.
The talent upgrade across the board is why I’m cautiously optimistic this year. I can’t buy in totally just yet, because they still haven’t played a game, and they will also need to have better injury luck than last year’s squad. But it is easy to like this team’s chances for at least a winning record (they were 4-8 last year, and it feels like this team is going to be at least 2 wins better).
One could say a similar thing about the men’s basketball team. While the season wasn’t as bad as the football team’s, they weren’t able to make it to the NCAA tournament. (Although winning the Crown Tourney was a nice way to end the year). They will be rebuilding with a nearly all new team, but with a full year of recruiting, and the organization in place, Ross Hodge has put together what looks like, on paper, a very solid recruiting class, and an very good transfer class.
The golf team finished up their schedule with the Big 12 Championships last week. They had a horrible round 1, which put them last in the field of 16. The rest of the way, they played better against the loaded field, but they could only climb up to 15th place. The NCAA Selection show is at 2:00 May 6, on Golf Channel, and that is when they will find out if they have made it to one of the NCAA Regional tournaments.
