This coming season, Rich Rodriguez will be in charge of the West Virginia Mountaineers for the second season of his current tenure and eighth year overall. And being a two-time coach for the Mountaineers and an alumni of the program, few college football coaches encapsulate West Virginia football quite like Rodriguez.
But as the Mountaineers welcome Coastal Carolina to Morgantown to open their season on September 5, there will be another matchup that will serve as the season-opener for two teams – and both head coaches that will be on the sidelines for that game also have deep WVU football ties as well.
Neal Brown, Curt Cignetti set for showdown on September 5
The West Virginia Mountaineers hired Rodriguez after parting ways with Neal Brown, who was fired after leading the program for six seasons. He spent the last season as an assistant for the Texas Longhorns, but now will return to a head coaching role with North Texas this fall.
The Mean Green just so happen to be set for a showdown with the defending College Football Playoff National Champion in Indiana, who are led by Curt Cignetti. Cignetti's father, Frank Cignetti Sr., served as West Virginia's head coach from 1976-1979, and Cignetti himself attended Morgantown High School and spent his collegiate career playing for the Mountaineers.
Adding to the intrigue, this is not the first time the two coaches have squared off in a season opener before. In fact, Brown's last pre-COVID season season-opening victory came in 2019 at West Virginia, when they defeated James Madison – led by Cignetti in his first year as the program's coach.
Despite JMU being an FCS program at the time, the Mountaineers narrowly escaped with a 20-13 win. Cignetti would then go on to lead James Madison to 14 straight victories on the way to finishing as the national runners-up.
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