The West Virginia Mountaineers didn't see the first season of Rich Rodriguez's return to the program go quite how they would have liked, as WVU limped to a 4-8 record to finish the year. This offseason, they've been putting in the work to fix those issues.
WVU signed large signing classes both at the high school and JUCO level as well as in the transfer portal, and both classes were lauded by national analysts. According to the On3 recruiting rankings, the Mountaineers currently have the 20th-best 2026 signing class at the prep level, and the 20th-best transfer portal class this offseason. And that stat puts the Mountaineers in elite company.
Rich Rodriguez earns massive accomplishment with 2026 recruiting class for the West Virginia Mountaineers
The Mountaineers are just one 12 teams in the sport to have landed a Top 25 class both in the transfer portal and at the high school level. Joining the Mountaineers on that list are BYU, Florida, LSU, Miami (FL), Notre Dame, Oklahoma, SMU, Tennessee, Texas, Texas A&M, and Texas Tech.
Teams who had a top 25 high school recruiting class for 2026 AND a top 25 transfer portal class for 2026 according to On3 rankings pic.twitter.com/7Ya7TChtsG
— College Football Zone (@CollegeFBonX) February 24, 2026
This is the type of accomplishment that helps build for the future, and while it's hard to tell if it will result in a huge jump in 2026, given that the freshman class is so large, it does bode well for the potential for success under Rodriguez's second tenure with the program.
Exactly how well these recruiting classes pan out is tey to be seen, but we will hopefully get some answer as spring practices are set to start on March 7.