Josh Pate delivers bold take for Rich Rodriguez's offense in 2026

One of the most popular college football personalities is Josh Pate, who serves as the host of the Josh Pate's College Football Show podcast and also works as a contributor for ESPN. Personalities like Pate get paid to eat, sleep, and breathe college football, and as we approach the start of the season, he has a pretty bold take on West Virginia football.

Recently, when discussing the upcoming season, he highlighted some of the talented players Rich Rodriguez has assembled on the offensive side of the ball, and offered a potential outcome for this offense that should have fans of the Mountaineers very excited,

Could Rich Rodriguez have three 1,000-yard rushers in 2026?

It's no secret that Rodriguez loves to run the ball, and when things with his offense are firing, he likes to operate one ofthe fastest, most run-heavy offenses in all of college football. And Pate also is aware of that fact: and he believes with the trio of main rushers that the Mountaineers will have this season, that thingscould go quite well in the run gamefor West Virginia.

"West Virginia, they may have like nine different 1,000-yard rushers on this team this year," Pate said. "The over/under win total is like five and a half, so not a lot is expected."

"But they brought in Michael Hawkins, who we think will lock down the starting quarterback job, and that is a guy who, if they run the offense the way I feels like they're going to run, could be 1,000-yard rusher at quarterback. They went and got Cam Cook from Jacksonville State, who was a 1,600-yard guy last year. Amari Latimer is a four-star true freshman at 5'10, 230."

Pate is not the only one to notice the high caliber of talent in the backfield this season for the Mountaineers, and while he stopped short of making the prediction himself, he made it quite clear that he believes the Mountaineers could send several players over the 1,000-yard rushing mark this season, even daring others to make the prediction so he could co-sign it.

"I'm not going to be the one who predicts they have three 1,000-yard rushers – let me be clear, I'm not doing that," Pate said. "What I am saying is someone should do that for bold predictions, so I can put a 9.5 on it and then send you a chalice when it inevitably happens this year."

If this "non-prediction" pans out, then it will be obvious that things went much better for the Mountaineers this season than they did in 2025. And with theinflux of offensive line talent and experiencethis season, there will be capable players in the trenches to help make that happen as well. WVU's proficiency in the run game will certainly be a top storyline to watch early in the year.

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