WVU football wrapped up spring practices with their Gold-Blue Spring Festival last month, and now, the team enters the summer as they prepare for year two under head coach Rich Rodriguez. The Mountaineers put together an impressive high school and JUCO recruiting class, and added several impressive pickups in the portal, but not everyone is sold on the success of the team's offseason.
Rodriguez's first season back with the program ended dismally with a 4-8 record in 2025, and after years of mediocre football underneath the Neal Brown era, fans are eager to see a turnaround in the program. But just what are the highs (and the lows) this team can reach? Let's take a look.
Best-case scenario for West Virginia Mountaineers football in 2026
In this scenario, the Mountaineers see Scotty Fox Jr. make the second-year leap, or Michael Hawkins Jr. play up to the flashes of potential that he showed at Oklahoma. Cam Cook stays healthy, the offensive line is significantly improved due to the portal additions, and as a whole, the run game becomes more reminiscent of Rich Rodriguez offenses from the 2000s.
In terms of the schedule, the Mountaineers easily take their first two games. Virginia regresses from their surprise success last year and gives the Mountaineers their third win, and Oklahoma State and Iowa State both are slow out of the gate with first-year coaches in charge. WVU could be 5-0 and looking down a stretch of games that includes Arizona, Cincinnati, and TCU, two of which lose their starting quarterbacks from last season.
Take two games on this stint and a game against Kansas in November, and you're at eight wins. Texas Tech, Utah, and Houston all on the schedule in November could make for a tough finish, but if things go well early, even just one of these games puts you at a 9-win season. Go get a prominent bowl win from there, and it could be WVU's first 10-win season in a decade. This is the best-case ending.
Worst-case scenario for West Virginia Mountaineers football in 2026
Here, Scotty Fox Jr. doesn't progress as hoped, and Michael Hawkins Jr. proves to have not factored in at Oklahoma because he's a bust. It's hard to imagine the offensive line getting much worse, so you assume the run game will improve at least slightly, but the offense could still be very average. The defense, once again mostly in their firs year in Zac Alley's complicated system, exhibits many of the same issues as last year.
WVU still opens with two straight wins, but Virginia proves last year was not a fluke and hands West Virginia their first loss in Week 3. Oklahoma State's new coach, Eric Morris, brought most of his 11-2 team from North Texas, including top portal quarterback prospect Drew Mestemaker. If they hit the ground running, they could hand a discombobulated WVU team a loss.
A win against a likely dismal Iowa State teams gets you back to 2-3, but then the Mountaineers stumble against 2 of their next 3 opponents in Arizona, Cincinnati, and TCU, leaving them 4-4 overall entering their final stretch of action. They're likely to manage just one win in that final stretch in their best season, so they finish 5-7 at best here, and miss a bowl game for the second straight year.
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