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Rich Rodriguez addresses 'conservative' playcalling against Coastal Carolina

The Mountaineers didn't show everything on Saturday in their season-opener.
ByJoseph Smith|
Sep 5, 2026; Morgantown, West Virginia, USA; West Virginia Mountaineers head coach Rich Rodriguez argues a cal with the referee during the third quarter against the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers at Milan Puskar Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Ben Queen-Imagn Images
Sep 5, 2026; Morgantown, West Virginia, USA; West Virginia Mountaineers head coach Rich Rodriguez argues a cal with the referee during the third quarter against the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers at Milan Puskar Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Ben Queen-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

WVU football opened their season this past weekendwith a seven-point win over Coastal Carolinathat showed a lot of bright spots and a few concerns for West Virginia fans. And one of the concerns was that Rich Rodriguez seemed content with a rather vanilla approach to his playcalling, particularly in the second half, compared to his full repertoire.

Some fans were worried about the second-half offensive lag being a flash of some of the struggles that the Mountaineers faced last season, while other identified it as a scaled back playbook, guessing at the different reasons why Rodriguez might choose such a strategy. And on Monday night's edition of The Rich Rodriguez Show, the veteran head coach discussed that topic.

Rich Rodriguez admits to putting offense on ice against Coastal Carolina, reveals reason behind decision

Rodriguez was heavily committed to the run game, with 16 of the team's 76 snaps being designed pass plays, according to Pro Football Focus (PFF). This was the case despite Coastal Carolina stacking the box defensively during the second half, and mounting a late comeback attempt. But according to Rodriguez, he had a couple of good reasons why he did so.

"We got a little conservative at times," Rodriguez said. "A little bit of it is that sometimes you have to run against the numbers and see if you can still get positive yards. some of that is okay, let's kill the clock."

But he also did admit that the game got a bit too close for comfort by the end, and he felt like the team should have been able to put the Chanticleers away in the third quarter. He said that he ran about 20 different plays in the first half, and maybe eight more in the second half that he hadn't run earlier in the game. But he does expect that to change as the season moves forward.

"When the season goes along and everyone get more familiar with our offense, we'll have some things we add to the package," Rodriguez said.

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