West Virginia football was hoping to have a third consecutive win to celebrate on Saturday, but were unable to pull off a comeback rally against Arizona State on the road and ended up losing a tight 25-23 game against the Sun Devils. With the loss, the Mountaineers' final hope for bowl eligibility vanished as the team moved to 4-7 overall this season.
Fans still managed to walk away from the loss with some hope for the future of the program due to the competitive nature of the game, the fight shown by the team, and some flashes of potential from young stars that will hopefully be back next year. However, head coach Rich Rodriguez didn't seem to have the optimism during the game as he let his frustrations with his team's effort shine through.
“You got to be able to run this far to win the game. And you got about seven opportunities to do it and you don’t do it. You can't run for 68 yards – it’s embarrassing. If you can’t run for more than 68 yards you don’t deserve to win the game,” said Rodriguez after the loss.
A frustrated Rich Rodriguez at the open of his postgame press conference:
— Mike J. Asti (@MikeAsti11) November 15, 2025
"68 yards. Embarrassing. Can't run for more than 68 yards, you don't deserve to win the game."
“The game was tight in the first half if we can move that much. I didn’t feel like in the first half they were better than us in the first half. They’re better than us because they won. Can’t move the ball that much. Then, we get stupid penalties on defense – give them first downs. It’s just lack of discipline. It goes back to coaching.”
For Rodriguez, it's clear that the performance from WVU on the gridiron against Arizona State didn't quite live up to his standards for the program, and that's understandable. It's also a tough pill to swallow to see bow eligibility disappear after losing a game whee there were multiple opportunities for WVU to pull off a victory. But with a highly-ranked opponent coming to Morgantown in two weeks to close the season and plenty of work to be done in starting to work towards building a winning roster for the second year of Rodriguez's second tenure, the veteran coach will have to find his own 'hard edge' and put the loss behind him.