It might be a little bit extreme to label your players as "traitors." But that's exactly something you might hear Rich Rodriguez call some WVU football players this year -- and it's a sentiment he just shared on national television.
odriguez joined former West Virginia player and current ESPN personality Pat McAfee on his daily talk show on Thursday, and during the segment he discussed he and his team striving to get a good grasp on elements of the game they can control. Among those seem to be discipline and effort, and you probably don't want to get on Rodriguez's bad side regarding those two facets of the game.
"When you hold you're lazy..
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) August 28, 2025
If you loaf you're a traitor and you play for the other team..
I don't want lazy people and I don't want traitors"
You're THE BEST @RealCoachRod 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/tqsSXOUP7V
“What we can control is our guys playing really hard, playing with passion, and being disciplined. I was on our guys yesterday. I said we can’t have pre-snap penalties, we can’t have guys holding," he said.
"When you hold, you’re lazy. That’s it. If you loaf, you’re a traitor. You play for the other team. I don’t want lazy people, and I don’t want traitors. We’re down to ten. It’s ten against twelve. If we got two guys that’s loafing, it’s nine against thirteen.”
If that's the type of mentality you can see Rodriguez's team bring to the gridiron starting with the season opener against Robert Morris on Saturday, then the Mountaineers might be in better shape than many outlets are predicting they will be this season. With the season kicking off at 2 PM EST this Saturday for WVU, we won't have to wait long to find out.