Right now, West Virginia football is atop the college football world nationally in a surprising category -- the number of players who have come to Morgantown looking to extend their game and gain a little more relevance in the college football world is among the highest in the country. This may come as a bit of a shock to some, but it seems WVU head coach Rich Rodriguez has some pull in the grand scheme of things when It comes to getting hard-nosed athletes into town.
The numbers show that 50% more talent has left the program than transferred into it -- but this didn't remove WVU from the top of the mountain when it comes to athletes knowing they can win in Morgantown and win regularly. As stated before, It takes exceptional players to play for Rich Rodriguez. It takes players knowing what lies ahead and that Rich Rod will push their bodies and minds to limits beyond comprehension to the untrained eye.
So, what do the players who have come into the program have in common besides what was aforementioned? The first thing would be that they are considered three-star athletes, which honestly means absolutely nothing. Because what they lack for in blue-chip talent, they make up for with the drive and work ethic to play under Rodriguez immediately.
Another big -- and I mean literally big -- attribute many of the team's incoming players have in common is the size that they're bringing to Morgantown. You will not find many new faces in the program around the 5'7-5'8 range. Rich Rodriguez apparently likes his skills players to be a bit bigger, for the most part. And he's building a roster that reflects that fact.
With a roster in place that fits the coaching staff's needs, this spring will now prove to be a battle at every position as Rodriguez starts to weed out the weak links and see who does and does not have the ability to take WVU football back to their winning ways.