West Virginia football closing in on finalizing more defensive coaching staff hires

News broke on Saturday morning that West Virginia football may be closing in on more hires to round out their defensive staff.

The closest deals to being done appear to be the coaches for a pair of position groups of the utmost importance to WVU -- Pete Thamel of ESPN reported Saturday that Rod West, who served as the cornerbacks coach at Appalachian State for the past four years, is expected to join Rich Rodriguez’s staff. West was named to the AFCA 35 under 35 list honoring young coaches with bright futures, and helped lead the Mountaineers to two Sun Belt East titles.

The Mountaineers are also set to add former Boise State safeties coach and one-time defensive back Gabe Franklin to the staff according to 247 Sports affiliate EerSports. Franklin coached safeties and nickelbacks at Boise from 2018-2021, and was previously a defensive backs coach and recruiting coordinator at UTEP. He was a three-time All-WAC selection at cornerback from Boise State from 2001-2004 before pursuing a short NFL career. Franklin has recently been coaching high school ball in Texas while pursuing a master’s degree.

In regards to other potential hires, HailWV has reported just after midnight on Saturday morning that Wofford inside linebackers coach and co-Defensive Coordinator Andrew Warwick might also be joining the WVU staff, though nothing has been confirmed as finalized by Warwick or the program. 

Warwick has spent the past two seasons rebuilding a struggling Wofford program, helping oversee the No. 4 defense in the Southern Conference in 2024. He’s previously coached linebackers at Troy and served as defensive coordinator at Jacksonville State, though not under Rodriguez. His 2018 defense at Jacksonville State was ranked No. 15 in the FCS during his first season in an on-field coaching capacity

Warwick cut his teeth coaching alongside new WVU Assistant Head Coach and Defensive Coordinator Zac Alley at Clemson, serving as an analyst on the same National Championship winning team as Alley. He was at Clemson in various off-field roles from 2012-2017. If hired, his potential role at WVU is still unknown to HailWV.

Also appearing to be in the works are Pat Kirkland and Henry Weinreich -- Kirkland served as a defensive assistant and special teams coordinator at Jacksonville State, and was previously was the head coach at Division 2 program Charleston (WV) where he made one Division 2 Playoff appearance and coached current Mountaineers inside receivers coach Blaine Stewart. Kirkland served in various assistant roles for Rodriguez during his first WVU tenure, and has listed special teams coordinator and defensive assistant for WVU football in his Twitter/X bio.

Weinrich has listed himself as the Nickel/Sam coach for WVU football on Twitter/X -- he recently served as a defensive assistant at Oklahoma with Alley at defensive coordinator, and previously coached with both Alley and Rodriguez at Jacksonville State. He played collegiately at Division 3 program Rhodes College.

The only defensive staffer already confirmed by the program aside from Alley is defensive line coach William Greene, who follows Rodriguez from his staff at Jacksonville State and has coached previously on an Alley-led defense as well. However, it has been reported that former Mountaineer defensive coordinator Jeff Casteel will be joining the staff in some capacity, and his son Jake Casteel -- who served as an analyst at Jacksonville State for Rodriguez, has also placed WVU football in his Twitter/X bio and has been reported to be joining the staff as well.