Rich Rodriguez Still Believes WVU Can Turn Its Season Around

The first half of the season was a tale of two halves for WVU.

A 3-0 start that included a ranked win over Virginia on a neutral field had the Mountaineers on the cusp of being ranked. And then the last three weeks where West Virginia's defense hasn't been able to stop a single thing, directly leading to three straight losses, erasing the strong start to the year.

Things aren't going to get any easier down the stretch with West Virginia still having dates with TCU, Texas Tech, Houston, and Utah, and not to mention Cincinnati, who comes into this week's game with a 4-1 record.

It might seem like it's all doom and gloom right now because of how poorly the defense has played, but head coach Rich Rodriguez is not throwing in the towel on this season. He made it very clear last night on his radio show that he still believes this team can get back on track and have a successful year.

“Yeah. I’ve been around, and I think I said this earlier this season: I think they’re very conscientious. You go into a meeting like yesterday, and you’re mad about the game, and you’re getting madder because they don’t care, and that’s not the case at all. They know we’ve got to play better in a lot of cases. And hell, we’re just halfway in. We’re 3-3, and that’s not good enough, and we all know that, but there’s a lot of really good football to be played, and I know we can play a whole lot better, especially on defense. It’s out there, and I’ve seen it at times.”

As difficult as the schedule may be, the Mountaineers have the offense to win games or, at the very least, be competitive in the games they don't win. It's not like they are fighting a complete uphill battle where you have the worst defense in Power Four football, accompanied by a struggling offense.

No opposing defense has been able to slow them down yet, and you'd like to think that with every game they play, they are only going to continue to get better and sharper, particularly in the passing game.

Flipping a four-win team into a seven- or eight-win team would still be considered a pretty successful year in my book, and even more so if it means you take down one of the ranked opponents in the final month of the season.