Closing the Door on 2024 and Trying Forward to 2025 and Past – West Virginia College Athletics

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – And so, West Virginia’s 2024 soccer season ends in a soccer stadium in entrance of about 12,000 followers in Frisco, Texas, on a Tuesday evening in mid-December.
 
It was not how individuals right here envisioned issues going again in August when some had been making the Mountaineers their sleeper picks to win a wide-open Large 12 Convention.
 
West Virginia was coming off a nine-win season and a Duke’s Mayo Bowl victory over North Carolina with a number of key gamers returning, together with quarterback Garrett Greene and All-Large 12 offensive lineman Wyatt Milum.
 
A number of thousand hopeful West Virginia College college students confirmed up on the Life Sciences Constructing on WVU’s downtown campus for a stay broadcast of “The Pat McAfee Present” a day earlier than the Mountaineers’ season-opening sport in opposition to eighth-ranked Penn State at Milan Puskar Stadium.
 
That sport turned bitter quickly after West Virginia had battled again from a two-touchdown deficit to make it a one-score sport proper earlier than the top of the primary half. However the protection could not defend the ultimate 32 seconds, giving up a protracted move after which one other for a landing to provide the Nittany Lions a commanding 20-6 lead. 
 
A two-hour, 19-minute lightning delay ensued, sending many of the 62,084 in attendance to their automobiles. Many by no means got here again – and continued to remain away for the rest of the season. 
 
To old-timers, the sight of empty seats at West Virginia’s ultimate dwelling sport in opposition to UCF was harking back to the tough instances this system endured on the finish of the tenures of Artwork Lewis in 1959 and Gene Corum in 1965.
 
Loads of the problems that confirmed up within the Penn State loss plagued West Virginia all season lengthy – primarily missed alternatives on offense and a protection that was habitually prone to giving up massive performs.
 
There have been 4 performs of 40 yards or longer, together with a 50-yard landing move and a 40-yard landing run, within the Penn State defeat.
 
The Athletics Communications Workplace has a list of 20-yard performs in its sport notes and the opponents’ facet almost spans a complete column of the web page. There have been three extra performs of 46 yards or longer in final evening’s 42-37 loss to Memphis, together with a back-breaking 89-yard move to the WVU 1 proper after West Virginia had battled again from a 17-0 second-quarter deficit to path 35-30 with 10:49 left within the sport.
 
The defensive points West Virginia had in the beginning of the season had been by no means fastened, which finally necessitated a uncommon, mid-season coordinator change.
 
The 2012 Mountaineer protection that gave up 38.1 factors and 472.5 yards per sport ranks because the worst at school historical past, however its poor efficiency was considerably masked by the playmaking skills of quarterback Geno Smith and huge receivers Tavon Austin and Stedman Bailey.
 
That 2012 group allowed 63 factors in a win in opposition to Baylor, 45 in a win in opposition to Texas, 49 in a loss at Texas Tech, 55 in a loss to Kansas State, 39 in a loss to TCU, 55 in a loss at Oklahoma State, 50 in a loss to Oklahoma and 38 in a depressing bowl loss to Syracuse.
 
This yr’s protection allowed 45, 49, 52 and 42 factors in 4 of its ultimate seven video games. There was the late two-score implosion at Pitt, which despatched WVU followers dwelling scratching their heads, and the near-implosion at Arizona that led to Jeff Koonz assuming the interim defensive coordinator position.
 
The ultimate figures this yr had been 31.9 factors and 415.2 yards per sport for West Virginia’s opponents, which made it difficult for the offense to maintain up.
 
Regardless of its difficulties, WVU rallied for a 5-4 report with common season video games remaining in opposition to Baylor, UCF and Texas Tech.
 
However Baylor scored on 5 of its six first-half possessions – 4 of these approaching explosive performs of twenty-two, 43, 40 and 51 yards – pitched a shutout within the third quarter and outscored the Mountaineers 14-7 within the fourth interval to register its first-ever victory in Morgantown.
 
Two weeks later, Texas Tech completely dominated WVU in each section in a difficult-to-watch, 52-15 loss that finally price Neal Brown his job.
 
The season ended two-and-a-half weeks later in opposition to Memphis with Chad Scott teaching the workforce on an interim foundation.
 
Now, this system transitions to native son Wealthy Rodriguez, whose prior Mountaineer groups produced these nice seasons in 2005, 2006 and 2007 earlier than he left for Michigan. It was Rodriguez who raised the expectations of WVU soccer followers and the nationwide profile of this system.
 
And he is again to do it once more.
 
He was in Texas final evening to look at the sport in particular person. He was there to see how the gamers reacted to one another and the adversity they confronted. A few of them will return; others will not.
 
That is faculty soccer at present within the NIL period.
 
For many who return, a completely totally different expertise shall be in retailer for them when spring observe commences in a few months.
 
“Children should be coached laborious, and I feel typically coaches at present are afraid to educate guys,” Rodriguez advised Tony Caridi throughout a particular United Financial institution Playbook taping final week. “They’re afraid they are going to get upset. I feel nice gamers need to be coached and they’ll get coached right here.”
 
Profitable will not be straightforward, and there aren’t any shortcuts to success. Rodriguez took the lengthy highway to get again to Morgantown, most lately teaching at Jacksonville State, the place his Gamecocks gained 27 of their 37 video games throughout his three seasons there.
 
“It looks like yesterday, however on the similar time it has been an fascinating journey these final 17 years, and I am so thrilled to be again,” Rodriguez stated.
 
There was a five-year hole between his six-year stint at Arizona that led to 2017 and his Jacksonville State tenure, so Rodriguez has paid his dues returning to energy convention soccer.
 
West Virginia soccer followers have actually paid their dues, too, since Rodriguez’s departure 17 years in the past. They’ve witnessed seven-loss seasons 4 instances now since 2019, together with this yr, and they’re needing one thing totally different.
 
Rodriguez delivered earlier than, and Mountaineer followers are hopeful he can ship once more.