West Virginia looking at best players, not level in transfer options

West Virginia added a series of transfers this offseason from all different levels of college football.

Overall, the Mountaineers added over 50 traditional transfers to the roster with a mix from the Power Four, Group of Five, FCS, and even Division II levels.

Of that list, the Mountaineers added only around a dozen from a Power Four school at the time of their transfer, which means the majority of the roster additions were from outside of that level.

That takes an obvious adjustment, but head coach Rich Rodriguez doesn’t believe it’s as steep as some would believe.

“Most of those guys had games against Power Four teams. I know our guys at Jax State did and if you’re a good player, you’re a good player,” he said.

It’s not something that Rodriguez and his coaching staff really gave a lot of thought to when sorting out potential additions in the transfer portal. The focus was on finding the best possible options.

The veteran head coach also didn’t sugarcoat the cost of shopping for other Power Four players in the ever-changing transfer market in today’s college football.

“The Power Four transfer guys were more expensive,” he said.

Some of that is justified and not all of them are looking for a payday, but oftentimes if a player was already starting at a Power Four school it’s typically tied to getting paid more money. 

While for many of the players looking to move up a level, the main desire came from the ability to compete at a higher level against better competition. 

“They wanted to be on the bigger stage. I think that was, hopefully that was the main reason, but some of them got paid a little bit more, too,” Rodriguez said.

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