MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Larry Porter has had no issue embracing the hard-edge mentality that Rich Rodriguez is reestablishing with Mountaineer football.

Throughout his 27-year coaching career, Porter has worked for coaches with similar mindsets.

His introduction to power conference football came in 2002 when he joined Les Miles' staff at Oklahoma State. Porter followed Miles to LSU in 2005 and eventually landed a head coaching position at his alma mater, Memphis, in 2010.

Afterward, his stops included time in the Pac-12, Big 12, ACC, SEC and again in the ACC with Mack Brown before landing at West Virginia University earlier this spring.

The list of running backs he's recruited and coached over the last two decades reads like a Who's Who list of some of the top performers in the game, most notably Jacob Hester, Joseph Addai and Stevan Ridley when he was at LSU.

Twice, Porter was named national recruiter of the year and three times he was a nominated for the Broyles Award, given to college football's top assistant coach.

His experiences at all levels of the game and different parts of the country will be a tremendous asset to Rodriguez and Mountaineer football. Those credentials were appealing to Rodriguez when he hired Porter, and Rodriguez's up-tempo offense and hard-edge approach were appealing to Porter.

"When you talk about fit, it's more about alignment in my mind and when you think about the principles in which he's trying to build his program – having a hard edge, earned success, grit and a blue-collar program – those principles, philosophically, fit the things that I believe in," Porter said last month. 

"Also, I think those are true measures of success," he added.

The Jackson, Mississippi, native was a standout four-year performer at Memphis, once rushing for more than 200 yards in a game against Arkansas State during his freshman season and finishing his career with more than 2,000 yards and 20 rushing touchdowns.

Porter recalled that his introduction to coaching occurred toward the end of his collegiate playing career.

"When I got to college, I was kind of figuring out what I wanted to do, which was to give back to young men," he said. "Being around some other guys on my team (who) got into coaching, I just made the decision that coaching was the avenue for me to give back to young men and impact the lives of young men. 
 
"In saying that, I started out coaching high school football and I was fortunate enough to get a call one day from a former coach of mine, and he asked me if I had any interest in coaching college ball," he said.
 
That happened in 1998 when he worked on Jim Marshall's staff at Tennessee-Martin. From there, he moved to Arkansas State and then to Oklahoma State with Miles in 2002. Porter was on Miles' staff at LSU when the Tigers won a national title in 2007.
 
Ironically, LSU was on the outside looking in when West Virginia was upset on the final weekend of the regular season, opening the door for the Tigers to play and defeat Ohio State in the BCS national championship game in the Superdome in New Orleans.
 
Porter's long career of coaching success includes 21 bowl appearances.
 
"As a player, you think you know more than you actually do," he admitted. "When I got into coaching, I realized how much I really didn't know, so I was fortunate enough to have access to former coaches and former teammates for me to go and visit with them and learn a little bit more about what it truly takes to coach. You grab a little bit here and a little bit there and make it fit into what you believe in and who you are."
 
Although Porter has familiarity with tempo offenses, having worked with Gus Malzahn at Auburn, he's only been exposed to bits and pieces of Rodriguez's style, so it is going to take a little time for him to understand the intricacies of his system.
 
But that's something Porter admits that he is looking forward to doing.
 
"We're all learning, right? Coach is coming in and installing a new system offensively, defensively and special teams. We're all immersed in that trying to learn that aspect of it, but it starts with protecting – being able to protect the football and being able to protect the quarterback," he explained. "I think that's an essential piece. Then, the other piece of it is just point-of-attack production - just being able to get more than the play gives you.
 
"For me, I'm just pinning my ears back and following (Rodriguez)," Porter added. "If he's on one of my guys, then I'm right behind him. If you hear coach then we're not doing our job, and that's kind of the way I see it. When he doesn't have to coach, then we're doing our job. I'm trying to make sure with my guys he's staying quiet."
 
Porter's philosophy on recruiting involves establishing strong relationships with the players and their families.
 
"You have to work at it daily," he noted. "You have to understand the vision the head coach is trying to build in his program and then being able to articulate that in a way that fits that young man."
 
Through the years, Porter has coached running backs with a variety of styles, and he indicated his goal is to bring out the most in whatever it is they do best.
 
"I think every back, regardless of who they are, is unique to themselves," he explained. "What I try to do is to find out what their dominant trait is and then build off that. Even as you look at the room, every guy is different. How do you build off their dominant trait? How do you take their skillset and try and help them to become the best version of themselves to give this team an opportunity to be successful?"
 
The Big 12 Conference that Porter is returning to in 2025 is much different than the one he left in 2004.  Back then, Air Raid passing attacks were the fad in college football and the Big 12 was on the cutting edge of things.
Today, philosophically, the conference is returning to a more physical, run-oriented style of play, which Porters admits is exciting.

"We get to run the ball as opposed to being a running backs coach, and you are throwing it 50 times a game. It's like, 'What are we doing?'" he laughed. "Now, we're actually running the ball, so that excites me, and I will embrace that excitement. I'm with a head coach that loves to run the football, and we've got a room that is willing to accept the challenge of the production that we need for us to play at a standard that will lead to success within this program.
 
"When you think about success in the game of football, it's built around toughness, discipline and physicality – all the things that coach Rodriguez is trying to lay a foundation here with, and I'm super-excited about it," Porter concluded.