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The Return of Mountaineer Toughness
September 20, 2026 10:57 AM | Football
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Among the images making the rounds on social media last night was a brief video clip posted on X by NCAAF Nation with the caption "My goodness."
The animated image was a screen capture of the game broadcast and depicted Virginia's 239-pound tight end John Rogers, helmet askew, attempting to get up after taking an enormous hit by West Virginia defensive back Nick Taylor.
It looked like Rogers wasn't sure on which side of the field his team was.
That gif, viewed nearly 100,000 times so far this morning, pretty much sums up the relief my generation of fans is feeling about its West Virginia football team today.
"In a tough ballgame versus a good opponent, you've got to make competitive plays," Virginia coach Tony Elliott said afterward. "I felt like we made a couple, and unfortunately, they made a few more than we did."
The hard-edge mentality coach Rich Rodriguez has been preaching, ad nauseum, since his return to Morgantown a year and a half ago is finally making its return.
And it's been a long time coming.
I remember a few years ago listening to FOX Sports commentator Tim Brando doing a pregame radio interview on the Mountaineer Sports Network and the veteran broadcaster delicately dancing around the subject of West Virginia's lack of toughness.
It was obvious to everyone listening that Brando was passing along something one of the opposing coaches had told him the day prior during their pregame production meeting. Listening to Brando speak the unvarnished truth about what West Virginia's football program had become was difficult to absorb.
It also wasn't too long ago we had the depressing sight of West Virginia players being evacuated from their own field during a blowout home loss to Kansas State.
Well, last night, the 25th-ranked Virginia Cavaliers were in a football game, and their bodies are going to feel it today, tomorrow and probably on into the rest of the week.
That toughness was always the hallmark of West Virginia's football teams, going back to the Don Nehlen days, and well before.
As Hall of Fame linebacker Sam Huff used to say, "You might beat us, but you ain't getting out of town without feeling it!"
When Rodriguez was a West Virginia player in the early 1980s, those Nehlen teams he played on were so tough that breaking up fights during practice were more common than water breaks. In those days, the guys in the program didn't consider it a good football practice unless the coaches were pulling players off each other.
"We weren't (having fights) during Temple week," one former Mountaineer assistant coach recalled recently, "but they were going after each other before the big games. The players we had then were always so competitive."
Allan Johnson, West Virginia's former strength coach, used to go to the yearly strength and conditioning conventions and listen to his colleagues come up to him complaining about having to play the Mountaineers the following season.
For them, it wasn't so much the game they dreaded, but the game's aftermath. Opposing players felt those West Virginia football games for weeks after playing the Mountaineers.
It was obvious for all to see last night that old West Virginia toughness making its return.
WVU overcame deficits of 7-0 and 14-7 to defeat the double-digit-favorite Cavaliers 38-27 at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte.
After taking a two-score lead, West Virginia kept the football on the ground to get into position to kick a game-sealing field goal. The Mountaineers finished the contest rushing 51 times for 247 yards.
"There were times we didn't play particularly well, but I think we always played hard," Rodriguez said afterward.
No, toughness doesn't always guarantee victories, but the losses are much easier to accept when you know your guys are out there always putting up a fight.
Right at the top of Rich Rodriguez's list of the seven deadly football sins is softness. Seeing that in practice is all it takes for him to erupt like Mount Vesuvius.
It took Rodriguez and his coaching staff a year to handpick most of the guys that are out there playing right now, but not all of them.
Some of them stuck around and remained.
After one practice earlier this spring, media personality Adam Breneman asked Rodriguez if he thought toughness could be learned in a clip posted to Breneman's Instagram account. The coach believes it can.
Rodriguez told the story of a young wide receiver developing into a tough football player as he became older.
"I always thought when a puppy doesn't bite when he's a puppy, he ain't going to bite when he's a dog," the coach recalled. "A player once came here as a freshman, and he looked a little soft, and he changed my mind. He wouldn't bite as a puppy and we made him do this one-on-one drill like three or four times in a row, and something clicked.
"Well, that puppy turned into a dog and he became the best stalk-blocking receiver I had ever coached. He became a starter, an all-conference guy, and he completely proved me wrong because guys will adapt to their environment if you challenge them," he continued. "If a puppy ain't biting when he's a puppy, he might still bite when he becomes a dog."
Those West Virginia dogs were finally biting again last night.
Remaining tickets for Saturday's Big 12 opener against 2-1 Oklahoma State are on sale through the Mountaineer Ticket Office and can be purchased by logging on to WVUGAME.com.
The animated image was a screen capture of the game broadcast and depicted Virginia's 239-pound tight end John Rogers, helmet askew, attempting to get up after taking an enormous hit by West Virginia defensive back Nick Taylor.
It looked like Rogers wasn't sure on which side of the field his team was.
My goodness pic.twitter.com/MFh7rkdmwo
— NCAAF Nation (@NCAAFNation247) September 20, 2026
That gif, viewed nearly 100,000 times so far this morning, pretty much sums up the relief my generation of fans is feeling about its West Virginia football team today.
"In a tough ballgame versus a good opponent, you've got to make competitive plays," Virginia coach Tony Elliott said afterward. "I felt like we made a couple, and unfortunately, they made a few more than we did."
The hard-edge mentality coach Rich Rodriguez has been preaching, ad nauseum, since his return to Morgantown a year and a half ago is finally making its return.
And it's been a long time coming.
I remember a few years ago listening to FOX Sports commentator Tim Brando doing a pregame radio interview on the Mountaineer Sports Network and the veteran broadcaster delicately dancing around the subject of West Virginia's lack of toughness.
It was obvious to everyone listening that Brando was passing along something one of the opposing coaches had told him the day prior during their pregame production meeting. Listening to Brando speak the unvarnished truth about what West Virginia's football program had become was difficult to absorb.
It also wasn't too long ago we had the depressing sight of West Virginia players being evacuated from their own field during a blowout home loss to Kansas State.
Well, last night, the 25th-ranked Virginia Cavaliers were in a football game, and their bodies are going to feel it today, tomorrow and probably on into the rest of the week.
That toughness was always the hallmark of West Virginia's football teams, going back to the Don Nehlen days, and well before.
As Hall of Fame linebacker Sam Huff used to say, "You might beat us, but you ain't getting out of town without feeling it!"
When Rodriguez was a West Virginia player in the early 1980s, those Nehlen teams he played on were so tough that breaking up fights during practice were more common than water breaks. In those days, the guys in the program didn't consider it a good football practice unless the coaches were pulling players off each other.
"We weren't (having fights) during Temple week," one former Mountaineer assistant coach recalled recently, "but they were going after each other before the big games. The players we had then were always so competitive."
Allan Johnson, West Virginia's former strength coach, used to go to the yearly strength and conditioning conventions and listen to his colleagues come up to him complaining about having to play the Mountaineers the following season.
For them, it wasn't so much the game they dreaded, but the game's aftermath. Opposing players felt those West Virginia football games for weeks after playing the Mountaineers.
It was obvious for all to see last night that old West Virginia toughness making its return.
WVU overcame deficits of 7-0 and 14-7 to defeat the double-digit-favorite Cavaliers 38-27 at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte.
After taking a two-score lead, West Virginia kept the football on the ground to get into position to kick a game-sealing field goal. The Mountaineers finished the contest rushing 51 times for 247 yards.
"There were times we didn't play particularly well, but I think we always played hard," Rodriguez said afterward.
No, toughness doesn't always guarantee victories, but the losses are much easier to accept when you know your guys are out there always putting up a fight.
Right at the top of Rich Rodriguez's list of the seven deadly football sins is softness. Seeing that in practice is all it takes for him to erupt like Mount Vesuvius.
It took Rodriguez and his coaching staff a year to handpick most of the guys that are out there playing right now, but not all of them.
Some of them stuck around and remained.
After one practice earlier this spring, media personality Adam Breneman asked Rodriguez if he thought toughness could be learned in a clip posted to Breneman's Instagram account. The coach believes it can.
Rodriguez told the story of a young wide receiver developing into a tough football player as he became older.
"I always thought when a puppy doesn't bite when he's a puppy, he ain't going to bite when he's a dog," the coach recalled. "A player once came here as a freshman, and he looked a little soft, and he changed my mind. He wouldn't bite as a puppy and we made him do this one-on-one drill like three or four times in a row, and something clicked.
"Well, that puppy turned into a dog and he became the best stalk-blocking receiver I had ever coached. He became a starter, an all-conference guy, and he completely proved me wrong because guys will adapt to their environment if you challenge them," he continued. "If a puppy ain't biting when he's a puppy, he might still bite when he becomes a dog."
Those West Virginia dogs were finally biting again last night.
Remaining tickets for Saturday's Big 12 opener against 2-1 Oklahoma State are on sale through the Mountaineer Ticket Office and can be purchased by logging on to WVUGAME.com.
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