Setting the Scene
The West Virginia University football team wraps up its “spring ball” efforts this week when the Mountaineers take the field at Milan Puskar Stadium for the Gold-Blue Spring Showcase. Fans will be welcomed into the confines that surround Mountaineer Field for the public practice that will be replacing the traditional spring football game. Read more Gold-Blue spring showcase wraps up spring practices Saturday.
The Gold-Blue Spring Showcase is currently slated for a 1 p.m. start time on Saturday, April 5th, when Head Coach Rich Rodriguez will lead the Mountaineers out of the tunnel in front of fans for the first time since 2007.
The Mountaineer roster has been hard at work since February 25th and completed over a dozen practices over the past month. For some players, this will be their first taste of the WVU atmosphere. For others, it is business as usual… just under a new regime.
The Return
One of the main talking points in town and around the fanbase as a whole is the return of the aforementioned head coach almost two decades after he departed Morgantown for Ann Arbor, Michigan. For Rich Rodriguez, this is a homecoming that goes beyond returning to his previous employer. Rodriguez hails from Marion County, West Virginia, just one county over from Monongalia County.
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Beyond that, Rodriguez also played for WVU as a defensive back from 1981-1984. “I get to coach at the greatest university in the country,” said the returning Rich Rodriguez in his introductory press conference this past December. There is no doubt that the anticipation continues to build for “Rich Rod” to return in front of the Morgantown faithful this weekend.
New Faces
The transfer portal and NIL are two of the biggest factors in the current landscape of college athletics, and WVU has been no stranger to the effects. On one hand, the Mountaineers lost mainstays of the 2024 roster such as Hudson Clement, CJ Donaldson, and Josiah Trotter to the transfer portal.
On the other hand, the team has picked up several new pieces that will be making a public debut in some capacity on Saturday. New faces like former Texas A&M quarterback Jalen Henderson and former LSU defensive lineman Kimo Makaneole headline a hefty transfer class. In the give-and-take state of college athletics in 2025, the Mountaineers are wrapping up spring with plenty of positive additions.
One other observation worth mentioning when it comes to incoming transfers that might be in action Saturday is that of the multiple Jacksonville State transfers that followed Rodriguez to Morgantown. At this time, at least three former Gamecocks have made the trek up north in the form of Derek Carter, Fred Perry, and Cam Vaughn. These three athletes are coming off a Conference USA championship in December with Rich Rodriguez at the helm.
For the Fans
This Saturday is shaping up to be a grandiose finale to the spring practice sessions for WVU football in 2025. As of Tuesday afternoon, Saturday’s forecast is calling for temperatures in the low seventies at the start of the event. Unfortunately, there is a relatively decent chance for rainfall all afternoon on Saturday, with percentages ranging from 20-40%. Pack a poncho!
There will be pregame festivities in the Almost Heaven Village located in the light blue lot next to Milan Puskar Stadium. Live music from the Powell Brothers will be performed alongside food truck offerings and other activities that can be found here, with the Village festivities getting underway at 10 a.m. on Saturday. Tickets to the Gold-Blue Spring Showcase are free but must be requested before the game.
