RJ Young
FOX Sports National College Football Analyst
This isn’t your average college football ranking.
My Ultimate 136 is a set of rankings that is fluid, but it’s my job to look ahead and make a claim for all FBS teams based on what I know and why I know it. Here are the three pressing questions I started by asking when putting together this list:
Who do I think is good?Why do I think they’re good?What are the chances they will finish above or below my expectations?
Here is a look at where West Virginia lands in my Ultimate 136.
West Virginia ranking: 68
Last year’s ranking: 21
Top player: RB Jaheim White: Rushed for 842 yards on 7.7 yards per rush as a freshman in 2023, with the latter being a school record; last season rushed for 844 yards, ranking 10th in the Big 12
[West Virginia’s 2025 schedule]
RJ’s take: Just like UCF, WVU is going back in time, hoping that a man who coached the Mountaineers to national prominence in the Before Times can do it again in a terraformed environment since he last roamed the home sideline at Milan-Puskar.
Unlike UCF, WVU hired a former head coach of the program after he proved he could do more with less at Jacksonville State. Rich Rodriguez won nine games every year for each of the last three as head coach of the Gamecocks.
He takes over a program that finished 6-7 and finished second-to-last in total defense and 10th in total offense in the Big 12. Seventeen years after he left Morgantown for Michigan, he’s back with a team of 70 new faces to the program, with just half of those being around in the spring.
He’s already ahead of the curve, (re)hiring Zac Alley to run his defense to help him fix the defense.
With this kind of turnover, if Rodriguez can nail the QB competition to come — Nicco Marchiol, make it happen — and nail the hallmarks of his system (tempo, QB-run, tougher than pressurized coal), WVU can win.
[Check out RJ Young’s Ultimate 136 College Football Rankings here]
West Virginia Win Total: Over 5.5 (+115) 5.5 Under 5.5 (-140)
Have an issue with my rankings? Think your alma mater is too low, or your school’s rival is too high? Get at me on X, @RJ_Young, and I’ll select my favorite tweets and respond to them in a future article.
RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports. Follow him at @RJ_Young.
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