MORGANTOWN -- The new day and age of college athletics has presented multiple hurdles, especially for football rosters.
The West Virginia Mountaineers' roster turnover since last season is among the greatest nationally.
ESPN's Max Olson compiled a list of all Power Four schools and how many schools brought in the most transfers, how many starts they made at their previous school and how many snaps they've played in college.
Olson reported that West Virginia sat atop Power Four with 51 transfers and a combined 462 starts.
Among those 51 transfers, they've played more than 32,000 snaps in college football.
Coach Rich Rodriguez, who is back for his first season at WVU in 18 years, is trying to put a game plan together with more than 70 new players.
"The first game, there's so many unknowns, particularly if you got 79 new players like we do," Rodriguez said. "It's a new system. [Robert Morris] has three new coordinators. They could be something totally new too. You can anticipate and they can anticipate maybe a scheme or something like that. It's a little guesswork on both ends. You got to play a game to find out. We'll find out about certain guys on Saturday."
WVU's first opponent is Robert Morris.
Colonials coach Bernard Clark Jr. enters his eighth season after leading Robert Morris to a 7-5 record last season.
Clark is facing an influx of transfers of his own as he said the Colonials brought in more than 55 new players.
Clark said scouting WVU has required looking at what the Mountaineers' new pieces did at previous stops, whether that be Rodriguez's coaching at Jacksonville State or players at former schools.
"Even looking at West Virginia, I watched some of their film from last year, like their offensive line," Clark said. "But, I know they don't have a ton back on the line. That becomes a little tough when you're trying to figure out personnel. But, also with coach Rodriguez, he brought some guys from different places where his staff coached at. Like the defensive coordinator [Zac Alley] was with him at Jacksonville State but last year was at Oklahoma.
"Now, he's back with him. We're trying to figure all that out. What is he probably going to run? Is he going to run what he did at Oklahoma? Is he going to run what he did at Jacksonville State? Again, trying to navigate all those things get real tough."
Clark and his staff have tried to become fluent in helping the newcomers at Robert Morris understand what's expected and the verbiage the coaches are using.
"The biggest thing in dealing with the world of the transfer portal nowadays is trying to make things not so much transactional as transformational," Clark said. "It's trying to get to know these young men and trying to guide them in the right direction. That's the toughest thing right now that we're dealing with. When you're dealing with 59 new guys, with 26 of them coming in August, you're dealing with new guys and figuring out what they can and can't do."
With the new high levels of turnover, Rodriguez is in favor of college football looking into adopting preseason games or scrimmages that could help coaches understand their teams better.
"It'd be great to have a preseason game like the NFL," Rodriguez said. "One or two of those to kind of sort it out. But, I don't think that's ever going to happen. We'll do the best we can and make sure we're ready to adjust."
