MORGANTOWN -- It has been more than 6,400 days since Rich Rodriguez last coached the West Virginia Mountaineers in a game.
Rodriguez Era 2.0 begins on Saturday inside Milan Puskar Stadium as the Mountaineers welcome the Robert Morris Colonials.
Saturday's meeting will be the first-ever clash between the two programs. WVU has lost four straight season openers. The Mountaineers won five of their seven home openers during Rodriguez's first stint.
West Virginia welcomes in nearly a brand-new roster, as the Mountaineers added more than 70 new players during the offseason.
According to ESPN, WVU added the most experience out of the portal, with 51 incoming transfers. Those 51 transfers have tallied 462 career starts and more than 32,000 snaps, the most in Power Four.
"Hope is eternal. Everybody wants to have hope," Rodriguez said. "If there's no hope, it's kind of hard to think about the positive things as much, but our guys have given each other, and us, hope because of the way they've worked. There have been times where, geez, we needed to work a little harder, be a little more physical or run a little faster. They've really tried. The staff has done a great job.
"The players have adapted really well -- and it's hard; we're talking about 79 new players, a bunch of new coaches, new system, new schemes and different ways of doing stuff. It doesn't mean our way is the only way or the best way, but it's the way we do it."
Questions loom about who will step onto the field for the first time on WVU's opening offensive possession, especially at the quarterback position.
Five quarterbacks have dueled it out during fall camp to see who gets that first rep Saturday afternoon. However, Rodriguez has said that if he has to play multiple quarterbacks on Saturday, he will.
WVU released its depth chart earlier this week and there are multiple "ors" spread across the depth chart, with the quarterbacks occupying the most.
"It's not a strategic plan," Rodriguez said. "It's truly 'or.' It's him or him or him or him or him. Again, I don't want to say a drawback, but that's the other side of having so many new players in a limited amount of time. You can work with [them] a little bit [over the] summer. We have four weeks of training camp. Again, you don't know until you start playing games."
Robert Morris is also dealing with a high number of newcomers.
According to coach Bernard Clark Jr., the Colonials have 57 new players on this year's roster. That comes after Robert Morris finished last season 7-5.
One of the newcomers for Robert Morris is WVU transfer Tyler Evans, who appeared in four games last season for the Mountaineers.
The Colonials started identifying strengths and weaknesses during the offseason.
"Our model this year is being fast, physical and finishing," Clark said. "We're getting to the point where we can start a game fast. We can be physical throughout the game and finish the way we need to be. We're in a position where we can compete, which is more important than anything else right now. We feel real comfortable about our guys being able to do that and have knowledge of the offense, defense and specialist team we're trying to run."
The high number of transfers could've led to a difficult offseason in trying to find out personalities, understanding individual personnel and so on.
Yet, Clark feels comfortable with the group he has heading to Morgantown.
"We don't have a whole lot of turds," Clark said. "All of our guys want to become a good team. They're playing well together. They're working well together. We haven't had a whole lot of fights in training camp. There are a few here and there, but nothing serious. All of our guys are in the right frame of mind when they're stepping onto the football field."
One position group WVU has largely sorted out is who will get the most carries among the running backs, as Jahiem White is back for his junior season.
White has rushed for more than 1,600 yards in two years at WVU.
He's coming off a sophomore season that saw him finish with 149 carries for 845 yards and seven touchdowns.
"What I want our defense to understand about him is that he has unbelievable vision and quickness," Clark said. "He sees those holes immediately and he reaches top speed. His vision is unbelievable. That's the first thing I noticed on film when I was watching film about him. Now, most guys have to build up to their speed, but he's one of those guys that it's probably by the second or third step, then he's at top speed.
"We gotta make sure we can slow him down and slow his vision down a little bit by being in the gaps where we need to be."
Robert Morris gets a boost on offense from returning quarterback Zach Tanner, running back Ethan Shine and wide receiver Chaz Middleton.
"You can get an idea because the head coach has been there [awhile]," Rodriguez said of preparing for the Colonials. "So, you gotta have an idea. [It's] his culture and what he's been doing is probably going to be very similar. But, [they have] three new coordinators. There's a lot of guesswork, even though the defensive coordinator was on staff. You think it would be some of the similar things going on there. [From] a players standpoint, it's anybody's guess. It's going to be an interesting first game."
