WVU Football Picked 15th in CBS Sports Big 12 Preseason Power Rankings; WVU Basketball Falls at Home to Texas Tech
By: Justin Walker & Shanna Rose | WV Sports Chat
WVU Picked 15th
CBS Sports’ Shehan Jeyarajah released his 2026 Big 12 Football Preseason Power Rankings. While not surprising, he ranked WVU football near the bottom of the conference. What was surprising, though, was how low he ranked the Mountaineers in year two of the Rich Rodriguez 2.0 era. He ranked WVU 15th out of 16 Big 12 teams. That is lower than other teams in year two of a head coach and even some with a brand-new coaching staff. Here are Jeyarajah’s thoughts on West Virginia football heading into the 2026 season.
15. West Virginia
West Virginia had some exciting moments and some forgettable ones in Rich Rodriguez’s first season back in Morgantown. Amazingly, the Mountaineers now bring in 69 new players to completely reshape the roster once again. Even exciting young quarterback Scotty Fox Jr. wasn’t safe, as the Mountaineers added Oklahoma quarterback transfer Michael Hawkins Jr. There’ll probably be a few more highs the second time around, but at some point, we simply have to see some consistency.
The biggest surprise was seeing Oklahoma State (#8) so far ahead of the Mountaineers, when they, too, lost a lot of players from last year’s roster. The Cowboys will be in year one of the Eric Morris era. The young, offensive-minded coach is bringing 17 players with him from North Texas, including star quarterback Drew Mestemaker. However, it is still a tough ask for a coach to rebuild a program that has not won a single Big 12 Conference game in two seasons.
This is not Rodriguez’s first experience rebuilding a roster. He had to do it nearly every season he was at Jacksonville State after frequently losing his top players to the transfer portal. Prior to the 2024 season, the Gamecocks replaced over 60 of their players from the previous season and still went on to win the Conference USA Championship.
It is fair for Jeyarajah to have concerns about this WVU squad. After all, history has not been kind to teams that replace that many players from the previous year. Continuity is typically a huge advantage in college football. In today’s landscape, though, it’s hard to achieve.
WVU Men Fall to #13 Texas Tech
West Virginia’s margin for error against No. 13 Texas Tech was thin Sunday afternoon, and the Mountaineers missed too often from the perimeter and the free-throw line to make it hold up.
WVU shot just 2 of 22 from 3-point range (9.1 percent) and made 13 of 23 free throws in a 70-63 loss to the Red Raiders at Hope Coliseum.
The Mountaineers entered the day ranked next to last in the Big 12 at 67.8 percent from the line.
Texas Tech never trailed and leaned heavily on the 3-point shot, finishing 13 of 24 from deep to build and maintain a double-digit cushion for most of the afternoon.
The Red Raiders took a 39-27 lead into halftime after hitting eight 3-pointers in the opening half, while WVU struggled to find rhythm offensively.
The Mountaineers (15-9, 6-5 Big 12) opened the second half with an 8-0 run to trim the deficit, forcing the Texas Tech to call a timeout, but the response was immediate. Jaylen Petty knocked down a 3-pointer, and the Red Raiders followed with 10 straight points to push the lead back to 15.
WVU made one final push, cutting the margin to nine on a Harlan Obioha layup with 8:29 remaining and to seven with just over three minutes left on a Brenen Lorient basket. Christian Anderson answered with a 3-pointer, and JT Toppin added two free throws to restore a 10-point lead.
Texas Tech missed a few free throws down the stretch, allowing the Mountaineers to trim it to five on a Lorient free throw with seven seconds remaining, but LeJuan Watts sealed it with a pair of free throws.
Toppin scored a game-high 22 points on 8-of-17 shooting and added nine rebounds for the Red Raiders (17-6, 7-3). Donovan Atwell finished with 15 points, Anderson recorded 13 points and 11 assists, and Petty added 11. Four Texas Tech players made at least two 3-pointers.
“You have to give them a lot of credit,” WVU head coach Ross Hodge said afterward. “They put you in difficult decision-making processes with Toppin’s one-on-one ability and his passing ability. You’ve got to be able to adjust and do some different things on the fly, and there were a couple of times we tried to make some adjustments, and we didn’t execute those very well.”
Lorient led the Mountaineers with 21 points on 10-of-14 shooting. Jasper Floyd and Chance Moore scored 10 points each. Treysen Eaglestaff and Moore were the only Mountaineers to connect from 3-point range.
Despite holding a 34-28 rebounding edge and outscoring the Red Raiders 38-20 in the paint, WVU could not overcome the perimeter disparity.
Hodge said afterward on his post game radio show that he was disappointed in his team’s inability to come up with loose balls early in the game.
“To start the game, you kind of get beat to every loose ball; they got the first four loose and three of them directly led to baskets,” he said.
“I think if you step on the floor legitimately expecting to win the game, you get more loose balls than your opponent. That was the ultimate disappointing part of the game to me.”
The loss marked the Mountaineers’ second defeat in their last 15 home games and Texas Tech’s third straight win over WVU. The game also served as a reunion between Hodge and Red Raider head coach Grant McCasland. Hodge was an assistant under McCasland for seven seasons at Arkansas State and North Texas.
The Mountaineers return to action Saturday, February 14, at UCF.