In 2013, Rich Rodriguez’s Arizona squad faced off against No. 5 Oregon and future Heisman Trophy winner Marcus Mariota. It was raining a little, which was odd since it usually doesn’t rain in Arizona, but the week leading up was a normal practice week.

No more juice because a ranked team was in town.

After the Ducks returned the opening kick past the 50-yard line, Mariota dropped back and threw it to his receiver to the near sideline, but he bobbled it, throwing it out of bounds. As the ball was still in the air, an Arizona defensive back jumped out of bounds and tipped it to linebacker Scooby Wright, intercepting Mariota.

“We had worked on that one day in August,” Rodriguez recalled. “This is in November, the first play of the game… We hadn’t talked about that in three months. I thought it’s gonna be a pretty good day.”

It was for the Wildcats. Rodriguez’s squad throttled Oregon 42-16. It was what Rodriguez said was the closest he’s ever had to a “perfect game.”

“I’ve never had one,” Rodriguez said. “I don’t know if anyone has ever had. I had one that was close. I think probably the closest one we had was in 2013 at Arizona, and we were playing Marcus Mariota and Oregon. They were a top 10, top 5 team or whatever.”

Usually, in baseball, a perfect game is when the pitcher completes a full nine-inning game with a single batter reaching base by any means. It’s only happened 24 times in baseball’s 144-year history. But what’s a perfect game in football?

It depends on the coach. Rodriguez said it’s a game with zero negative plays. No penalties, no turnovers, and no plays for a loss.

“I don’t know if anybody’s ever done the stat, if you have zero negative yardage plays, that means no 5-yard penalty, 10-yard penalty, no 1-yard loss, 2-yard loss,” Rodriguez said. “If you have zero negative yardage plays and zero turnovers, you win 100% of [games].”

Obviously, a perfect game is hard. There have been multiple instances where teams have been close. In the 2000s, the New England Patriots came close, and so did the Dallas Cowboys in the 90s. In 2017, Nick Saban’s Alabama had no sacks or tackles for loss against Vanderbilt.

There hasn’t been a single perfect game if you include negative penalties, though.

Rodriguez said it’s hard to have a perfect game because it requires a high level of discipline. The team has to be mentally tough. Rodriguez said throughout camp that every play is mostly mental, and if your head is gone, then you’ll false start or overthrow a receiver, which has happened too frequently for West Virginia to his liking.

“The pre-snap penalties are discipline,” Rodriguez said. “Sometimes discipline, sometimes it’s bad technique. The turnovers, most turnovers occur not because somebody’s forced a turnover, but most of them occur because of a mistake. Usually, it’s a mental mistake.”

Twelve years later, Rodriguez is still searching for the perfect game. Heading into the 2025 season, maybe WVU could be the place where it happens. WVU has a solid shot in Week 1 against FCS opponent Robert Morris. It’s still extremely hard.

So far, Rodriguez’s cleanest game came over a decade ago, out in the desert.

“It was the cleanest game,” Rodriguez said. “During that game, they were just really dialed in.”