File photo Rodney Gallagher is one of several Mountaineer players to enter the transfer portal.

MORGANTOWN — West Virginia was expected to lose players in the transfer portal. One or two quarterbacks were always going to leave, because you can only start one, and some backup players who can go to a different school and get playing time.

In the past couple of weeks, the portal entries for the Mountaineers have been interesting and surprising. Running back Jahiem White entering the portal was a bit of a surprise, but WVU played most of 2025 without him, and Diore Hubbard and Cyncir Bowers weren’t unusable. Then, Hubbard, who was this year’s leading rusher, entered the portal. OK, it’ll be the Bowers show for 2026 and the 2026 freshmen, and a week later, Bowers also entered the portal. Now, there’s no returning running back production for 2026.

The same thing happened with receivers. There was some deeper depth chart receivers entering the portal, but then the biggest domino fell. Cam Vaughn, just days after saying he was a “Mountaineer for life,” announced he’s moving on. Then, days later, long-time Mountaineer Rodney Gallagher said he was leaving. Without Vaughn, Bowers, Hubbard, Gallagher, and some graduations, WVU has no returning receiving production either.

Hubbard, Bowers, Vaughn and some of the defensive players who’ve entered the portal were supposed to be the building blocks for a big rebound season in 2026.

Rich Rodriguez said all season that the goal for his first year was to lay out the culture and lay the foundation to build on in the coming years.

“You have to make sure the culture is right first and foremost,” Rodriguez said during Big 12 Media Day back in July.

Jan. 2, the portal officially opened, and Rodriguez’s squad had 39 entries, according to 247Sports. That’s a lot.

“We’re gonna have to make some tough decisions going forward with some of the guys on the roster, and then there’s others that may choose to leave on their own, or something like that,” Rodriguez said on National Signing Day on Dec. 3.

Players were going to leave, but it didn’t seem like Rodriguez expected that many, especially building block players like Vaughn, Gallagher, Hubbard, Bowers, and some defensive players who would be leaving. Some of them were Neal Brown players, and some may reunite with him at North Texas, but Vaughn came over with Rodriguez from Jacksonville State. Vaughn could easily be just entering the portal to get more money from WVU, but it’s still surprising.

What’s the point of spending a year building culture if most of the players who made an impact in 2025 weren’t going to be back on the roster in 2026?

Maybe, when Rodriguez talked about culture, he really meant for his coaching staff to learn what the standard needs to be. That could be the case. Rodriguez had just two coaching changes, running back coach and offensive line coach, so most of the staff will be back. The coaches are an extension of the head coach, so them having the culture down is important.

It could also be to show outside players and fans what Rodriguez wants to build this program on. Rodriguez added a lot of high school recruits and some really talented players, prying them away from big schools. It was the highest-rated WVU recruiting class of the modern era. It could be as simple as Rodriguez threw a lot of money at those top guys, but for most of those lower-rated players, they were won over by the culture and the staff.

If that was the case, it’d help cover Rodriguez a little for all the departures, but still, with all the players gone, WVU has to add a lot in the portal, which wasn’t what Rodriguez said at National Signing Day.

“We went portal heavy and got brought some guys in,” Rodriguez said on last year’s transfer cycle. “A lot more one-year guys that I ever want to have. But now, having been here a year, you don’t have to do as many. You still can, and we will, but not nearly to the extent we went last year where you had so many guys that we had for a year, or less than a year now.”

It’s looking more and more like WVU could be set up for another tough year with a lot of different parts trying to work in unison. Maybe that’s just part of the process.