Rich Rodriguez has been a new head coach at six different places, dating back to his first head coaching job at Salem in 1988, and he’s been a coach of sorts almost every year since then. Rodriguez has had a lot of season openers.

However, this time it’s a bit different. Rodriguez had been everywhere since Salem, building his way to someday coach at WVU, which was his home-state team, where he played, and went to school. This season, Rodriguez finally got the opportunity to coach back at WVU after a couple of hiccups.

Saturday, against Robert Morris, will be his first game back as the head coach, and probably his last first game at a new program.

“It’ll be a little surreal, like it was at the opening press conference,” Rodriguez said. “I mentioned earlier on one of our tapings of our TV show that I don’t want it to be about me or new coaches or whatever. It’s about West Virginia. But I’m grateful for the opportunity to be back here. I’m grateful for all the people on the staff, fans have been unreal. It’s been phenomenal to be back and have everybody support the program and for what we’re trying to build here, so that part is going to be really nice.”

After how abruptly Rodriguez left back in 2007, there’s a lot of pressure for him to bring back WVU to national relevance, picking up where he left off. Even after multiple first games, Rodriguez still gets nervous.

“I think it’s crazy enough, what is this? 28 years as a head coach, 40 years total, there’s still probably many or more nerves in this first game, because it’s the first game,” Rodriguez said. “You have so many unknowns, and you’d also like to think at this point you’re not nervous, but yeah, you’re going to be. I think it’s okay to be nervous for a little bit. I think it’s okay for our players to be a little bit nervous, because it matters to you, right? But you got to be focused too.”

Nerves are normal before the first game. There’s a saying that if you feel nervous, that means you really care. Every player who spoke to the media said they were a bit anxious, but each of them has a time when the butterflies finally go away. Whether that’s after running out of the tunnel, when the first ball is snapped, or when they clash shoulder pads for the first time.

“They pretty much go away after that first play, after that ball is snapped, kind of realized like, ‘Okay, I’m in the game,'” Bray said. “Usually after that first play, I’m pretty locked in, and all good.”

Rodriguez knows what it’s like to play in a first game. After walking on to WVU, Rodriguez didn’t see much action. During the Oklahoma game, his name was called.

Rodriguez was excited but received a wake-up call quickly when he was leveled, and an Oklahoma player told him, “Welcome to college football.” Four plays later, Sooners running back Marcus Dupree took off, and chasing him was Rodriguez. Dupree was headed out of bounds, and Rodriguez delivered a late blow.

“I remember his goggles, because he wore goggles, were kind of sideways, and I stood up like a veteran, like, ‘Yeah, welcome to college football.’ Like, I just learned that phrase 10 minutes earlier. That was my kind of introduction to college football.”

A lot is riding on this first game, despite it being against an inferior team. The stadium will be packed, the tailgates smelling of BBQ, fans at home paying for ESPN+ to watch the game, all to see how Rodriguez’s first game back goes and how his players perform.

After the team runs out onto the field, starter introductions and the national anthem, Rodriguez and his players can finally breathe and release the nerves. It’s game time.

“But once we get on the field,” Rodriguez said. “It’s, ‘did we win the toss? We lose the toss? Where are we starting?”