It’s now just a few days shy of 10 months since Rich Rodriguez walked onto a stage inside the now Hope Coliseum to be introduced as WVU’s football coach.

Gold and blue balloons decorated the arena. The school’s pep band blared out the fight song. The Mountaineer mascot fired up the crowd.

You probably remember the day well.

Dozens of points and quotable messages were made that day, either by Rodriguez himself or by WVU athletic director Wren Baker.

None, maybe, stood out quite as much as this: “My promise, not just to the folks who are upset, but to everybody here and everybody that’s been very, very supportive, I will earn your support,” Rodriguez said. “We will earn your support and your trust back. I’m committed to that, and I’ve thought about that even before this opportunity.”

That quote has run a dozen marathons in my head for nearly 10 months. It’s gone from the front of the mind to the back and to the front again, almost as if it were running an endless suicide drill.

You don’t need me to tell you this today, but the Mountaineers are currently tied for last in the Big 12 standings.

They are 14th in the conference in points allowed. They are 15th in the league in points scored.

Some of you may be shocked at the current state of affairs. Some of you may be angered by it.

Some may have expected this type of growing pains, otherwise known as the wait-til-next-year crowd. Some are already anticipating the start of basketball season.

Truth is, there are probably a dozen different categories out there in which to throw your thoughts and emotions about the football program into.

And that’s the issue, because — at least from a public relations standpoint — the return of Rodriguez to WVU has been bungled since that first day.

Look, I’m no public relations expert, but I know how to read a room.

And that room tells a story of an overall fan base that is no more unified than it was 10 months ago.

This has nothing to do with WVU’s current 2-4 record or the fact it’s been outscored 127-48 in three Big 12 games.

It has everything to do with whoever has navigated Rodriguez through the last 10 months of his second era at the school has completely steered him in the wrong direction at every turn.

“We will earn your support and your trust back.”

What exactly has Rodriguez done to earn that trust?

Forget about the results on the field for a moment, because earning a West Virginian’s trust goes well beyond the number of end zone celebrations.

We get it, it’s been a busy 10 months. There’s a football team to coach. There were 80 players to find in the transfer portal. He had to reach out to family and friends to hire as assistant coaches.

There was the WVU caravan tour over the summer, in which Rodriguez participated. That took him to several different parts of the state for meet and greets.

Rodriguez is contractually obligated to appear at those meet and greets, by the way, so we simply ask the coach, his handlers or those who have his ear why was it believed nothing else was needed?

Why was the approach, in terms of a public relations standpoint, to simply handle things the way they’ve always been handled?

Because that is not reading the room. That is not recognizing the temperature of the overall fan base.

This fan base, to a certain degree, was already torn well before Rodriguez walked on that Hope Coliseum stage last December.

Hiring a coach who walked out on the program in 2007 — regardless of his reasons for doing so — wasn’t going to magically make everyone in the state jump on board and sing “Kumbaya.”

This situation called for above and beyond. Instead it’s been business as usual.

You may have noticed there was no Rich Rodriguez radio show this week or a weekly press conference. I’m told that was always sort of the plan during bye weeks this season.

How could that be the plan? How does someone in the athletic department not say, “Maybe this isn’t the best idea at the current moment?”

Every possible opportunity Rodriguez has afforded to him to get out his message, his hope, his vision for the program to the people of West Virginia should be met with the greatest of enthusiasm.

Forget just the Monday night statewide radio show. In the interest of earning back trust and support, also go do a radio show in Martinsburg, in Beckley, in Wheeling, in Charleston, hell, even Huntington.

Tell the people directly what’s on your mind and in your heart.

Make a surprise visit to a county fair. Buy some cotton candy, shake some hands, tell some jokes.

He should have been eating funnel cake and petting cows two weeks ago at the Buckwheat Festival in Kingwood. There weren’t 90 minutes available for that?

In order to earn the fans full support and trust, like Rodriguez said he was going to do, you’ve got to be one of the people.

Yes, this all sounds like going way outside the boundaries of the box and beyond normal expectations of what is generally asked of a major college football coach.

In truth, it all probably sounds a little crazy. Just maybe it’s going to take a little crazy to begin to mend some broken fences around West Virginia and how some in the state currently feel about Rodriguez and the football program.

Because if he’s simply counting on wins to do that job for him, that may just be one long count.