AP Photo
\nJacksonville State running back Cam Cook during an NCAA football game against Sam Houston State on Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025, in Houston.<\/p>\n
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. \u2014 Rich Rodriguez didn\u2019t get to watch all of the Jacksonville State games last season, because, of course, he was coaching his own college football team at West Virginia. During the middle of the week, Rodriguez caught a couple of the games. He paid attention because he was the head coach there before heading to WVU, and he still had great ties with the people down there.<\/p>\n
Something caught his eye while watching the games. <\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t watch all their games, but the midweek games and stuff, I got a chance to watch a little bit of,\u201d Rodriguez said. \u201cThis guy was making people miss. He was a really good football player.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rodriguez was watching Jacksonville State running back Cam Cook, who transferred to the Moutaineers this offseason. He was arguably the biggest transfer acquisition this offseason.<\/p>\n
Cook led the FBS in rushing and was tied for sixth in rushing touchdowns. Before Jacksonville State, Cook played two seasons in the Big 12 at TCU. He rushed for 460 yards and nine touchdowns in his second season. Cook was one of the top running backs in the portal. <\/p>\n
WVU was in the market for running backs, too. The Mountaineers lost all but one running back to the transfer portal, which was Andre Devine, who didn\u2019t register a stat in 2026. Rodriguez added a bunch of freshman running backs, including 4-star Amari Latimer, and some more experienced JUCO backs, but he needed a veteran guy to start right away.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe went after him, wanted an experienced guy,\u201d Rodriguez said. \u201cWe knew that we were going to have almost a whole new running back room anyway, and I\u2019m glad he\u2019s here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cook is a perfect fit in Rodriguez\u2019s offense, and a reason why he was a top priority. Rodriguez\u2019s offense is run-heavy, and WVU was fifth in the Big 12 in rushing attempts. Cook carried a big workload last season. WVU had a revolving door of running backs last season with all the injuries, so Cook should be more reliable. <\/p>\n
On March 7, WVU started spring practice, and Rodriguez officially got to see Cook on the practice field. He did watch him during workouts and in meetings, but not on the field yet. In the limited time, Cook has been as good as advertised. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a really smart football player,\u201d Rodriguez said. \u201cHe\u2019s got a great feel for it. He can block, he can catch. So he\u2019s got all the stuff that you want in the backfield.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other than being the lead back on the field, part of Cook\u2019s role this year will be teaching the young running back room. Although not in the first couple of weeks, because like the freshmen and JUCO players, Cook is still learning Rodriguez\u2019s system.<\/p>\n
\u201cEventually, he can help some of the young guys, but right now, he\u2019s still learning too,\u201d Rodriguez said. \u201cIt\u2019s all new terminology. Jax State didn\u2019t do what we do terminology-wise. But, he understands the fundamental part of what we\u2019re teaching.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even though Cook was brought in to be the starter, the rest of the running backs are competing for a role in the offense. There are currently five backs in the room with more to come, and Rodriguez thinks all of them have a chance to play at some point this season. Someone will need to be the second option when Cook inevitably takes a breather in the high-tempo offense.<\/p>\n
Right now, though, as expected, Cook is the lead back. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s gonna kind of be the alpha in the room, so to speak, the leader of that group,\u201d Rodriguez said. \u201cI think all of them are going to play\u2026 It\u2019s a pretty competitive room. Cam will kind of be the leader of it, but all those young guys got a chance to play.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AP Photo Jacksonville State running back Cam Cook during an NCAA football game against Sam Houston State on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":804957,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[92314,331,7,49,48,22043,413],"class_list":{"0":"post-804956","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-cam-cook","9":"tag-college-football","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-ncaa","12":"tag-ncaa-football","13":"tag-rich-rodriguez","14":"tag-west-virginia"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116206114215599087","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=804956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/804957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=804956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=804956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=804956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}