Rich Rodriguez reveals his feelings on use of cannabis if allowed by law

The times are changing in college sports. That includes in the societal and legal aspects of how cannabis, or weed, is categorized. For head coaches, like new West Virginia Mountaineers head coach Rich Rodriguez, it adds an interesting new cultural challenge to deal with in the locker room.

As Spring practice gets underway, Rodriguez was asked about his policy towards players using cannabis. In particular, the NCAA recently took it off the banned substance list, meaning it’s now allowed for players to use by NCAA rules.

“My thought, before,” Rich Rodriguez said. “And I told this, I guess wasn’t that NCAA rule just happen like [last summer]. My rule before, it was like — I know some people say it’s good for you or not good for you or what have you. I said, when it was against the rules you can’t do it because it’s against the rules. It’s like jumping offsides. Jumping offsides is against the rules, so you can’t do it. Smoking marijuana was against the rules, so you couldn’t do it. So, that was the end of the story.”

Ultimately, Rodriguez doesn’t seem to want his team worried about cannabis. He’d rather their focus be on the team. He also has questions about how it could affect people who use it, even if it’s allowed by the NCAA now.

“That’s how we did it. Now, if it’s not against the rules — I’m not knowledgeable enough to know whether it can hinder your performance, or if it leads to other stuff. I just know if you do anything in excess, the same thing with alcohol, right,” Rodriguez said. “If you do anything in excess it’s probably not good for you. So, I would hope our guys are more focused on getting their education, playing big-time football, being a good teammate, and not worried about getting high.”

Notably, in the state of West Virginia, weed is only legal medicinally. So, technically it would still be against the rules for any Mountaineer to use when they’re in Morgantown without a prescription for it. However, not every player comes from West Virginia, with many coming from states where it is completely legal.

Rich Rodriguez explains banning TikTok dancing with players

One thing that Rich Rodriguez has banned for his players is dancing on TikTok. That’s not using TikTok or social media, but specifically dancing.

“I don’t really — they’re going to be on it. So, I’m not banning them from it. I’m just banning them from dancing on it. We try to have a hard edge, whatever, and you’re in your tights dancing on TikTok. It ain’t quite the image of our program that I want. I told the team today, I said everything today is about trying to make everybody individual. It’s all about the individual, it’s all about the individual,” Rodriguez said.

“And I said football is one of the last things that’s got to be more about the team than the individual. So, I banned dancing on TikTok, I guess I did that. Anything that doesn’t look like our program should look. It’s just, come on. And I’m allowed to do that, I guess. I can have rules. Like I said, twenty years from now if they want to be sitting in their pajamas in their basement eating Cheetos and watching TikTok, whatever the hell. They can go at it. Smoking cannabis, whatever. I mean, knock yourself out. I hope our focus can be on winning football games. How about let’s win the football game and not worry about winning the TikTok.”