MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia lost a significant piece of its offensive line for the remainder of the regular season when right guard Amare “Bubba” Grayson exited last Saturday during the first quarter of a 53-48 loss at Texas Tech with an ankle injury.
A junior from Stockbridge, Ga., Grayson was in his first season with the Mountaineers. It also happened to be his second season playing for head coach Rich Rodriguez and third under the watch of offensive line coach Rick Trickett as Grayson was at Jacksonville State to start his college career in 2024 and 2025.
“Bubba was kind of the leader even though he wasn’t with us last year,” Rodriguez said. “He’d been in the system before and been with coach Trickett. At least we’re far enough into the season that our guys know the routine.”
Grayson left the matchup with the Red Raiders during the first quarter. Nick Krahe came on as his replacement at right guard for the remainder of the opening half.
In the second half, WVU elected to move Krahe to left guard, and Josh Aisosa, who started and played the first half at that position, switched to right guard.
“Coach Trickett has a rotation where they’ve practiced that,” Rodriguez said. “All the tackles can play right and left. All the guards can play right and left. Usually coach Trickett has a feel for which ones they’re more comfortable with based on who we’re playing against. [Texas Tech defensive lineman] Number 10, AJ Holmes can make anybody struggle at times, but they did a good job against him for a large part of the game. But there were times at the end of the game, too, where he showed why he’s a first-round pick, too. They had some pretty good guys up front.”
Rodriguez indicated Monday night on his weekly radio show that there was a chance Grayson could return if West Virginia plays in a bowl game.
Otherwise, the Mountaineers are primed to roll with Krahe and Aisosa as their guards.
“In the third quarter, we played pretty well offensively,” Rodriguez said. “The last couple of drives were three-and-outs. It wasn’t good, but I feel confident with Nick and Josh in there.”
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Starting with Saturday’s 5:30 p.m. home matchup against Kansas, three regular season games remain for West Virginia.
As the 2026 campaign winds down, the Mountaineers (5-4, 2-4 Big 12) need one more win to become bowl eligible and ensure themselves of a 13th game.
But it’s never too early to begin looking ahead, and with player retention one of the hot topics in college football, it’s also on the mind of Rodriguez.
“I understand why a lot of programs are going to wait until the end of the regular season, but because signing day is the following week and the month after that is the portal, everything happens so quickly that we’re trying to get some of that done, particularly with the personnel staff that we have,” Rodriguez said. “There have been a few that have already agreed. I don’t know if they’ve signed yet to a contract for next year, so I don’t want to release any names until we get a majority of them. I know there’s a lot of interest in it, which is good.”
Andrew Powdrell has the option to return to college as part of the five years to play five seasons rule that the NCAA implemented over the summer, and the WVU defensive back says he plans to do exactly to do just that while remaining with the Mountaineers.
“I feel like they’ve shown me a lot of love and support throughout this time. They’ve put their trust in me as far as moving me to different spots, seeing how I can help the team and just be the best player I can be,” Powdrell said. “Coach Rich Rod pushes us. He’s not going to let us slack at any moment. Ultimately, it’s going to bring out the best in me to be a great football player.”
Powdrell played his freshman and sophomore seasons at Montana State and the 2025 campaign at UNLV.
The Mountaineers intended to have him play safety in 2026, and Powdrell began this season at that position. He has since been moved to cornerback and seen action inside as a nickel back as well as on the perimeter.
Powdrell has 41 tackles and 2.5 tackles for loss in nine games at WVU.
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An expanded 24-team College Football Playoff was finalized earlier this week and will be in place starting in 2027 for at least the next five seasons.
The field will consist of five automatic qualifiers — champions of the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC as well as the highest-ranked team from the American, Conference USA, MAC, Mountain West, Pac-12 or Sun Belt.
The other 19 spots go to the highest-ranked teams determined by the CFP Selection Committee’s final top 25 rankings.
“We had no vote in it. I had no control over the situation,” Rodriguez said. “OK, just tell me what the rules are, right? Hopefully that brings more revenue for the school. I know it was a billion-dollar or something deal, so maybe we’ll get more money from ESPN. That would be a good thing. The conference championship games, I always thought were a great thing for college football having been in a couple of them. Those have gone away I guess. Your first goal every year was to win your conference. Now, I guess you just do it in the regular season, but you’re probably going to have some co-champions or something, too. I know it’s going there and there will be more access to get in the playoff, which is probably a good thing.”