West Virginia Football Coach Rich Rodriguez Bans Players From TikTok Dances

Rich Rodriguez returned to West Virginia University to become the head coach of the Mountaineers football team in December, a role he previously held from 2001-07. This time around, Rodriguez will have to manage the team in the era of social media and Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL).

Rodriguez has already established a rule addressing his team's usage of social media, deciding to ban his players from dancing on TikTok. Rodriguez is not banning his team from using the platform, but from dancing there.

"They're going to be on it, so I'm not banning them from it," he said Monday, via David Ubben of The Athletic. "I'm just banning them from dancing on it. It's like, look, we try to have a hard edge or whatever, and you're in there in your tights dancing on TikTok, ain't quite the image of our program that I want."

“Twenty years from now if they want to be sitting in their pajamas in the basement eatin’ Cheetos and watching TikTok or whatever the hell they can go at it. Smokin’ cannabis or whatever? Knock yourself out," Rodriguez continued. "Hopefully the focus can be on winning football games. How about let’s win the football game and not worry about winning the TikTok.”

Rodriguez also wants to put more emphasis on the team rather than the individual, and hopes his dancing ban will help the team move in that direction.

“Everything today is about trying to make everybody individual. It’s all about the individual. Football is one of the last things that has to be more about the team than the individual,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez will look to recreate similar success to what he saw during his first tenure at West Virginia, when he led the team to four Big East championships, six bowl games, and a 60-26 overall record—without any players dancing on TikTok.