There’s a scene in The Wolf of Wall Street where Jordan Belfort goes to the Investor Center, where they sold pink sheet stocks. Belfort, having worked on Wall Street, pitched the stock to an investor, and as he worked through his pitch, the surrounding salesmen watched in awe. Belfort sold a staggering $4,000 worth of the stock. Belfort was just doing business as usual, and when he got up, he was applauded.

The salesman asked how he just did that.

“The other guys looked at me like I just discovered fire,” Belfort said in the voiceover.

This same situation just happened in college football. Curt Cignetti just shocked college football and took an abysmal Indiana team, which was considered a basketball school, to the National Championship. In the span of two years, Cignetti turned the Hoosiers from a 3-9 team to the first 16-0 team in history.

The rest of college football, whether it was fans, historians, analysts, or other head coaches, everyone looked at Cignetti and asked, “How did you do that?” West Virginia and Rich Rodriguez were one of them.

“I don’t know if there are a lot of folks who don’t understand everything that’s going on in public,” Rodriguez said in October. “One, why did they win so quickly? Or why aren’t they winning so quickly, or why all of a sudden they’re not winning national championships? There’s always more to the story than what everybody probably knows.”

Everyone wanted the secret. What did Cignetti and Indiana do differently from everyone else? There were a lot of moving parts working in unison, but some aspects stood out.

First, it starts with the right head coach — a leader of men. Cignetti developed a winning culture built on toughness and had everyone bought in. To solidify his culture, he brought most of his staff with him from JMU. Those coaches were familiar with what Cignetti was trying to build.

It’s hard in this era of college football to have players buy in with all the money being thrown around and the portal being a submit button away. That’s how special Cignetti is. His culture is worth more than money.

“You’re rebuilding the house, so to speak, and you start with the foundation and build it up,” Cignetti said to The Athletic. “It’s more process-oriented. It’s standards, expectations, consistency, performance and accountability.”

Rodriguez talked a lot about culture in Year 1, and how he wanted his team to play with a “Hard Edge.” He even brought in former staffers, like Rick Trickett, to help him spread his culture.

The team showed it at times, like against Pitt and Houston. But most of the time, it was nowhere to be seen. It was hard for players to buy in. Some were with former head coach Neal Brown for most of their career, and now late into college, they’ve gotta completely switch how they do things. There were some players to join in, though, even veterans. Wide receiver Jeff Weimer just posted on Instagram about the season, and in his caption, was #HardEdge. Weimer was with Rodriguez for a season.

It takes certain players to buy in.

That plays into the second part of Indiana’s success. Indiana picked the right players in the transfer portal that fit Cignetti’s culture. Cignetti isn’t a big spender in the portal, and the team is made up of mostly misfits. He doesn’t look at stars. Cignetti gets players who buy into his culture and fit his system.

A lot of the players on Indiana’s roster came over with him from JMU. They already knew how Cignetti operated, and he developed them into the stars that they are today.

Rodriguez is following a similar formula. In the transfer portal, Rodriguez is adding a bunch of players who are talented, but overlooked, and importantly, have a lot of years of eligibility left. He also has a big young high school class, which includes neglected JUCO players. Then, Rodriguez showed the door to the players on the roster who weren’t in lockstep with him, making room for “his guys.”

Most of the players Rodriguez picked up aren’t at the top of the portal or the high school recruiting class, aside from a couple. Most were 3-stars or not rated in the portal. WVU isn’t in the position to spend a ton on the successful veteran players, like Texas Tech.

Instead, Rodriguez is filling up with cheaper young players, so they can have time in his system, and down the road, he can develop them into stars like Cignetti did. That puts a lot of pressure on Rodriguez and his staff to mold the players, but that’s why he makes the big bucks, and why the people of West Virginia count on him to bring them back to glory.

That’s not all to the formula. You need a quarterback, and Cignetti had one. Fernando Mendoza was perfect for what Cignetti wanted to do. He didn’t need to carry the team, and his stats were nothing compared to past Heisman Trophy winners. Mendoza just needed to manage the game, putting them in a position to win. Mendoza did it all season.

The Mountaineers’ quarterback situation was one of the many reasons why 2025 ended with a 4-8 record. Rodriguez didn’t know who his quarterback was through the spring, summer and even during the season. Now, WVU is still expected to have a quarterback battle for 2026, between Oklahoma transfer Michael Hawkins Jr., returner Scotty Fox Jr. and maybe Max Brown. Rodriguez needs to land and stick with one for 2026. The revolving door doesn’t win games.

All this is easier said than done, and it seems simple. But it’s not, and it’s why almost every college football coach is scratching their heads, with Rodriguez being one of them.

At least, Rodriguez is on the right path. He’s building from the foundation up, with the young players being the focal point. It just hasn’t instantly happened, like Indiana, which is how most people wanted it to go. It’ll take some time.

“Sometimes it’s painful to wait or have to understand you got to have a little luck and have a plan to get fixed what you need to get fixed,” Rodriguez said in October. “Trust me, we’re in the process of fixing.”