Pat McAfee, an All-Pro punter turned broadcaster, was a head-turner in his college and NFL days on the field, just the way he is now at the broadcasting studio. He still has those punter genes instilled in his DNA that pretty effortlessly came out when he dished a motivational speech to the assembled players during the NFL combine this Wednesday. However, when it came to the veteran ESPN commentator, he had a career full of rags-to-riches stories. He didn’t receive an NFL combine invite while hitting the draft after a high-octane college football career. However, eventually, he got drafted by the Indianapolis Colts in the seventh round of the 2009 NFL draft. However, even before that, the media mogul had some memorable years with the Mountaineers, with coach Rodriguez being the silent witness.

McAfee has always been emotionally attached to his alma mater, WVU, where he had his stint from 2005 to 2008. He earned his First Team All-American honors as a senior there and mounted some career-high yards per punt. But his ultimate flex was not his numbers under the belt; it was rather his rare ability to strike an amazing balance between work and partying. How do we know? Well, we hear straight from the horse’s mouth. The man at the other end of McAfee’s experiments with curfews, his coach, Rich Rodriguez.

”I don’t know if it was the first or second game. We had a home game on Friday night, and we didn’t take the team to the hotel, but Thursday night was a night when everybody went out and partied, and I didn’t want that to happen. Wanted him to stay focused. Supposedly, he missed curfew on Thursday night, and so if he’s a freshman, I am thinking, what am I going to do, make a big example out of him and all that. I called him in; he was young,” said West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez during an appearance on Andy & Ari.

Well, McAfee being a party animal isn’t a secret to the football world. He loved to meet and greet people and have a fun time, which later contributed to his high-flying broadcasting career as well, but the thing that made McAfee stand out was that he used to party only as hard as he worked. He was the guy to grind himself day and night in the weight room and hone his craft to the highest level. So coaching him was great, not just good, but great.

Rodriguez continued the story, saying, ”I said listen, I know you miss Curfew. I am going to bust your a__, but here’s what’s going to happen if you don’t miss any kicks, alright? During the games, I won’t check curfew anymore, but if you start missing kicks and be terrible at punting, your a__ is mine, right? So, he said, I got you, coach. He was pretty well the whole year. I don’t know if he made curfew every night or not, but he was pretty solid. I didn’t have to worry about him being ready to perform.”  

McAfee became first in career PATs (210), third in career field goals made (58), and third in highest career punting average (43.7). Now that he has given his blood, sweat, and tears to the program, he never stopped being a hype man and wishing the best for the Mountaineers and also for Coach Rodriguez.

Pat McAfee advocated a WVU return of coach Rodriguez

The legacy continues! Rich Rodriguez made a triumphant return to the WVU head coach position during the 2025-2026 season to finish his unfinished job. And guess who rooted for the former head coach to make a retreat? None other than the prized alumna Pat McAfee, who couldn’t get enough during his short tenure under the current Jacksonville State coach. The former Indianapolis Colts punter had been tirelessly promoting the best possible coach for his alma mater on his wildly popular “Pat McAfee Show”, reliving the golden Rodriguez era in Morgantown. The ESPN commentator made a bridge of communication between WVU AD Wren Baker and Rich Rod.

Conveying to Wren how badly coach Rod wants to come back to his old school and how wise it would be to give him the chance, McAfee said, ‘‘He also has quite a motivation. He wants to go back and make it right, and I think that was the most evident thing from the conversations I had with him. Every time I got a chance to talk to Coach Rod, it was very clear because I asked him. I still think about that Pitt game every single day of my life, every day. He emphasized that Rod is highly competitive, and all he wants is to win.

Be it a cutting-edge offense, insane speed, explosive playmaking, or a commendable toughness, nobody did it better than Rich in the school’s epilogue. Coach Rod not only brought the school to national prominence but also developed great individual bonds with players. Rodriguez’s wise stewardship has been a guiding light in McAfee’s bolstering career. ”It’s the attention to detail that has helped me when I became a pro in the NFL, helped me whenever I started running my own business,” McAfee said via Sporting News. “I thought about the things that Rich Rodriguez told me whenever I was 18, 19, or 20 years old, and maybe the lessons didn’t hit at the time, but they went on for the rest of my life. I’d be honored if my kid chose to play for Coach Rod, and I think if you’re a dog and want to become the best version of you, I think you come right here to West Virginia.”

Now, as Rod is back home finally, the dust of the controversy (about his departure for Michigan in 2007) looks settled a bit, and after a disappointing 6-6 season under Neal Brown, the Mountaineers are remapping into that hardware mentality that once made them a top dog in the national front.