‘Football is one of the last things that has got to be more about the team than the individual,’ coach Rich Rodriguez said.
West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez doesn’t want his players dancing on TikTok.
At a press conference during spring practice Monday, “Rich Rod” responded to a reporter’s question about TikTok by saying he banned his players from posting dance videos on the platform. Rodriguez
said that while he cannot ban them from using it, he wants to uphold the tough edge of the program, which dances do not do.
Rodriguez’s ban comes after Nebraska’s Matt Rhule came up with a novel punishment for players who broke team rules on the app.
“They’re going to be on it,” Rodriguez said of the app. “I’m not banning them from it, I’m just banning them from dancing on it.”
“We try to have a hard edge,” the coach continued. “[If] you’re in there in your tights, dancing on TikTok, [that] 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’ ... and I said, football is one of the last things that has got to be more about the team than the individual. And so I just banned dancing on TikTok, I guess.”
“Twenty years from now, [if] they want to be sitting in their pajamas, in the basement, eating Cheetos and watching TikTok or whatever ... they go at it, smoking cannabis, whatever, I mean knock yourself out,” he concluded. “But I hope their focus can be on winning football games. How about, let’s win the football game and not worry about winning the TikTok?”
Several college football stars have already made videos of themselves dancing. Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty has filmed several videos of himself dancing with teammates on the field at their home stadium, including one with fellow running backs
Jambres Dubar and Sire Gaines, and another with quarterback
Taylen Green. Heisman Trophy winner, Colorado wide receiver/cornerback
Travis Hunter posted a video of himself and his girlfriend dancing in multitude of animal onesies. Former Ohio State football player
Caden Davis grew a large following posting content from his life as a Division I athlete.
TikToks have sometimes gotten players into trouble. The most famous example occurred in 2020, when Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver
JuJu Smith-Schuster posted a video of himself dancing on the Cincinnati Bengals’ midfield logo before a Monday Night Football game. During the game, Smith-Schuster caught a pass from quarterback Ben Roethlisberger but was immediately and brutally hit by Bengals safety
Vonn Bell, who later said that the TikTok was “disrespectful” and prompted him to want to “hit him and let him know where he stands.”
