MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez, like all football coaches, wants his players to show up on time, work hard and play their best.
Oh, and another thing: Don’t dance on TikTok.
“They’re going to be on it, so I’m not banning them from it,” he said Monday. “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.”
Making TikTok dance videos is a popular activity among high school- and college-age users of the social media platform. Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter, Boise State star Ashton Jeanty and Nebraska’s Dylan Raiola are among college football players who have posted dance videos.
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Rodriguez is beginning his second stint as Mountaineers coach. He said he has talked to his players about the tendency in society to emphasize the individual rather than the team and that banning TikTok dancing is something he can do to put the focus where he thinks it belongs.
“I’m allowed to do that. I can have rules,” he said. “Twenty years from now, if they want to be sitting in their pajamas in the basement eating Cheetos and watching TikTok or whatever the hell, they can go at it, smoking cannabis, whatever. Knock yourself out.”
As for now, he said: “I hope our focus can be on winning football games. How about let’s win the football game and not worry about winning the TikTok?”
