Frank Ahrens is a Senior Writer for Bleacher Report where this post was originally published.

Five games into the 2008 season, WVU is 3-2, averaging about half as many points as it did last year and has had three straight games with its starting tailback failing to gain 100 yards.

I tossed this question out to some friends today so I'll do the same here: What would be the current record of this WVU team if Rich Rodriguez and his staff stayed at WVU instead of going to Michigan. (Extra credit: What if Steve Slaton and Johnny Dingle had stayed, as well?)

I don't usually do What Ifs? because they're futile and backward-looking. But this one could be instructive.

My answer is: I don't know.

Would Rodriguez, who cared little about defense, gotten a better performance out of this defense with eight (or seven) new starters, many of them freshmen and sophomores?

Would Rodriguez have picked up his offense right where he left it last year or innovated?

If not, would East Carolina and others adopted the Pitt defense—eight or nine in the box—and still managed to beat WVU?

A couple of my buddies think WVU would be an easy 5-0 right now, saying a Rodriguez-coached team would have never been held to one field goal against ECU and would have outscored the Pirates and the Colorado Buffaloes.

What do you think?

What would WVU's record be right now had Rodriguez and his staff stayed? And why do you think that?

Check out the original post here, or look for more WVU football stories over at Bleacher Report.