By Kyle Golik
If you had Penn State offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki to become West Virginia’s next head coach in your survivor poll, it looks like you didn’t survive with this pick. Kotelnicki took to X (Twitter) this evening talking about the excitement of the 2025 Penn State offense, one many hope key pieces like quarterback Drew Allar and running backs Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen return.
Beyond lucky to be a part of the Penn State Football Family. Still a lot to accomplish this season and I am looking forward to what 2025 has in store for our program! #WeAre
— Coach Andy Kotelnicki (@Kotelnicki) December 9, 2024
The news that former West Virginia tight end Anthony Becht, who is currently the head coach of the United Football League St. Louis Battlehawks seems to be in the mix. The other two names that seem to be perceived by the media on top of West Virginia athletic director Wren Baker’s wish list is Army’s Jeff Monken, whose brother Todd is the former Georgia Bulldogs offensive coordinator and current Baltimore Ravens offensive coordinator and former West Virginia head coach and current Jacksonville State head coach Rich Rodriguez.
The latter invokes a caveat emptor for many across the Mountain State of his notorious exit prior to the Fiesta Bowl against Oklahoma in 2007.
Many West Virginians felt the timing was off and the actions made by Rodriguez between his interviews with Alabama and Michigan, eventually taking the Michigan job, were a betrayal.
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Rodriguez was interviewed by Seth Davis back in 2013 during his time at Arizona.
Rodriguez tried to clear the air about the entire situation, “I still wasn’t going to take the job if I thought the administration at the time at West Virginia had the same vision I did as far as growing the program,” Rodriguez claimed. “The program had gotten to a pretty good place, and I wanted to keep growing it.”
“When Michigan offered the position, I didn’t take the job right then, I said I was going back to my superiors at West Virginia and see what they think about it and give them an opportunity to say, ‘We want you to stay here and we’re with you all the way.’ But when that meeting went the other way and they said, ‘We’ve done all we can with you. Take it or leave it,” I almost felt like I was being pushed out the door,” Rodriguez continued.
As Rodriguez defined his perception that the West Virginia administration, at the time, wasn’t going to invest in the resources necessary to keep the program at an elite level, Rodriguez knew he had to go.
Rodriguez has later expressed regret about the situation, saying the following:
“If I could do one thing over again I would have a press conference at West Virginia and explain some of these things. I was kind of told to not do that (by Michigan). They said, ‘Hey, move on.’ I got some advice to not do that, but I owed that to West Virginia. I think it would have cleared a lot of things up to tell them, ‘This is why I’m leaving. This is why I’m taking this opportunity’ … and it was a great opportunity. ‘You may not like it, but at least I’ve given you the upfront.’ They said, ‘Move on and take the high road.’ Well, sometimes taking the high road is not the best.”
While it is easy to smear Rodriguez for the bad decisions he made in leaving West Virginia as a primary reason for Baker not to hire him, to me it would be filled with petulance. Rodriguez’s perception at the time was his reality and with flirtations of wanting to win a national championship, that wasn’t in the cards at West Virginia in the way it was set up, despite what the chaos of 2007 may suggest.
I don’t blame Rodriguez trying to make things right at home and trying to mend fences, but Baker knows he is in a legitimate lose-lose situation with Rodriguez. If Rodriguez fails, Baker has to own it all worse because if you look at any polls conducted in West Virginia, half want Rodriguez and the other doesn’t. That supportive half won’t be there if Rodriguez fails and it would only embolden the critics.
You might say, well there are no guarantees on success, and I grant you that, but no other candidate has that baggage like Rodriguez has. While I believe him on his rationale on leaving, the other thing Baker has to look at is the lack of success Rodriguez had at his two other Power 4 jobs to begin to scrutinize Rodriguez.
You can make the argument Rodriguez got Michigan set up for Brady Hoke’s Sugar Bowl season in 2011 and many Michigan faithful weren’t patient enough.
After taking a year off, Rodriguez resurfaced in Arizona leading the Wildcats to a Fiesta Bowl in 2014 after a 10-win season. The problem at Arizona was it seemed Rodriguez couldn’t contain consistency enough on the field and Rodriguez lacked discipline off the field that included a sexual harassment claim. It was also reported Rodriguez had a staffer whose job was to keep his wife and girlfriend separated during a game.
With Rodriguez disgraced, he spent the next five seasons as an assistant. A bright spot on Rodriguez’s journey was coordinating the Ole Miss offense in 2019 under Matt Luke. Rodriguez architected the No. 2 rushing attack in the country at 251.3 yards per game.
As Jacksonville State was looking for a new head coach, they looked at Rodriguez who has helped the Gamecocks successfully transition to the Football Bowl Subdivision in Conference USA. JSU earned its second consecutive bowl appearance this season after once again winning nine games, many feeling Rodriguez’s image has been rehabilitated.
The dilemma Baker faces, one that would make him ripe to join The Flying Wallenda’s clan, is you got the most ardent West Virginia supporters who are high on nostalgia. Rodriguez proved he can win big, his four Big East championships, three Top 10 finishes, and Sugar Bowl win cement that claim, but Rodriguez himself hasn’t been able to get anywhere close to that anywhere else. Additionally, those accolades are nearing 20 years ago.
There is no denying Rodriguez’s sincerity about the position, but Baker has a fine line to address. This will never be fully accepted unless Rodriguez truly delivers and the stakes are ever the highest. Baker needs every dollar the Mountain State is willing to produce to have the Mountaineers competing nationally. Losing that support hurts the program in a bigger picture. I don’t envy the decision Baker has to make or convince Gordon Gee, president of WVU, to do.
