By Rock Westfall
This week, Rich Rodriguez returned to his alma mater and native state as head coach of the West Virginia Mountaineers. It is a second coming for Rodriguez, who was head coach of the Mountaineers from 2001 through 2007.
For the most part, Rodriguez’s return was celebrated as if he were a knight riding in on a white horse to save his people, which, in fact, is exactly what he is.
But while most of the crowd at his introductory press conference went wild, there are a small number of bitter clingers who refuse to get over Rodriguez’s ugly departure in 2007 to take the HC position at Michigan.
Anyone mad at RichRod’s leaving does not know the entire story.
https://twitter.com/PaulMountaineer/status/1867397726519878030
Outshining Petty, Weak, Little Men – Too Big For His Britches
Last week at his intro, Rodriguez played nice and said that he never should have left West Virginia. RichRod should know better, or he is alarmingly forgetful. Although he said what he thought he must, it’s not true. The story of his departure is chronicled in great detail in Three And Out, arguably the best book on college football ever written by acclaimed Michigan football historian John U. Bacon.
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By 2005 Rich Rodriguez became one of the hottest coaching commodities in college football. He led the Mountaineers to an 11-1 record and a stunning upset win over the Georgia Bulldogs in the Sugar Bowl to finish 5th in the nation. University of West Virginia leadership, state political powers, and influential businessmen began to ask Rodriguez what he needed to ensure that he stayed. Those inquiries intensified after he went 11-2 in 2006 with another Top 10 finish.
Following that 2006 season, the Alabama Crimson Tide offered RichRod the keys to the kingdom and a hefty raise. Yet Rodriguez preferred to stay in Morgantown, asking only that his assistants get real raises and that West Virginia invest significantly more in program infrastructure. After initial promises, little that was agreed to was delivered.
As the 2007 season approached, Rodriguez communicated his desire to stay and build West Virginia into a national power. But his success made the state’s most influential and powerful leaders petty, jealous, small, and insecure.
After a 10-2 record and a near miss for a berth in the 2007 national championship game, Rodriguez plotted for more in Morgantown. But an embarrassingly inept Michigan coaching search made them turn to RichRod in desperation. After an initial interview, Michigan demanded an immediate same-day answer from Rodriguez. But he refused to commit without giving West Virginia one more chance to make things right. Again, RichRod did not want a raise. He wanted greater investment in the program, only to be rebuffed by the men who he outshined. So he left.
https://twitter.com/WVSportsNow/status/1868003941415530961
Another Michigan Man Myth Needs Correction
Rich Rodriguez was greeted with eager enthusiasm at Michigan. Fans were tired of Lloyd Carr’s plodding 1950s offense and stodgy ways, not to mention his inability to beat Ohio State. Rodriguez was the hottest brand and the game’s most respected offensive mind at the time of his hiring in Ann Arbor.
While the man in the street loved Rodriguez, much of the university elite and local media did not. Rodriguez was on the defensive from day one regarding whether or not he was a Michigan Man. What is deliciously ironic about that question was that shortly before he died in 2006, Bo Schembechler, the founding father of the Michigan Man Mantra, said that Rodriguez would be the best choice to succeed Lloyd Carr at Michigan.
Rich Rodriguez has taken long, winding and often perilous country roads back to his home in West Virginia. He was painfully and prematurely fired at Michigan just as his team was ready to take off, which it did in the first season he was gone. There was on-field success but personal failure in Arizona. And then Rodriguez did his best coaching job, taking an FBS expansion program, Jacksonville State, and turning it into Conference USA champions within three years.
It’s far past time to let go of a past that RichRod was largely not responsible for. He was right to leave after being failed by weak, insecure men who should have done better for West Virginia.
Today, Rich Rodriguez carries the hopes and dreams of an entire state. He is home where he belongs.
