Nearly two decades following his controversial departure, Rich Rodriguez is once again West Virginia University’s football coach.
According to multiple published reports, WVU is finalizing a deal with Rodriguez late Wednesday. Rodriguez, who spent from 2001-07 as WVU’s coach, will replace Neal Brown, who was fired the day after the Mountaineers’ season-ending loss at Texas Tech. That decision reconnects WVU with a coach that took the football program to some of its highest points, yet also had a very contentious relationship after he left.
Rodriguez, 61, has spent the last three seasons as head coach at Jacksonville State, where he guided the team through a successful transition from the Football Championship Subdivision to the Football Bowl Subdivision. Last week, JSU won its first Conference USA championship, defeating Western Kentucky. It is just the Gamecocks’ second season in the FBS. Rodriguez has won nine games in each of his three seasons at JSU and has qualified for two straight bowl games.
Through four head coaching stops – WVU, Michigan, Arizona and JSU – one thing that hasn’t changed is Rodriguez’s penchant for explosive offenses. The Gamecocks are No. 2 in the FBS this year in rushing offense, at 267.31 yards per game, and 19th in total offense, at 444.4 yards per game. JSU is also 12th nationally in scoring 36.7 points per game.
The Mountaineers could use that dynamic play. WVU ranked 64th nationally at 28.5 points per game.
Since Brown was fired, Rodriguez’s name had been among the top mentioned for the WVU job, along with Clarksburg native and former Florida State and Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher and Penn State offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki. A number of Rodriguez’s former WVU players, including Pat McAfee and Adam “Pac Man” Jones, were supporters of Rodriguez’s return.
Those two, along with former players like Pat White, Steve Slaton, Noel Devine and Owen Schmitt, helped Rodriguez get the Mountaineers to some of its greatest finishes. Under Rodriguez, WVU won a Sugar Bowl and Gator Bowl and the 2007 team won the Fiesta Bowl after Rodriguez departed for Michigan.
That exit started a rough patch between the university and the coach. Rodriguez was named Michigan’s coach on Dec. 17, 2007. On December 27, 2007, WVU filed a motion for declaratory judgment in Monongalia County Circuit Court, asking the court to find that Rodriguez’s contract with WVU was valid, that the university had not breached the contract, and that Rodriguez had. WVU added a count of breach of contract less than a month later after Rodriguez allegedly failed to pay the first installment of his $4 million buyout clause.
Rodriguez and WVU settled the lawsuit in July 2008. The University of Michigan would pay $2.5 million of the buyout and Rodriguez would pay WVU the remaining $1.5 million in three $500,000 installments.
Rodriguez would be fired from Michigan after three seasons and a 15-22 overall record with just one winning season. After two years away, Arizona hired Rodriguez as its head coach in 2012. He spent six seasons with the Wildcats, coached them to a top 25 finish and a spot in the Fiesta Bowl in 2014, and finished his time there with a 43-35 record. He was fired from Arizona in 2018 following an internal investigation where he admitted to an extramarital affair but denied claims made by an administrative assistant of sexual harassment and creating a hostile work environment. A lawsuit the administrative assistant filed based on those claims was dismissed in September 2019.
Rodriguez bounced around in offensive coordinator and off-field analyst jobs before being hired at Jacksonville State. He has an overall record of 190-129-2 and is 6-6 in bowl games he has coached.
-Story by Derek Redd
