“With Pat and Rasheed and Noel, I’m not hiring you because of what you did in the 2000s,” Rich Rodriguez said. “I’m hiring you because you can help me win now. The fact is they do have a certain amount of respect, I think, from the guys because people know who they are, players know who they are, recruits know who they are, but also their innate competitiveness, their work ethic, and all that was one of the things that was maybe overlooked to their success. I think our current players can see that and recruits can see that now as well.”
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“With Rhett, it’s kind of unique because he started off in the financial world. Then, a few years ago, I said, ‘You want to do that or you want to be coaching?’ He said, ‘I think I want to coach.’ But he’s a perfect fit for me because I’m a little loud and out there. He’s the exact opposite. He’s calmer, milder. If I was on the headset, talking to the quarterbacks, I would never get nothing accomplished. I’d be yelling at them, and they’d be yelling back at me, and Rhett’s like, ‘Okay, this is the play. Look for this coverage.’ He’s nice and calm. So, it’s a perfect kind of situation where he can offset some of my ranting and raving.”
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“Then, Raquel, it’s nice having family because they’ve grown up in this. So they’ve been a part of a football program almost their entire life. So, they could kind of almost finish my sentences. It’s like Raquel, she probably wouldn’t admit it, but if I told her, ‘Hey, Raquel, coach these three routes for the receivers,’ she could probably do that. ‘Raquel, they’re running this defense and they’re running a bear front?’ She says, ‘Well, these are the only two plays that are gonna work.’ So, she’s been there and done that herself.”
