Aside from the mind-blowing move of Bill Belichick to North Carolina, the most intriguing college football coaching hire of the winter is the return of Rich Rodriguez to West Virginia.
Rodriguez, 61, takes over a program that hasn’t finished in the AP top 15 since 2007 — the year he left to take over at Michigan. His exit from his alma mater was messy, to put it mildly. There were lawsuits, and it got bitter. But after spending the past three years at Jacksonville State, Rodriguez is the Mountaineers’ returning hero. Two years ago, coach Neal Brown led West Virginia to a nine-win season, but the team stumbled to 6-7 last year, and after having four losing seasons in his six years, the school made a change. Brown never felt like an ideal fit in West Virginia.
Rodriguez does. He’s one of their own.
“I was having a great time at Jacksonville State,” Rodriguez said on The Audible last week. “We’d brought the program up to (FBS) and was able to go to a bowl game two years in a row and won the conference championship. But when this opportunity came up, this was home and my last stop in the coaching world.”
Rodriguez arrived in Morgantown in 1981 as a walk-on and became a three-year letterman. When he returned as the coach in 2001, he was folksy and charming, especially in front of boosters. He was the godfather of the spread option, and his teams were difficult to defend, winning at least 10 games in his final three seasons.
More: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6157355/2025/02/26/rich-rodriguez-west-virginia/
Rodriguez, 61, takes over a program that hasn’t finished in the AP top 15 since 2007 — the year he left to take over at Michigan. His exit from his alma mater was messy, to put it mildly. There were lawsuits, and it got bitter. But after spending the past three years at Jacksonville State, Rodriguez is the Mountaineers’ returning hero. Two years ago, coach Neal Brown led West Virginia to a nine-win season, but the team stumbled to 6-7 last year, and after having four losing seasons in his six years, the school made a change. Brown never felt like an ideal fit in West Virginia.
Rodriguez does. He’s one of their own.
“I was having a great time at Jacksonville State,” Rodriguez said on The Audible last week. “We’d brought the program up to (FBS) and was able to go to a bowl game two years in a row and won the conference championship. But when this opportunity came up, this was home and my last stop in the coaching world.”
Rodriguez arrived in Morgantown in 1981 as a walk-on and became a three-year letterman. When he returned as the coach in 2001, he was folksy and charming, especially in front of boosters. He was the godfather of the spread option, and his teams were difficult to defend, winning at least 10 games in his final three seasons.
More: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6157355/2025/02/26/rich-rodriguez-west-virginia/
