Football
West Virginia has its next head football coach, and it’s a familiar face. Seventeen years after departing for the University of Michigan, Rich Rodriguez is expected to return to Morgantown to lead the Mountaineers. Pete Thamel of ESPN first reported the news, stating the two sides are “working toward completion” of a deal.
The Grant Town, West Virginia, native and former Mountaineer defensive back (1981-84) was named the successor of the great Don Nehlen back in 2001. After a 3-8 season in his first year on the job, Rodriguez got things rolling in 2002 with a 9-4 record and had the Mountaineers ranked as high as 15th in the country. The following season, Rodriguez coached WVU to its first Big East Championship despite losing three of its first four games.
In 2004, West Virginia ranked as high as No. 6 in the country and finished with an 8-4 record, with quarterback Rasheed Marshall winning Big East Player of the Year. That season, Marshall threw for 1,426 yards and 16 touchdowns while rushing for 684 yards and four scores.
WVU won its third straight Big East title in 2005 but really turned the corner by winning the Sugar Bowl over Georgia with the incredibly electric freshman duo of Pat White at quarterback and Steve Slaton at running back. That would be the official start of one the greatest three-year stretch in program history. From 2005-07, the Mountaineers compiled a record of 33-5.
In 2007, WVU was one win away from playing in the BCS National Championship. All the Mountaineers had to do was beat a 3-8 Pitt team at home to punch their ticket to the natty. It was a nightmarish night from the jump as Pat White injured his non-throwing hand early and didn’t return until late in the fourth quarter, resulting in the Panthers pulling off the miraculous upset.
Two weeks after the loss in the Backyard Brawl, news came out that Rodriguez would be leaving his post at WVU to take over the Michigan Wolverines. While most WVU fans were furious with his decision to leave, a lot went on behind the scenes that led to his departure.
He was never able to get things going at Michigan, although he was set to really turn the corner in 2011 with an experienced Denard Robinson returning at QB but was fired. In his three-year stint, the Wolverines 15-22.
After taking a year off, Rich Rod returned to a head coaching role at Arizona, where he helped pull the Wildcats out of the cellar in the PAC-12. In 2014, Arizona produced a 10-win season for the first time since 1998 and ranked as high as eighth nationally.
Following the 2017 season, Rodriguez then bounced around as an assistant at Ole Miss (2019), Hawai’i (2020), and Louisiana-Monroe (2021) before taking over the head coaching job at Jacksonville State where he was tasked with helping the program transition from FCS to FBS. In just two years on the job, Rodriguez went 18-8 and won the Conference-USA championship game this past Friday, 52-12 over Western Kentucky. The Gamecocks became the first team in college football history to appear in a bowl game in each of their first two seasons at the FBS level.
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