— By Joe Brocato & Greg Carey
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The 36th head football coach at West Virginia University just so happens to also be the 32nd one.
Seventeen years after leaving his alma mater and his home state for the University of Michigan, Rich Rodriguez is back to lead the West Virginia University football program. The Grant Town native and North Marion High School alumnus is working to finalize a deal with the program he helped towards national prominence from 2001-2007.
Sources: West Virginia is targeting Rich Rodriguez as the school’s next head coach. A deal is working toward completion, but yet to finalized. Rodriguez, 61, went 60-26 in his seven year there from 2001-07, including three-straight 10-win seasons. pic.twitter.com/GyjjnQPBwI
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) December 11, 2024
Rodriguez will replace Neal Brown, who was fired on December 1 after six seasons with the Mountaineers.
The 61-year-old Rodriguez returns to West Virginia after a successful three-year stint leading Jacksonville State. The Gamecocks won the Conference USA Championship last week, defeating Western Kentucky 52-12 in the title game.
Rodriguez guided Jacksonville State through a transition from FCS to FBS football, while guiding the program to three consecutive nine-win seasons and a 27-10 record under his leadership.
Hired to succeed legendary head coach Don Nehlen as WVU’s leader in December of 2000, Rodriguez went 60-26 in seven years on the sidelines in Morgantown. The .698 winning percentage is tops in WVU program history for any coach with more than 40 games. His high-powered offense was trumpeted with marketing slogans such as, “Spot the ball and let’s get after it,” “Hold the rope”, “Those who stay will be champions” and “We’re going to play like our hair is on fire.”
After a 3-8 season in 2001, the Mountaineers played in a bowl game in each of the next six seasons and never won fewer than eight games. WVU won Big East Conference Championships in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2007.
From 2005-07, the Mountaineers were 32-5 under Rodriguez, including a 38-35 win against Georgia in the 2006 Sugar Bowl — one of the more notable victories in program history.
The 2006 season ended with a come-from-behind 38-35 victory against Georgia Tech in the Gator Bowl, allowing the Mountaineers to finish 11-2 after they’d started 7-0. After the 2006 regular season and ahead of the matchup with the Yellow Jackets, Rodriguez was on the verge of leaving WVU to become head coach at Alabama, but had a last minute change of heart and opted to remain in Morgantown for a seventh season. The Crimson Tide instead hired Nick Saban less than a month later.
In 2007, Rodriguez had West Virginia on the verge of playing for the National Championship until the Mountaineers were upset by rival Pitt 13-9 in their regular season finale.
Shortly after the loss to the Panthers, Rodriguez took the head coaching position at Michigan. His acrimonious exit from WVU in 2007 remains a painful chapter in history for many fans of the Mountaineers. Weeks later, interim head coach Bill Stewart led the Mountaineers to a 48-28 win over the Sooners in the Fiesta Bowl. Stewart was later named the permanent head coach to replace Rodriguez.
West Virginia, Michigan and Rodriguez wound up involved in a legal battle regarding his departure, and it led to the Wolverines and coach combining to pay a $4 million buyout clause to settle the lawsuit WVU had filed after Rodriguez moved on.
A pioneer of the run-oriented spread offense, Rodriguez could not replicate his success from Morgantown in Ann Arbor, finishing with a 15-22 record and one appearance in a bowl — a 38-point loss to Mississippi State that marked his final game with the Wolverines. Michigan won only six of 24 Big Ten games under Rodriguez.
Adding to the troubles Michigan endured under Rodriguez, the football program was put on three years of probation by the NCAA for exceeding limits on practice and training time.
After a year out of coaching, Rodriguez was hired to lead the Arizona Wildcats in 2012, a position he kept for six seasons. He went 43-35 in Tucson and posted a winning season five times. Rodriguez was fired on January 2, 2018 in the wake of a sexual harassment allegation. Rodriguez denied the allegation and the findings of a three-month university investigation determined the allegation could not be substantiated.
Rodriguez did not coach in 2018. Over the next three years, he held assistant coaching positions at Mississippi, Hawaii and Louisiana-Monroe.
At Jacksonville State, Rodriguez assembled a staff with many West Virginia connections. Former University of Charleston head coach Pat Kirkland, Pendleton County native Rod Smith and former WVU offensive line coach Rick Trickett all served prominent roles on his JSU staff.
Rodriguez launched his head coaching career at a pair of West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference schools. He led Salem in 1988 and Glenville State from 1990-96. Stints as the offensive coordinator at Tulane and Clemson preceded Rodriguez’s first appointment as WVU head coach.