So Rich Rodriguez has accepted the Michigan football job. He has officially left his alma mater in West Virginia and gone on to the winningest program in college football history. His bank account will be a little fatter now, but you have to wonder, did he make the right call or will we now verbize his name in terms of future coaching changes. “Oh, he Rodriguez-ed himself there!”
Rich Rodriguez grew up wanting to go to West Virginia and it seemed his entire coaching career was leading up to attaining the West Virginia head coaching job. Even last year when Alabama came calling with 3M+ per year, yet Rodriguez turned that plush job down, deciding to stay at his school. He was a West Virginia man and the school worked a 4M buyout into his contract to make certain. Funny though how winning his fourth conference title in the last five years changes things.
Now as his team gears up to take on Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl, in what many folks are calling the best bowl game of the year, he now heads to Ann Arbor to get a jump on recruiting. No doubt this guy can recruit. He landed Steve Slaton when seemingly only Maryland had this guy on their radar, and Maryland eventually revoked its scholarship offer. Rodriguez also got Pat White to come and run his offense at QB, and had he not been injured, he might be looking at a BCS national title game appearance. Yes Rodriguez can recruit and he can coach. In the last 3 years, West Virginia was 32-5 with two BCS appearances. Rodriguez started off rocky in Morgantown, but he eventually ran his record to 60-26. And now he leaves.
Now I am going to go ahead and say that Rich certainly Rodriguez-ed this one. Rodriguez-ed, the opposite of “Fogler-ed it.” Of course “Fogler-ed it,” is in reference to Eddie Fogler, the former South Carolina coach who was offered the UNC Tar Heel job in 2000, only to turn it down to stay the Gamecock head coach. He was fired a year later and then got into a little hot water while at CBS for some actions he took when he thought the game was at a commercial break. Jim Grobe Fogler-ed it when he turned down Alabama AND Arkansas to stay at Wake Forest. Fogler turned down UNC, his alma mater to stay at SOUTH CAROLINA? Are you kidding me?
Roy Williams initially turned down UNC to stay at Kansas, a program he took to great heights, but then he finally returned home and won a national title. He left one power to coach another power, but Rich Rodriguez shouldn’t use this situation as an analogy to what he is doing because Roy WENT home while Rich is LEAVING home. Plus when Rodriguez took over West Virginia was not quite the national player they are now. Had Rich stayed, they would have been a top 5 pick preseason pick next season with Pat White and Steve Slaton both returning for their senior years. And even after they left, West Virginia is now in the same situation Florida State was from 1993-2001: a conference title favorite EVERY YEAR. That is an automatic BCS bid EVERY YEAR!
Rich Rodriguez gets mentioned as one of the greats had he stayed at West Virginia for his career, cashing in on a weak Big East. But he decided to go take his chances against Jim Tressel at Ohio State, Bret Bielema at Wisconsin, Kirk Ferentz at Iowa, Ron Zook at Illinois, and Mark Dantonio at MSU. I guess only time will tell and we will see if he made the right move. However, if in a few years he can’t beat Ohio State and he is kicked out of the Big House, we can officially say he Rodriguez-ed it.
(ps, this is also featured on www.790thezone.com If it is not featured on the front page, go to either the "articles & columns" link or click "people" and find "Zone Contributor".)
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