Rich Rodriguez Bio

Rich Rodriguez appeared destined to coach West Virginia University.  Born in the tiny town of Grant Town, WV, in 1963 he went on to play college football at WVU.  He stayed on a year as a student- assistant before joining the staff at Salem College as the special teams and secondary coach.  Within a year he became the offensive coordinator and a year later the head coach.  At twenty four he became the youngest head coach in college football.  That joy was short lived as the university decided to drop the football program after its 2-8 effort in 1988.

The ’89 season found Rodriguez back at WVU as a volunteer assistant.  From there he went on to Glenville State College where he earned a respectable 43-28-2 record from ’90 to ’96.

Following his success at Glenville he went on to Tulane to become the offensive coordinator and quarterback coach from ’97 to ‘98.  The offensive coordinator job at Clemson followed which he held through the 2000 season.  November of 2000 saw the inevitable happen as native West Virginian, Rich Rodriguez, took over the head coaching job at WVU from the very man he played for years earlier.

Success did not come easy at WVU, but by ’05 they stood ready to take the nation by storm.  In ’05 the school tied its highest end of season rank at #5 after beating the Georgia Bulldogs in the Nokia Sugar Bowl.  Another Gator Bowl win in ’06 found the Mountaineers sitting at the #10 rank at the end of the season.  The Mountaineers finished each season with eleven wins.

It was around that time that controversy slowly began to swirl around the feet of Rich Rodriguez.  After the success he had had in rebuilding the WVU program it would be understandable that Rodriguez would be a hot commodity.  None other than Michigan made him an offer. 

The day after being knocked out of the national title hunt by lowly Pitt he broke the news that he was leaving to his team.  Although his resignation letter stated January 3^rd to be his final day, Rodriguez informed the university that he would not be staying around to coach the team during its January 2^nd bowl game. 

Rumors eventually circulated that he had used WVU cell phones to call recruits so that he could tell them he was going to Michigan, before he told the team.  Player files from over the last seven years came up temporarily missing for awhile with Rodriguez the obvious culprit before they were eventually found.  A legal scandal occupied the press for months as arguments were heard concerning the $4 million buyout clause in Rodriguez’s contract.  Claims were made on both sides, but eventually Michigan agreed to pay $2.5 million by the end of July ’08 and $1.5 million to be paid by Rodriguez over three years.

The future only knows what will befall Rodriguez at Michigan, but his legacy at WVU will forever be tainted.

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