Rich Rodriguez appears to be like to be heading again to West Virginia.
According to ESPN and different stories, the varsity is engaged on a deal to rent Rodriguez. The Jacksonville State coach would succeed Neal Brown after Brown was fired on the finish of the season.
Rodriguez was West Virginia’s coach from 2001 by way of 2007. The Mountaineers have been 60-26 in his time with the varsity and gained 32 video games over his closing three seasons in Morgantown.
That stretch of soccer was outlined by Rodriguez’s spread-option offense and groups throughout faculty soccer rushed to repeat it. West Virginia scored practically 40 factors per recreation in 2007 and have been in line to make the BCS title recreation with a win over Pitt within the closing week of essentially the most chaotic season in trendy faculty soccer historical past. Instead, WVU misplaced 13-9 at dwelling to the rival Panthers and fell from No. 2 to No. 11.
Rodriguez’s success at West Virginia bought him the pinnacle teaching job at Michigan, succeeding Lloyd Carr. His time with the Wolverines didn’t go as nicely. Michigan was 15-22 in Rodriguez’s three seasons with the varsity and he was fired after a 7-6 season in 2010. Before going 3-9 in Rodriguez’s first season in 2008, Michigan hadn’t missed a bowl recreation since 1974 and had the longest energetic bowl streak within the nation.
Rodriguez spent the 2011 season out of teaching earlier than heading to Arizona in 2012. The Wildcats gained 26 video games over his first three seasons and made the Fiesta Bowl on the finish of the 2014 season. But the Wildcats by no means gained greater than seven video games in a season after that. Rodriguez was fired on the finish of the 2017 season following an investigation by the varsity after his former administrative assistant filed a lawsuit accusing him of sexual harassment. The swimsuit was finally dismissed in 2019.
After three years as an assistant at three completely different faculties, Rodriguez turned the pinnacle coach at Jacksonville State in 2022 because the Gamecocks moved as much as the highest stage of school soccer in 2023. The Gamecocks have gone 9-4 in every of the previous two seasons and gained the Conference USA championship recreation over Western Kentucky on Friday.
The Mountaineers, in the meantime, have desperately been looking out to get again to the sustained success the varsity had within the 2000s. Bill Stewart went 9-4 for 3 straight seasons after succeeding Rodriguez and Dana Holgorsen was 10-3 in his first season in 2011. Since then, WVU has gained 10 video games simply as soon as (2016) and was 37-35 in Brown’s six seasons.
