Rich Rodriguez embraces past, but looking forward in return
Rich Rodriguez isn’t taking his opportunity at West Virginia for granted.
The veteran head coach returned to Morgantown 17 years after exiting the program in controversial fashion to take the Michigan job at the end of the 2007 season.
At the time, Rodriguez had the Mountaineers positioned among the elite programs in college football with a record of 60-26 from 2001-07.
That included three consecutive seasons of at least ten wins and trips to the Sugar and Fiesta Bowl.
So, naturally when Rodriguez departed there would be some hard feelings.
“There’s hard feelings because I didn’t have a press conference explaining why, I should have, I was told not to. But I should have had it. Everybody was saying it was in the past, it was in the past,” he said.
Rodriguez lasted three seasons at Michigan and since then has been on a coaching journey that he compares to the movie character Forrest Gump.
“I was in the Bayou, in the desert, the hills of Alabama, all over the place,” Rodriguez said.
That eventually led him to Jacksonville State where Rodriguez spent three seasons as the Gamecocks transitioned from FCS to FBS. Over those three years, Rodriguez helped lead Jacksonville State to a 27-10 record and claimed the Conference USA Championship last season.
The veteran head coach admitted that he could have stayed at Jacksonville State and been perfectly happy with the friends he had and the success on the field, but this opportunity was special.
“To come back home and finish my career at the place I played at, coached at a couple times and all that is really neat,” he said. “I am very, very grateful for the opportunity and I take it very seriously. So, If I don’t win everybody will yell so if I win everybody will say it works out great. So, all I have to do is win.”
Rodriguez was able to tour the state as part of the Mountaineer Athletic Club’s Coaches Caravan where he was able to talk to people as well as answer some questions while being up front with them.
But Rodriguez has discovered that while the past has been a topic, most are looking forward.
“More people have talked about what’s next which is what I want to do,” he said.
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