MORGANTOWN – Nearly 20 years after his controversial departure, it appears Rich Rodriguez will once again be West Virginia University’s football coach.
Multiple news outlets reported Wednesday night that an agreement has been reached between WVU and Rodriguez to return to the football program. Rodriguez, who coached WVU from 2001 to 2007, replaces Neil Brown, who was fired the day after the Mountaineers’ season ended at Texas Tech. The decision reunites WVU with the coach who led the football program to its highest points, but also a highly controversial relationship following his departure.
Rodriguez, 61, spent the past three seasons as the head coach at Jacksonville State University, leading the team to a successful transition from the Football Championship Division to the Football Bowl Division. Last week, JSU defeated Western Kentucky to win its first Conference USA Championship. This is just the Shamcox’s second season in the FBS. Rodriguez won nine games in each of his three seasons at JSU and qualified for back-to-back bowl games.
One thing that has remained constant throughout his four head coaching stints at WVU, Michigan, Arizona and JSU is Rodriguez’s penchant for explosive offenses. The Shamcox are second in the FBS this year in rushing offense with 267.31 yards per game and 19th in total offense with 444.4 yards per game. JSU is scoring 36.7 points per game, which ranks 12th nationally.
The Mountaineers will be able to take advantage of his dynamic play. WVU ranks 64th nationally with 28.5 points per game.
Since Brown was fired, Rodriguez’s name has been mentioned as a candidate for WVU’s job, along with Clarksburg native and former Florida State and Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher and Penn State offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki. His name was at the top. Many of Rodriguez’s former WVU players supported his return, including Pat McAfee and Adam “Pacman” Jones.
The two, along with former players like Pat White, Steve Slaton, Noel Devine and Owen Schmidt, helped Rodriguez lead the Mountaineers to a top finish. Under Rodriguez, WVU won the Sugar Bowl and Gator Bowl, and the 2007 team won the Fiesta Bowl after Rodriguez left for Michigan.
This exit marked the beginning of a bitter rift between the university and the coach. Rodriguez was named coach at the University of Michigan on December 17, 2007. On December 27, 2007, WVU filed a motion for declaratory judgment in Monongalia County Circuit Court, asking the court to find that Rodriguez’s contract with WVU was valid and that the university had not violated it. The contract, and what Rodriguez had. WVU added breach of contract charges less than a month later after Rodriguez allegedly failed to make the first payment of a $4 million buyout clause.
Rodriguez and WVU settled the lawsuit in July 2008. The University of Michigan will pay $2.5 million of the buyout, and Rodriguez will pay WVU the remaining $1.5 million in three $500,000 installments.
Rodriguez would be released by the University of Michigan after three seasons and a 15-22 overall record with only one winning season. After two years apart, Arizona hired Rodriguez as head coach in 2012. He spent six seasons with the Wildcats, coaching them to a Top 25 finish and a Fiesta Bowl berth in 2014, finishing his time there with a 43-35 record. record. He was fired from Arizona State in 2018 after an internal investigation admitted to an affair but denied allegations of sexual harassment and creating a hostile work environment by an administrative assistant. A lawsuit filed by the administrative assistant based on these allegations was dismissed in September 2019.
Rodriguez bounced around between offensive coordinator and off-field analyst jobs before being hired by Jacksonville State. His overall record is 190-129-2, and he is 6-6 in bowl games he has coached.