West Virginia quarterbacks coach Rhett Rodriguez follows in the footsteps of his father, Mountaineer football coach Rich Rodriguez. (Photo: Derek Redd)
Morgantown – WVU football and Coach Rich Rodriguez’s philosophy are modest to say it is ingrained in his son, Lett.
There is a photo of Rett Rodriguez as a young child, sitting on the lap of former WVU quarterback Rashid Marshall, when Marshall led the climber. When Rhett Rodriguez plays quarterback in high school, he proposes strategies to his coaches from his father’s playbook.
“I’m probably saying, ‘You know, we’ll do this play, can we put it in?” Rhett Rodriguez remembered with a smile. “He was like, ‘Let, you’re finally there.’ ”
What he has, he is now his father’s quarterback coach at WVU. And if both father and son are looking for a coach, if you’re the best of your message of how wealthy Rodriguez’s offense is run, who is a better messenger than those who grew up with it?
“Every place we went, around our football program.” said Rhett Rodriguez. “So you know what he’s looking for and you can read between the lines of the message he’s trying to share.”
Rhett Rodriguez ended up coaching, but that wasn’t where he graduated from college. He began his professional life in the financial sector at Northern Trust in Tempe, Arizona. So he developed exchange strategies and financial transactions.
Even if he succeeded in the financial world, his father thrusts him in and asks if that was what he really wanted to do or if he wanted to coach. Rhett Rodriguez worked on a hybrid schedule and still flew to Jacksonville State, where his father was the last head coach he observed.
Finally, the father managed to get his son to admit that while he was having fun in the world of finance, he didn’t enjoy as much as his coach.
“Well, I said, I don’t know how long I’ll be on this.” Rich Rodriguez said. “But you have one advantage. There are a few connections. There are better connections than I started.”
Rhett Rodriguez spent last season as an offensive analyst at Jacksonville State, and Rich Rodriguez hired him as a quarterback coach when he returned to Morgantown. His coaching resume is short, but he has experience as a Soccer Bowl parcel quarterback at two schools, Arizona and Louisiana Monroe.
What Rhett Rodriguez found was that his experience in the business world prepared him for many aspects of college football. A new perspective on names, images and portraits is strengthening the business side of sports, and the young Rodriguez has a good experience there.
It also helped me recruit. Rhett Rodriguez said that part of his work at Northern Trust is a cold call financial advisor to convince him to use his company’s products. After that experience, he said, “It’s not that difficult to plead with football recruits.
“It helped me translate to calling an 18-year-old recruit into a much easier place than someone who was a financial advisor who filed a lawsuit for 30 years.” He said.
Rich Rodriguez said there are several advantages to having a son as the quarterback coach and most importantly his attitude. Elder Rodriguez jokes that during spring practice, Rhett Rodriguez would be better off being a coach talking to the quarterback in the game with QB’s earphones. Rich Rodriguez may take too long to yell about the mistake. Rhett Rodriguez is calm to ensure that the correct play is called.
“My dad has to look at it globally.” said Rhett Rodriguez. “He’s not just looking at the quarterback, he’s also looking at the offensive line and defense, he’s purely focused on preparing the quarterback.
“I think that calmness will also help the quarterback and my dad can focus on calling the plays. I can tell that to the quarterback.” He said.
Rich Rodriguez said how he couldn’t be proud of his son and grew up quickly as a coach. And I feel that Rhett Rodriguez is only getting better.
“People say, well, you’re biased because he’s your son.” Rich Rodriguez said. “You’re damn, but if there’s someone who knows the system better than anyone else, I think it’s him. I don’t know if he knows better than me, but he’s with it.”
