Rich Rodriguez's return as coach at West Virginia is a homecoming, too

San Francisco Chronicle​

4 days ago

FRISCO, Texas (AP) — Rich Rodriguez has more gray around the temples than the last time he was at West Virginia, nearly 20 years ago when he bolted for Michigan as one of the hottest coaching prospects in college football.
Two more head coaching stops and plenty of losses later, Rodriguez is more than just back at West Virginia. He's home again, in the state where he was born and raised, for a second tour at his alma mater.
'I know where the bodies are buried and the traps are laid and kind of understand the environment,' Rodriguez said Wednesday during Big 12 media days at the headquarters of the Dallas Cowboys in the northern suburb of Frisco. 'But then again, times have changed.'
Rodriguez speaks of a different conference — it was the Big East back then — and the rapidly changing landscape of college athletics, along with the money West Virginia has spent on facilities that wowed the 61-year-old when he got a good look at the campus for the first time in 17 years.
Times have certainly changed for a coach who was the youngest in the country as a 24-year-old at Salem in 1988, and two years later took over at tiny Glenville State not far from a hometown that is just 20 miles from the WVU campus in Morgantown.
There was the humbling experience starting in 2008 at Michigan, where Rodriguez was fired with a 15-22 record after a three-year stint that began with the first back-to-back losing seasons for the Wolverines in 46 years.
Next was a six-year stay at Arizona that ended with a winning record but under the cloud of an investigation over claims of sexual harassment and a hostile work environment.
Rodriguez took a five-year break from head coaching before joining Jacksonville State, where the nine wins in each of his three seasons led to a reunion with the Mountaineers.
'I'm a smarter and better coach than I was a week ago, let alone 20 years ago,' Rodriguez said. 'I feel like 20 years ago, we had some success and that maybe helped me get some respect in getting this job. But I think if I didn't win at Jax State the past three years, I wouldn't have had this opportunity. I think we're better than we were back then.'
Rodriguez led West Virginia during easily the best three-year stretch in school history. After consecutive 11-2 seasons, the Mountaineers had a chance to qualify for the national championship game in 2007 but lost the regular-season finale at rival Pittsburgh, which was a heavy underdog.
That stunner sparked an acrimonious departure, with fans blaming Rodriguez's decision on the loss to the Panthers and the coach countering that his relationship with athletic director Ed Pastilong was in shambles while the school was refusing to pay assistant coaches what Rodriguez thought they deserved.
West Virginia went after Rodriguez to try to recoup the buyout in his contract. A settlement led to Michigan paying $2.5 million and Rodriguez the remaining $1.5 million.
'There's been a couple of times and somebody's said something here or there and all that,' Rodriguez said. 'And I understand that. It might be better off. If they didn't have hard feelings, maybe they didn't miss you.'
Receiver Jaden Bray, going into his second season at West Virginia following two years at Oklahoma State, said he hasn't seen any hard feelings. He has an internship that requires him to work plenty of sporting events, and it's worth noting that the Mountaineers haven't had consecutive winning seasons since 2018.
'When I would be at those events, I'd have fans coming up to me, 'Are you ready for Rich Rod? Is Rich Rod back?'' Bray said. 'They were telling me all these stories about when he was here, how fun the town was.'