After a lackluster regular season, the West Virginia Mountaineers’ offseason has been turbulent and controversial. The easy part was the school’s decision to fire Head Coach Neal Brown. The hard part came next. Who would the Mountaineers find to replace Brown and turn the program around? Make no mistake, by the way. Wren Baker faced a program-defining decision. Baker’s task was not just to bring in a new coach to help the Mountaineers find success in the revamped Big 12. After six straight seasons outside of the AP rankings, the Mountaineers find themselves well outside of the national conversation about college football. The program needed a big injection in the worst way. By now, we know that Baker brought Head Coach Rich Rodriguez back to coach WVU. Now, we take on the task of explaining the Mountaineers’ Rodriguez hire.
Explaining the Mountaineers’ Rodriguez Hire
Going Back to Don Nehlen
To understand the decision, we first need to look back to the beginning of West Virginia’s modern era of football. Specifically, we look at Don Nehlen‘s tenure, as many West Virginia fans and college football historians credit Nehlen as putting West Virginia “on the map.” His first season coincided with a few other big milestones. First, West Virginia played its first game in its current Milan Puskar Stadium. Second, John Denver christened the stadium with an in-person performance of “Take Me Home, Country Roads.” Third, WVU unveiled its trademark Flying WV logo at that first game during the Nehlen era. Thus, in front of over 50,000 Mountaineer faithful, Nehlen led his Mountaineers to a win over Cincinnati in its new stadium, with its new logo, and tying John Denver’s hit song to the program forever.
Prior to Nehlen’s tenure, the Mountaineers appeared in the AP poll in 11 different seasons (finishing there in just five seasons). Nehlen’s Mountaineers finished ranked in just his second season, and they found their way into the AP poll in 14 of Nehlen’s 21 years in Morgantown. They finished the season ranked six times in that same stretch. The Mountaineers, during that time, won over 61% of their games, and Nehlen accounts for 149 total wins (the most for a single coach in program history). In his final two seasons, however, West Virginia went 11-12, and Nehlen decided to retire. The Mountaineers poached Rodriguez after successful stints as the offensive coordinator at Tulane and Clemson under Tommy Bowden.
Rodriguez’s First Tenure and Its Bitter End
It took the Mountaineers two seasons to adjust to Rodriguez’s fiery coaching style and innovative offense. After struggling to a 3-8 record his first year, the Mountaineers won nine games his second season and had their first AP ranking after three seasons without one. From there, simply, the Mountaineers never looked back. They won eight games each of the next two seasons. Then, in the final three seasons under Rodriguez, they won 11. This marked the first time in program history that the Mountaineers had successive seasons with double-digit wins. And while Nehlen may have put the Mountaineers on the map, the high-flying offense led by Pat White and Steve Slaton dominated national headlines for three straight years.
Things turned sour, however, at the end of Rodriguez’s final season. They entered the final game of the regular season at 10-1 and ranked second in the country facing a 4-7 Pitt team at home. A win would clinch the Mountaineers’ spot in the BCS National Championship Game. Fans blame Rodriguez for the 13-9 loss that sent the Mountaineers into the Fiesta Bowl and erased their best chance for a national championship since the Major Harris era. Rodriguez announced his departure for Michigan soon after and left Bill Stewart to coach the Mountaineers in the bowl game (and in the next three seasons). To say this left fans upset represents a massive understatement. Some still have not recovered from the feelings of disappointment, betrayal, and hatred. In fact, this separation–in particular, the way Rodriguez went about it and some of the ensuing litigation over his buyout–is precisely what makes Baker’s decision so controversial.
Rodriguez’ Penance
In some ways, Rodriguez faced his penance shortly into his tenure at Michigan. In his first season, the Wolverines finished 3-9 for their worst season since 1962. The season itself offered no surprises, though, as Rodriguez was brought in to overhaul the Wolverines’ offensive identity. When they won just five games and then seven in the next two seasons, though, the Michigan faithful lost patience and sent Rodriguez packing. Arguably, they did so one season too early. Regardless, he was out and sent to the desert to coach the Wildcats after spending a season without a coaching gig.
On the surface, Rodriguez fared poorly in Tucson, too. He won just 55% of his games in his six seasons at Arizona. Weighed against Arizona’s football history, however, the tenure was not as bad as it seemed. After all, he is the third-winningest coach in Arizona’s history. He also brought the Wildcats to the ten-win mark in 2014, which was only the third time in program history that had happened. It has been done only once since. Allegations concerning Rodriguez’ having an extramarital affair (and a related lawsuit) led Arizona to dismiss him.
After that dismissal, Rodriguez spent four seasons trying to climb back into the driver’s seat, and he landed at Jacksonville State as its head coach in 2022. The Gamecocks moved up to the FBS ranks ahead of the 2023 season, and they won 9 games in each of their first two seasons in Conference USA. Still, plenty doubt his credentials as a head coach in the current era of college football. Certainly, we can add those Mountaineer fans who still have not forgiven Rodriguez for his first departure to his doubters.
Mountaineers During Brown’s Tenure
To help explain the hire, we also have to look back at the Mountaineers’ performance under Brown. Since 2019, only three teams have not been ranked in a single AP poll: Rutgers, Texas Tech, and West Virginia. Indeed, this also represents the longest such dry spell in program history since the period ending in 1968.
Around the college football world, several things have changed since Brown took the helm. Conferences realigned (again), NIL became a thing, the transfer portal exploded, and revenue sharing gained court approval. While some fans will never accept these concepts, there are also plenty who, while on the fence about it, would support those efforts to see a winning program. Brown’s lack of results helped keep some of that group on the sideline.
For Brown’s part, he was (and is) a likable coach and person. West Virginia’s administration certainly wanted him to succeed, and they gave him plenty of opportunities to do so. Brown even had moments where it looked like success was on the way. Indeed, in our preseason previews, we believed Brown had a chance to replicate his 2023 success against a more difficult schedule. One thing remained, however: as much as Brown gave lip service to understanding the blue-collar, underdog mentality of West Virginia football, that identity never really took shape in a team effort on the field. The program, under Brown, lacked identity or maybe took on the businesslike, vanilla identity of its head man. That personality has uses, to be sure, but Mountaineer fans needed more from their team and its head coach.
Explaining the Hire
In his comments during the ceremony to welcome Rodriguez back to West Virginia, Baker told the fans and media that he interviewed over 15 candidates for the head coaching position. Some rumored (and some confirmed) candidates for the job included Jimbo Fisher, Andy Kotelnicki, Ryan Silverfield, Jeff Monken, and Brian Hartline. Some names dropped out early; others remained until the end.
Three Factors
Three factors seemed to play into Baker’s thought process. Baker offered thoughts on a podcast that aired prior to Brown’s firing. He said that an athletic director had to understand and align as many resources as possible to put a head coach in the best position to succeed. With revenue sharing to begin next season, that certainly means bringing more money from boosters into the fray. Indeed, several such donors expressed excitement over a potential reunion with Rodriguez. While that does not seem to have been an express factor (and some boosters even disclaimed having any such input in the process), it would be naive to think that played no role.
Baker knows that West Virginia offers some unique challenges to coaches looking to win. Indeed, in his remarks at Rodriguez’s introductory press conference, Baker said as much. “Not only has [Rodriguez] won at a high level, but he won here. And West Virginia is a fit job and not just everybody can come here and win. We wanted somebody that we knew could come and win here.” Rodriguez fits that bill.
Baker also realized that a coach needed to have more fire that matches the energy of the fan base. Baker’s remarks included the following: “[Rodriguez] is an innovator and has been known for his creativity and adaptability of his schemes over the years.” Baker added that everyone he spoke to about Rodriguez “spoke highly of his competitiveness and his desire to bring out the best in everyone in his program.” Indeed, Rodriguez’ “relentless desire to chase perfection” was described by Baker as the “key ingredient to him winning games and building championship programs.”
What Might the Future Hold?
The possibilities for the future success of West Virginia help us in explaining the Mountaineers’ hire of Rodriguez. The Big 12 lost its two blue blood programs before this season. That leads some to compare WVU’s current situation to the situation it faced in the Big East. The conference appears more wide open than in past years. The expanded playoff opens a route for national attention. Rodriguez has been there before, and he almost reached the pinnacle with the Mountaineers.
Rodriguez confesses regrets for the way he left Morgantown in the early 2000s. In many ways, he has paid a steep professional price for that transgression. Now, he returns with unfinished business. He brings fire and passion back to the highest level of West Virginia football. Whether this will translate to wins and conference championships remains to be seen. That said, that Rodriguez has been here before and has taken the team there before must have helped sway Baker’s decision-making process. Even more, for the controversy that exists around the decision, engagement by fans on social media suggests that as many as three-quarters of West Virginia fans support the decision. For better or worse, the remaining quarter are not exactly ambivalent. Many of them hate the hire, and even winning years may not win some of them over.
That said, at a time when West Virginia needs to regain national attention to ensure its place in whatever version of college football will exist five years from now, Rodriguez may just have been the perfect person for this job.
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