Rich Rodriguez’s West Virginia Coaching Story Continues – West Virginia University Athletics

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – There is now a place in Rich Rodriguez’s West Virginia coaching story for an epilogue.
 
Seventeen years after his departure, the Grant Town native is returning to the place where he made a name for himself nationally as one of college football’s most innovative minds nearly two decades ago. The official announcement was made earlier today.
 
It is, perhaps, the most stunning story in West Virginia University sports history!
 
“Get ready for some good times,” former Mountaineer assistant coach Bill Kirelawich said earlier today from his winter home in Bradenton, Florida. Kirelawich worked with Rodriguez at West Virginia and also at Arizona. “In my mind, we couldn’t have gotten a better coach than Rich. The last time I looked, the whole idea in the game is to win, and if you want a guy that’s going to win, there is nobody better than Rich.”
 
Many in Mountaineer Nation were upset when Rodriguez left, some were unhappy with the way he left, but everyone today is eager to see him rebuild West Virginia football into the national brand that it was when he departed in 2007.
 
The Mountaineers, that year, were on the doorstep of a national championship, capping a three-year run that included an 11-win season and a victory over Georgia in the 2006 Nokia Sugar Bowl, a 10-win campaign and a Gator Bowl triumph over Georgia Tech the following year, and then a 10-win regular season that saw West Virginia reach No. 1 in the coaches’ poll for the first time in school history and fall one game short of reaching the BCS national championship game.
 
Upon taking the Michigan job, the team Rodriguez left interim coach Bill Stewart here was good enough to rout third-ranked Oklahoma 48-28 in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.
 
That completed a three-year run that saw West Virginia finish fifth, 10^th and sixth in the postseason Associated Press Top 25 polls.
 
You must go back to the Clarence Spears years in the early 1920s when his WVU teams went 25-2-2 over a three-year period to find anything comparable.
 
When Spears left for Minnesota in 1925, Ira Errett Rodgers replaced him, and each time West Virginia made a coaching change up until World War II, Spears was the coach alums and boosters really wanted back.
 
That was the case in 1931 when Earle “Greasy” Neale took over.
 
That was the case three years later when Charles “Trusty” Tallman got the job. 
 
That was the case when Marshall “Little Sleepy” Glenn became the coach in 1937, and then in 1940, when Carnegie Tech’s Bill Kern was hired, some alums still wanted Spears to be the guy 15 years after he left.
 
Today, it’s finally happening!
 
Rodriguez played for legendary WVU coach Don Nehlen from 1981-84 before establishing a reputation as an up-and-coming coach on the small college level at Glenville State.
 
That led to him earning a spot on Tommy Bowden’s Tulane staff as offensive coordinator, and then to Clemson, which put him in position to land the West Virginia job in December of 2000, replacing Nehlen.
 
Rodriguez is widely known for his cutting-edge offenses, impressive speed and explosive playmakers, but what has frequently been underappreciated is the toughness that his teams have always demonstrated.
 
He came up with catchy slogans such as “spot the ball,” “hold the rope” and “play like your hair is on fire,” but the one that has stuck throughout his coaching career is “hard edge.” 
 
It’s the hashtag that he continues to use on X.
 
“The hard edge has been his whole thing, and that’s what these kids are going to find out,” Kirelawich predicted. “What I’ve been watching for the last six to 10 years, I don’t see a lot of kids playing with a hard edge. It’s not there, but you’ll see it now.”
 
It was toughness at the outset of Rodriguez’s WVU tenure that led to some early upset victories over nationally ranked Virginia Tech and Pitt, and helped bridge the gap until he could recruit more talented players to Morgantown. 
 
Kirelawich said Rodriguez’s formula for success is simple – he’s demanding. He believes toughness, preparation and fundamentals are what is going to bring Mountaineer football back, and get disinterested fans back into the stands.
 
“Coaches know how to win, but some can’t transfer the importance of winning to the kids,” Kirlav explained. “He’s got a way of doing that. He can make the kids understand how important winning is, just like he makes the coaches understand how important winning is.
 
“And to win, they are going to do it his way,” he continued. “They are going to be fundamentally sound, and they are going to run to the ball. They are going to do all the little things that don’t come out in the newspapers.”

By the mid-2000s, Rodriguez’s West Virginia teams boasted some of the biggest names in school history, from quarterback Pat White to consensus All-American running back Steve Slaton to Rimington Award winner Dan Mozes to eventual All-Pro cornerback Adam “Pacman” Jones.

 

Pat McAfee also played here for Rodriguez and today is one of the most influential personalities in college football. The former Indianapolis Colts punter has been a frequent promoter of his alma mater on his wildly popular “Pat McAfee Show” that airs daily on ESPN, ESPN+, YouTube and DAZN.

 

McAfee is planning to do his show from Morgantown on Friday afternoon to help welcome his old coach home.

 

Many of his former players on social media are voicing their approval of his return, and donations to the Country Roads Trust have already picked up significantly.

 

This immediate jolt of electricity and excitement is what Rodriguez brought here back in 2000, and it is once again sorely needed today.

 

It’s not unusual for coaches to have non-consecutive tenures. General Robert Neyland did it at Tennessee. Bill Snyder did it at Kansas State. John Robinson did it at USC. Barry Alvarez did it at Wisconsin. Mack Brown did it at North Carolina and Scott Frost is doing it this year at UCF.

 

It will also be the fourth time it’s happened at West Virginia. Louis Yeager coached in 1899 and then in 1902, and then Ira Rodgers was asked to return to the field and keep Bill Kern’s whistle warm while Kern served in the Navy during World War II.

 

Kern’s tenure resumed after a three-year hiatus in 1946.

 

Those sequels were unremarkable, but Kirelawich doesn’t see that happening this time around with Rodriguez.

 

“Rich lives for what goes on the field,” he said. “There are a ton of hard-working coaches out there, but there is nobody as preoccupied with winning and getting the job done as Rich will be. I promise you that.

 

“He’s not afraid to try something new, and he’s not afraid of trying something out of the ordinary,” Kirelawich added. “We’ve got a guy who knows West Virginia – somebody who can do it and has done it. How often do you have the luxury of that? He’s already taken you where you want to go, and he can do it again.”

 

And so, Rich Rodriguez’s West Virginia coaching story continues.