West Virginia targeting Rich Rodriguez as head coach

The West Virginia Mountaineers are zeroing in on a familiar face as their new head football coach. Rich Rodriguez is the target to be the next head coach in Morgantown, On3’s Pete Nakos confirmed.

This will be Rich Rodriguez’s second stint with West Virginia. He previously coached the team from 2001-2007. At the time, West Virginia was in the Big East and it turned into one of the most successful stretches in program history as the Mountaineers took college football by storm with their spread option offense.

In 2008, Rich Rodriguez would move on to Michigan where he struggled to have the same success that he did at West Virginia. Later, he would also become the head coach at Arizona, an assistant at several schools including Ole Miss, and in 2022 he once again became a head coach at Jacksonville State.

BREAKING: West Virginia is expected to hire Jacksonville State's Rich Rodriguez as its next head coach, @PeteNakos_ reports⛰️

Rodriguez returns after serving as the Mountaineers HC from 2001–2007. https://t.co/l3FhcHvoGv pic.twitter.com/CK20nWxymP

— On3 (@On3sports) December 11, 2024

With Jacksonville State, Rich Rodriguez has helped the program transition from FCS to FBS, and this season he led the Gamecocks to a C-USA conference title. He’s won nine games in all three of his seasons there.

Even with that recent success at Jacksonville State, Rich Rodriguez is still often best remembered for his first tenure at West Virginia. After inheriting a team from Don Nehlen, another legendary West Virginia coach in his own right, Rodriguez began to build the program in his own image, and by his second season there he would have an AP Top 25 finish.

In the end, West Virginia had four AP Top 25 finishes in Rich Rodriguez’s seven seasons there. He also won the Big East four times and took the Mountaineers to six straight bowl games. That included a Sugar Bowl and a Fiesta Bowl, though he left for Michigan before coaching in that Fiesta Bowl. When it was all said and done, the Mountaineers went 60-26 overall and 34-14 in Big East play during Rodriguez’s first tenure with the school.

Prior to his time at West Virginia, Rich Rodriguez had been an NAIA coach with the Glenville State Pioneers. He also led the Salem Tigers for one season. He would leave the NAIA ranks to become the offensive coordinator at Tulane and later Clemson under Tommy Bowden. That included leading the Green Wave to an unbeaten season in 1998.

Despite that, Rich Rodriguez himself was a defensive player during his playing career with West Virginia. He would then be a defensive assistant coach until his time at Glenville State. However, while in the NAIA ranks he developed his spread option approach that made him known as a great offensive mind.

Since Rich Rodriguez left, West Virginia has been led by Bill Stewart, Dana Holgorsen, and Neal Brown. The most recent of those coaches, Brown, went 37-35 in six seasons with the Mountaineers.