Rich Rodriguez appears to be on the verge of returning to West Virginia, CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd confirms. Rodriguez, who has been at Jacksonville State for the past three seasons, coached the Mountaineers from 2001-07, winning four Big East titles in the process.
During that span, he amassed a 60-26 record with a 34-14 mark in conference play and was known for an innovative, high-scoring spread-option offense. Under his guidance, the Mountaineers twice reached New Year’s Six bowls and came close to a BCS National Championship Game appearance in 2005.
Now, 17 years later, it looks like Rodriguez will be back on the sidelines in Morgantown.
Should the hire come to fruition, Rodriguez will replace Neal Brown, who was fired after a six-year stint leading the program. Brown went 37-35 overall and just 25-28 in conference play as WVU struggled to compete for a league title as a member of the Big 12.
Rodriguez, now 61, has bounced around since his time in Morgantown. He left West Virginia for Michigan, but lasted only three seasons in Ann Arbor. He was fired after going 15-22 with a miserable 6-18 record in Big Ten play.
From there, Rodriguez coached Arizona for six seasons. He had a 43-35 record, including a 10-win 2014 campaign, but he was fired after the 2017 season amid an off-field controversy.
He later served stints as an assistant at Ole Miss and UL Monroe before accepting the head-coaching job at Jacksonville State. He oversaw the program’s transition from the FCS to FBS level and capped that off by winning the Conference USA title last week. The Gamecocks went 9-2 in their final year of FCS ball and are a combined 18-8 (13-3) in two seasons as an FBS program.
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