MORGANTOWN — Since Rich Rodriguez last coached at West Virginia 17 years ago, the setting has become more luxurious as the Mountaineers have played the money game to try and keep abreast of its Big 12 rivals. But there is one luxury that Rodriguez doesn’t have as he lays claim to the program he ruled from 2001 through 2007 and that luxury is time. He takes over a talented team, although one can not quite etch that in stone until the transfer portal runs its course in this modern day game of football where school colors matter far less than green — the color of money.
When he arrived, to take the baton from Hall of Fame coach Don Nehlen, he was given time. Never a patient man, Rodriguez opted to choose the term “Spot the Ball” rather than “Trust the Climb,” as did Neal Brown as he wasn’t left much in the way of talent by Dana Holgorsen. And in his second year he and everyone else was stymied by COVID.
Rodriguez, like Brown, struggled early. His first team won just three games while losing eight and the only major college team he beat was a dreadful edition of Rutgers. It was not a Big Ten team then, not really a Big East team, and on that day Rodriguez told the world that once he got it together he would be a load to handle beating the Scarlet-faced Knights, 80-7.
The seven years brought fun and excitement to WVU, every bit as much as it was when Nehlen had his best teams. Rich Rod’s reputation had been as the inventor of the no huddle spread read option offe.
