Leaning back in the rolling chair in his makeshift office, three-time letterman at defensive back for the Mountaineers Rich Rodriguez explained what’s been going on in his life the past four months and what is going to happen in coming months.
On Nov. 26, 2000, Rodriguez, who played for West Virginia from 1982-84, replaced retiring head football coach Don Nehlen as the leader of the Mountaineer football program.
“It was a very exciting time for me,” Rodriguez said. “For a couple years I didn’t know for sure where I was going to wind up. I had a lot of opportunities, things of that nature. In this profession, rarely do you have the chance to come back home and coach at the school in which you played. I was excited about the opportunity and I’m still excited about it.”
Even though the Grant Town, W.Va., native said he has been too busy to really reflect, Rodriguez — with getting settled, recruiting and spring ball— knows it will sink in one day.
Rodriguez is working out of what used to be Donnie Young’s office and will soon be the recruiting office while his working space gets a make over.
“Ike Morris, who’s from Glenville and has been a friend of mine for about 10 years, is redoing my office for me. He is a supporter of the University and he’s always looked after me. He wants people to have a good first impression when they come to visit so he is redoing my office,” Rodriguez said.
When Morris is finished, Rodriguez is turning the office into the recruiting center. He said it can be the central area where the coaches from the offense and defense wings of the facility can gather and watch the prospects on tape. After West Virginia took the win at the Music City Bowl, it was Rodriguez’s turn to take the helm.
“The bowl win was good, it gave the guys confidence that they can play at a high level when they put their mind to it,” Rodriguez said. He also said on the flip side, it’s a completely different system now. “So no matter what they did in the past they still have to reprove themselves all over again, they have to learn new schemes and things of that nature. The attitude of the players has been excellent since we came here. That was a thing that you never know for sure what their mind set is going to be and how they’re going to respond to a new coaching staff. So far, I’m really proud the way they’ve jumped on board,” Rodriguez said.
With the conclusion of the spring season and being busy with recruiting and planning for the football camp, some may wonder when Rodriguez and his staff get an offseason.
“When I retire,” he joked, “that will be offseason.” He said after the football camp is over around the end of June until the middle of July is the time coaches have for vacation and to relax. “For me it will be time to gather my thoughts and get my plan together for the upcoming season,” Rodriguez said.
When asked if everything was on track for his first season, he said he believed so. “If I would have said four months ago, and scripted out how I wanted it to go, it fell pretty much according to script. Players in the offseason working hard, players committing to their academics and trying to do the right things on and off the field. I really believe for the most part they’ve done that. We’ve tried to run a pretty tight ship from  the first of January. I think they’re buying into what we’re trying to tell them to do,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez came to West Virginia from Clemson where he was offensive coordinator for two seasons under head coach Tommy Bowden. His offense set 26 school records in 1999 and the Tigers set 20 more during the past season. In the 1998-97 seasons Rodriguez was at Tulane with coach Bowden where their team was 19-4, including a 12-0 undefeated 1998 campaign where the Green Wave won the Conference USA championship and beat BYU in the Liberty Bowl.
“They (Clemson) have a fortunate thing, they have a lot of grass for practice area. They have about five fields, we don’t have the green space to do that here.”
Prior to Tulane, the 1981 North Marion High School graduate retained his experience in the WVIAC. He coached at Glenville State from 1990-96 and worked at Salem College, now Salem International University before that.
With the Big East conference going 4-1 in bowl games for the 2000 season, Rodriguez said that the conference is going to be one of the best in the nation again this year. “That presents a challenge and for us a lot of those games against the top teams are on the road,” Rodriguez said.
He said he is anxious and trying to stress to the team that they have great home field advantage, it shouldn’t matter to them whether they are home, on the road or a neutral site, they have to be ready with every snap. “I think our guys are starting to catch that. I won’t know for sure; there are so many questions for me. I haven’t had this group of guys and this team in this system at any game yet. So the BC (Boston College) game is going to answer a lot of questions. I’m as curious as anybody else to see how we’re going to play.”
As far as non-conference opponents, Rodriguez has thought about different competition.
“We’ve talked about the scheduling. Obviously we’ve got to have six home games, sometimes seven. We need to do that, not just for financial reasons, but because our fans want to see us play. We also want to play one big conference school as well, we have Wisconsin coming up. In the future there are schools that I know from the ACC or friends of mine in the Big Ten that we could get on our schedule,” Rodriguez said.
What’s it going to be like for Rich Rodriguez at his first home game at Mountaineer Field since he suited up for Nehlen in the early ’80s?
“It’s going to be exciting. I’m sure I’ll take a peek up in the stands. I doubt that I’ll notice it much until the end of the game.”
One thing that Rodriguez is proud of and believes he has on the advantage compared to other head coaches is he is an alumni of West Virginia.
“A lot of coaches in the profession can talk and tell players about their school having good teachers and good education systems, if they didn’t go to school there, they are just speaking from someone else’s experience. I can speak from my own experience, Rita and I are both WVU graduates. Some of the same professors are here as when we were here. I can talk to them about the environment and I can speak from the heart and say you are going to get a great education and there are people here that care for you. It’s a great community to live in and they know I’m speaking from experience. I think that’s what really helps you,” Rodriguez said.
“If you look at most successful coaches in college today a lot of them are coaching at places where they played. Steve Spurrier at Florida, Phillip Fulmer at Tennessee and Frank Beamer at Virginia Tech. They all speak from experience; I’m hoping if I can last and have as much success as those guys, I’ll be OK.”