NMHS

Rich Rodriguez, North Marion Alumnus
Head Coach West Virginia University

A native of Grant Town, W.Va., in Marion County, Rodriguez is a 1981 graduate of North Marion High School, where he was a four-sport letterman and an all-state honoree in football and basketball, leading Coach Roy Michael’s Huskies to the 1980 Class AAA state football championship.

Innovative, high-energy and enthusiastic, West Virginia graduate Rich Rodriguez is living his "dream come true" and Mountaineer football couldn’t be in better hands.

Now starting his fourth season on the job as WVU’s 31st head football coach, Rodriguez continues to craft a program around his creative football tactics, a demand for discipline and concentration on playing the next play. Poised to be the prominent program of the new BIG EAST alignment, Rodriguez and his Mountaineers are the defending league champions. And with the steady if not startling improvement shown each year thus far during the Rodriguez era, that’s likely just the tip of the iceberg.

It’s been an ultra-successful start for Coach Rod, who is under contract at his alma mater through the 2009 season.

In 2002, just his second season, Rodriguez engineered the best turnaround in BIG EAST history, as the Mountaineers worked together for a 9-4 record, a BIG EAST runner-up finish, back-to-back road wins over ranked teams at Virginia Tech and Pitt and a Continental Tire Bowl berth.

Propelled by BIG EAST career rushing leader Avon Cobourne, West Virginia finished second in the nation in rushing at 283 yards per game, and the Mountaineers, with a stable offense and an aggressive defense, were fourth nationally in turnover margin. That led to a six-game improvement in the win column, one of the three best in the nation that year.

The next year, faced with replacing 22 seniors (11 of them starters), the school’s career rushing leader and the majority of the offensive and defensive lines, repeating that success seemed unlikely, especially after the young WVU squad started the campaign 1-4. Entering the BIG EAST portion of the schedule, however, Rodriguez convinced his team of the opportunity ahead of it, and the rest proved one of the great chapters in West Virginia football history.

After losing a remarkable game 22-20 at No. 2 Miami in the final two minutes, West Virginia won seven straight games from that point, posting a 6-1 conference record and tying Miami for the BIG EAST championship.

Led by All-America linebacker Grant Wiley and all-BIG EAST performers Quincy Wilson and Brian King, the Mountaineers handily defeated No. 3 Virginia Tech 28-7 in a Thursday night game at Mountaineer Field, then whipped No. 16 Pitt 52-31 in another night game in Morgantown three weeks later. Ranked third nationally in turnover margin, and in the top 15 in punt returns and rushing offense, WVU posted wins at Boston College and Syracuse, earning a national ranking as high as 20th and landing a New Year’s Day berth in Jacksonville’s Toyota Gator Bowl versus Maryland.

The happenings of the past two seasons have set the entire state buzzing with excitement, which was one of Rodriguez’ objectives when he returned to his alma mater: keeping Mountaineer football as a point of pride for everyone who comes in contact with the program. The Mountaineers have been his team since he was a boy in Grant Town, just a half-hour away from the WVU campus.

To Rich Rodriguez, football first meant Mountaineer football, and no one could be happier to keep the program of his roots on a track to national prominence.

Hired on Nov. 26, 2000, Rodriguez came to WVU from Clemson, where he served two seasons under Tommy Bowden as offensive coordinator and associate head coach.

Clemson established 51 school records during the 2000 season, after setting 38 school records in 1999, including 26 on offense. Only one of the 38 records set in 1999 was broken in 2000 (single game rushing yards by a quarterback). In other words, during Rich Rodriguez’ two years at Clemson, the Tigers set 69 school records on the offensive side of the football.

The 1999 offense averaged 403 yards per game, just the third team in Clemson history to pass that mark. In 2000, the Tigers upped that total to an amazing 436.8 yards per game, with 416 total points scored and eight 400-yard total offense games. Clemson ranked among the NCAA top 15 in four different team categories; the Tigers earned berths in the Peach and Gator Bowls during Rodriguez’ tenure.

In 1997-98, Rodriguez was offensive coordinator and quarterback coach under Bowden at Tulane, where the Green Wave was 19-4 over two seasons, including a 12-0 undefeated 1998 campaign, when Tulane won the Conference USA championship and beat BYU in the Liberty Bowl.

Rodriguez and his innovative offense rewrote the Tulane record books, setting 26 school records in 1997 alone. In 1998, Tulane was the only team in America to average more than 300 yards passing and 200 yards rushing per game. The Top 10 ranked Green Wave was second nationally in scoring at 45.4 points per game, and scored 40 or more points in seven contests that year. Quarterback Shaun King, now with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, set an NCAA passing efficiency record with a mark of 183.3, throwing 36 touchdowns and only six interceptions.

But the Rodriguez roots are deepest in the Mountain State, where his career record in 11 seasons as a college head coach is 65-53-2.

Rodriguez was a three-time letterman at defensive back for the Mountaineers from 1982-84, playing in the Gator, Hall of Fame and Bluebonnet Bowls. He came to WVU as a walk-on, earned a scholarship from Coach Don Nehlen and recorded 54 career tackles and three interceptions, including a team-season-long 43-yard pick against Pacific in 1983 and a 14-yard interception in 1984's 17-14 win over Penn State, WVU’s first defeat of the Nittany Lions in 29 years.

After serving two seasons as a student assistant coach and graduating from WVU in 1986 with a degree in physical education and safety, he began his coaching career at Salem College (now Salem International University) as secondary coach and special teams coordinator. In 1987, he served as assistant head coach and defensive coordinator at the school while completing a master’s degree in physical education.

In 1988, he was promoted to head coach of the Salem Tigers, becoming the youngest college head coach in America at the age of 24. He was 2-8 during a trying season after an announcement that Salem would drop football at the end of the year.

Returning to WVU as a volunteer assistant coach in 1989, he worked with the outside linebackers that season, as the Mountaineers went 8-3-1 and earned a spot in the Gator Bowl.

From 1990-96, Rodriguez turned around the football fortunes at Glenville State College, where as head coach he earned four consecutive WVIAC conference championships from 1993-96, Glenville’s first league titles since 1959.

The Glenville offense led the WVIAC in total offense and scoring in six of Rodriguez’ seven years. His teams led the nation in both categories in 1993 (504.3 ypg) and 1994 (480.2 ypg).

The Pioneers were twice a participant in the national playoffs, advancing to the 1993 NAIA national championship game.

Rodriguez’ record at Glenville was 43-28-2 in seven seasons. He was named WVIAC coach of the year in 1993 and 1994 and NAIA national coach of the year in 1993; his players set five national career records for Division II. He coached three players who earned WVIAC Player of the Year honors: Jed Drenning (1992-93), Chris George (1994) and Scott Otis (1995).

Rodriguez, who received the state College Coach of the Year award for all sports from the West Virginia Sports Writers Association in 1993 (an honored he repeated in 2003 at WVU) also served as Glenville’s athletic director in 1995 and 1996. He was inducted into the Glenville sports hall of fame in October, 2003.

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