Rodriguez Bolts For Michigan…

This is nothing more than a collection of thoughts about Rich Rodriguez’s decision to leave Morgantown for Ann Arbor.

-Got an email from my friend Rachel this morning, usually a mild-mannered person. Here it is, in its entirety:

Subject: Rich Rodriguez is a total fucking asshole! Body: See Subject Line.

-A lot of people will be sad that we’ve lost such a winning coach, which I understand, because I remember what it was like having Don “Coal’s Good” Nehlen doing the coaching. But, with the exception of the Sugar Bowl, we shouldn’t go around believing that Rodriguez really gave all that much to us. Yes, we won the Gator Bowl last year with a come-from-behind victory.

We lost Miami game when Rodriguez blitzed everyone on a fourth-and-long, allowing the first down and the momentum to go to Miami, depriving us of an enormous upset. We got eviscerated in bowl games too - Florida State and Maryland both ran roughshod over us. And Rodriguez, for all of his alleged brilliance, wasn’t particularly bright when it came to spotting talent. Bednarik had to be half-dead before he finally turned the offense over to Pat White, and Steve Slaton only got to run the ball because he performed well on the few occasions he was trusted with the ball.

Of course, there was also this. On the biggest stage with the best opportunity WVU has had to play for a national championship since 1993, Rodriguez couldn’t help but keep calling the same play, over and over and over and over and over again. When it didn’t work, he could not adjust. And so it was that our shot at the national championship disappeared.

-Michigan is going to have fun with Rodriguez. So too will their cheerleaders. Let’s not forget Rodriguez’s “brother”, who will always make things interesting. And let’s also not forget that Michigan cares about one thing: beating Ohio State. Rodriguez, with everything on the line, couldn’t be Pitt. Ohio State is no Pitt? If I lived in Colombus, I’d be celebrating the fact that I just won the next four or five rivalry games.

-Rumor has it that Rodriguez told his players that he tried to stay at WVU, but WVU wouldn’t “let” him. What RichRod meant was that he tried, for the second year in a row, to totally soak the University for more money and the school wouldn’t cave to his insane demands. Claiming that he wanted to stay to his players is as ugly and two-faced as it gets. He could have at least been honest with them. Of course, this is a man who cannot spell honest.

-Rodriguez also took two of his assistants with him to Michigan, meaning that he has basically left the coaching cupboard completely empty for our upcoming BCS game. It takes guts to completely abandon a team before an enormous game. According to that article, he’s taking other coaches too. In other words, here was a man so loyal to his school and his home-state that he plundered the athletic department upon leaving, thus abandoning his school, his home-state and all of his players. Good times.

-Finally, there is the issue of who takes over at WVU. Plenty of talk focuses on former Auburn coach Terry Bowden. He grew up in Morgantown, and has claimed it is his dream job. He also hasn’t coached in ten years. It’s a longshot, but here’s hoping WVU goes out on a limb and considers a coach capable of getting the best out of his players: Texas Tech’s Mike Leach. The man is an offensive genius who wouldn’t simply run Patrick White up the middle, hoping against hope that something worked out. He’d also have a shot at a BCS bowl game every single year, something he doesn’t have at Texas Tech by virtue of having to compete against Texas and Oklahoma annually.

Chances are, WVU makes the regressive choice with Bowden. But Leach could do great things with the offensive talents that we’ve got here. Here’s hoping he’s at least considered.

-As for Rodriguez? Rachel put it best - he is a total fucking asshole. The less said, the better.