The Wide World of Dirt

Dear Rich Rodriguez,

You replaced the legendary Don Nehlen after the 2000 season to take over the West Virginia Mountaineers football program.

Though our first year under your guidance didn’t elicit much confidence, coming out swinging your second season by snagging both the Black Diamond Trophy and a Backyard Brawl victory over a ranked Pitt team ramped up our hopes.

A close loss to #2 Miami seemingly cemented a lost season, but you rallied your troops, rattling off seven consecutive wins (including V-Tech and Pitt again) to push the Mountaineers into bowl season where we came up short to Maryland.

Your team came into 2004 ranked #10, and your brand of football took us to the Gator Bowl for the second season in a row, even if we lost the Brawl and to the tech school. We just couldn’t get over that bowl game hump for whatever reason.

But, 2005. That’s when you started finally putting all the pieces together.

It all started with a tiny southpaw at QB that had Alabama try to recruit him as a defensive back and another freshman from right outside of Philly.

The biggest strategic mistake of your coaching career was letting Adam Bednarik take a snap that year over this Alabama kid by the name of Pat White.

We came out flat against Virginia Tech because Bednarik simply didn’t fit your offense like Pat did, and we lost that game to Michael Vick’s little brother.

Your leadership helped us rebound in a big way against #19 Louisville in a triple OT thriller that became the genesis to my WVU fandom.

For one reason or another, I wasn’t drawn to football or really any pro sports outside of auto racing when I was young. I know that it would be on from time to time, but I didn’t know any names or pay any attention.

But this game? I was hooked for life.

That kid from outside Philly by the name of Steve Slaton racked up over 200 yards of offense and six total touchdowns in a single game, all to end the night with a 46-44 victory that vaulted us back into the top-25.

From there, we won out and bashed every opponent in our path, winning every game from there by at least two touchdowns. This sort of domination got our little Big East squad into a big bowl game against Georgia.

Playing Georgia in the Georgia Dome for the Sugar Bowl title could not have been a more raucous environment for an opposing team, yet our young Mountaineers handled it better than anyone could’ve imagined.

Big performances from White, Slaton, and some transfer fullback from Wisconsin-Whitewater named Owen Schmitt powered us to an almost-insurmountable 28-0 lead at the beginning of the second quarter.

Then, UGA broke off a few big runs to bring themselves back into the game before Pat McAfee kicked a 27-yarder through the uprights deep into the second quarter.

A subsequent methodical Bulldogs’ drive resulted in a third touchdown right before the half, bringing the score to 31-21.

Y’all came out of the locker room with a better defensive gameplan that held up for much of the rest of the game while the offense started to flounder.

That is until Slaton broke free for a 52-yard TD in the middle of the final quarter to put the game out of reach, bringing home your first bowl game victory on one of the biggest stages in the sport against a traditional SEC powerhouse.

2006 got off to a hot start when our sophomores started lighting up the scoreboards, striking down nearly every opponent we faced in the first six weeks by four scores or more.

Two tough losses to #5 Louisville and unranked South Florida knocked us out of the BCS championship conversation, but your third trip to the Gator Bowl presented an opportunity for you to get the monkey off your back.

Despite the Yellow Jackets’ offense led by future NFL players Calvin Johnson and Tashard Choice, Pat White owned the show, combining for 276 total yards of offense and three touchdowns.

White’s heroics shaved down a 28-10 second-quarter deficit that flipped into a 38-35 advantage with 21 game minutes remaining.

Then, everyone forgot how to score points with a key Quenton Andrews interception at the Georgia Tech 2-yard line saving us from their most significant second-half drive.

After Pat White got the ball back with five minutes to go off of a missed Yellow Jacket field goal, he performed brilliantly, never letting GT’s high-powered offense see the ball again on the way to a 38-35 victory.

Enter 2007, the most chaotic year in college football history.

Your squad spent the first month flexing its muscle against inferior competition before running into that pesky Matt Grothe and USF. Having to throw Jarrett Brown out there didn’t help matters when he clearly wasn’t ready.

We commenced to whooping up on everyone else on our schedule ahead until we hit December for the biggest game in school history since 1989: the 100th Backyard Brawl.

I’m not going to reopen old wounds. Pat hurt his throwing thumb in that game, and that meant everything against a 4-7 Pitt team with a young LeSean McCoy in the backfield. We couldn’t run. We couldn’t pass.

They successfully neutralized a high-powered offense and beat us in devastating fashion at the absolute worst possible time.

Then, you left.

It was a messy breakup that I’d rather not get into because, frankly, nobody really knows the full story. We may never know, and I’ve accepted that.

You wanted facilities upgrades that never came, so you took your ball and went up to Ann Arbor to coach the Wolverines in the Big House.

Your first season in the Big House came with big question marks at the end, and those question marks never went away. In fact, more of them populated over your short stay in Ann Arbor.

As a diehard Mountaineer fan at this point, it felt poetic to see you dismissed in disgrace after bolting out of Morgantown at the height of your success.

A few successful seasons at Arizona followed where you rode Ka’Deem Carey to a 10-win season and a berth in the Pac-12 title game where you got smoked by Oregon and got beat by Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl.

It was mostly downhill from there with the Wildcats as your teams were unable to get over the hump and be true contenders in the Pac-12, leading to your dismissal after losing to Purdue in the Foster Farms Bowl.

To top it all off, you were let go in disgrace after an investigation proved you were having an extramarital affair with an administrative assistant who alleged further wrongdoing that hasn’t come to light.

You took a series of short-term stops as an offensive coordinator with Ole Miss and Louisiana-Monroe before getting back to a head coaching gig with Jacksonville State prior to the 2022 season.

I’ve got to hand it to you: you’ve done well with them.

Your defensive unit is nothing special, but your offense is cooking just like it was in the mid-2000s in Motown.

Averaging 35.4 points per game (13th in FBS), 434.6 yards per game (22nd), and 6.2 yards per play (20th) is nothing to sneeze at when you boast a top-10 rushing offense in the entire country.

You’ve won at least eight games in every season you’ve coached there, and you’ve won your conference twice. Despite your poor tenure at Michigan, you can indeed still coach, contrary to what many doubters said about you.

Clearly, you still know how to recruit the right kind of talent for your system that you’ve evolved since the days of White and Slaton. Though the game has evolved a lot since your peak, you’re keeping up and finding ways to get ahead.

Since you left WVU, we haven’t been the same.

Bill Stewart did his best, but the fanbase saw too many 3rd and 11 draw plays with Noel Devine that it led to his firing after three successful seasons.

Dana Holgorsen came in after that with his Big 12 playbook and a bottomless case of Red Bulls. He made Dabo Swinney look like an amateur in the Orange Bowl, but we never looked that good ever again.

Years and years of kicking the can down the road with Holgorsen wore on the fanbase, so he was eventually let go in favor of bringing in Neal Brown.

After attempting to climb up the Big 12 standings over the last six seasons, we kept finding ourselves at the bottom every year even with conference powerhouses Texas and Oklahoma leaving the Big 12 after last year.

We’re in the market for a new head football coach. Allegedly, you’re on the short list of candidates that could come away with that job.

After 17 long years, I’m ready to forgive you for leaving us in 2007 at the height of the program’s success in favor of Michigan. It hurt then; it hurts now to think back on it.

But, as an adult with a more refined perspective on life, employment, and college football as a whole, I understand why you did what you did. I still don’t like that you did it, but I do understand now.

That said, this cannot be like last time if you’re looking to come back to WVU.

NIL and revenue sharing should make your job infinitely easier as a recruiter and as a head coach, especially since the transfer portal is hotter than ever before.

I don’t want to hear about you being a sex pest, first and foremost. You’re a grown man. At your big age of 62 years old, you should know better than to be philandering when you’ve got games and championships to go win.

We need you to focus!

I don’t want to hear about players dropping out and transferring because you’re 62 years old and don’t know how to use better words in your coaching. 2008 language isn’t going to work on guys who were in kindergarten in 2008.

I don’t want to hear about your damn agent at all if you come back up here. You having an agent should be a formality more than anything else.

If you plan to come back to Morgantown, this better be your last stop as a head coach, period. The state and the school’s fans cannot handle you leaving us for the second time.

You’re a Mountaineer, born and raised. You know what it takes to be a successful ball coach in this state. I know you aren’t the same guy that left us high and dry all those years ago, so don’t come back and be that guy.

This fanbase can be very forgiving, especially if you lead us back to success.

I don’t expect you to come back “finish what you started”. I expect you to come back and build back better.

Rich Rod, I never thought I’d say this, but if you return to your post as head coach of the West Virginia Mountaineers, I’ll welcome you back with open arms.

(Top Photo Credit: Jeff Gentner/AP Photo)