Supposedly this is a credible source; word is he will not coach the Gator Bowl: BREAKING NEWS ... ALABAMA TO HIRE RICH RODRIGUEZ Staff 12/07/06 Rich Rodriguez will be named the new head football coach at the University of Alabama in a Friday press conference. The West Virginia coach will take over the Crimson Tide program vacated by Mike Shula, who was fired two weeks ago. Rodriguez and his wife, Rita, met with Alabama athletic director Mal Moore in New York City earlier in the week, and according to sources at both West Virginia and Alabama, Moore called Rodriguez Wednesday night with an official offer. Rodriguez is in Jacksonville on Thursday and is scheduled to fly via private plane to Tuscaloosa early Friday morning for a press conference later in the day. The terms of Rodriguez's contract with Alabama is not known at this time, other than Alabama has agreed to pay the $2 million buyout in his West Virginia contract. According to one West Virginia assistant coach, Rodriguez will like to coach the Mountaineers in their upcoming Gator Bowl game before taking over in Tuscaloosa, but no official agreement has been reached yet. More information will be posted later in the day. http://www.southernsportstonight.com/article.asp?IDNum=493
Seriously, Rodriguez had that thing on the path to being a contender. This is going to really screw them up for a while. But I suppose college football is always better with a competitive Alabama. Rodriguez should be able to give him that. He made West Virginia nationally competitive despite not ever getting a top 50 recruiting class.
Except for the money, the Alabama job isn't that big a deal anymore. The SEC is so tough there I think he had a better chance of winning a national championship at West Virginia than at 'Bama.
Rodriguez declines offer from Alabama December 8, 2006 MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) -- West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez turned down Alabama on Friday, telling his players that he'll be back for his sixth season with the Mountaineers. A loud applause could be heard from inside the Milan Puskar Center at Mountaineer Field after Rodriguez told his team he would be staying at his alma mater. "I fully respect his decision and wish him the best," Alabama athletic director Mal Moore said in a statement. "I want to remind everyone of what I said at the outset of this process: my only objective is to get the best person available to lead the Alabama football program. "I remain determined to bring to our program a proven head coach with impressive credentials." Alabama officials offered the job to Rodriguez on Thursday morning, but the definitive answer didn't come until more than 24 hours later. Reportedly, Alabama offered Rodriguez a $12 million, six-year contract. West Virginia athletic director Ed Pastilong worked on a proposal to keep Rodriguez at the school, but details were not immediately released. "It's a very good contract," said Stephen P. Goodwin, chairman of the WVU Board of Governors. "It's fair to the university. We're all tickled to death." Goodwin said West Virginia wasn't trying to compete with Alabama's offer. "We tried to make Rich the best offer WVU could make to keep him continuing on as a football coach. We didn't get into a bidding match. We couldn't have won that war," Goodwin said. Efforts to keep Rodriguez reached as far as Ken Kendrick, a West Virginia graduate and managing general partner of baseball's Arizona Diamondbacks, who had donated about $200,000 toward construction of a hall dedicated to the history of Mountaineer football. Kendrick said "maybe I lent some help" in getting a competitive offer on the table. "Literally hundreds of thousands of West Virginians were dismayed to hear that Rich might be leaving," Kendrick said. WVU sports communications director Mike Fragale said Rodriguez would hold a news conference later Friday. Rodriguez has built West Virginia into a Big East power, winning the Sugar Bowl after the 2005 season and a share of three straight league titles. The Mountaineers are 10-2 and will play Georgia Tech in the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Fla., on Jan. 1. Rodriguez signed a seven-year contract in June that pays him $1 million this year with $50,000 annual raises after that, and $600,000 in deferred compensation in December 2011 if he remained as coach. Alabama fired Mike Shula on Nov. 26 after the Tide went 6-6 in his fourth season and lost its fifth consecutive meeting with rival Auburn. The Tide had also made overtures to South Carolina's Steve Spurrier and Nick Saban of the Miami Dolphins, but both high-profile coaches opted to stay put. Then, Alabama's attention turned squarely to Rodriguez, who had both the offensive pedigree and the track record for winning the Tide wanted. It wasn't clear who the Tide will turn to now, though the university's original wish list also included Navy's Paul Johnson, Wake Forest's Jim Grobe and possibly California's Jeff Tedford. There have been no confirmed interviews with any of them. The once-mighty program is again left Crimson in the face in another coaching search. The Tide is seeking its fifth coach since Gene Stallings stepped down in 1996. Stallings is the only coach to manage sustained success since Bear Bryant's retirement after the 1982 season. http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaf/news;...B?slug=ap-alabama-rodriguez&prov=ap&type=lgns
The sad thing is they ran off Stallings, too. They are really frickin' delusional. I think they could potentially become a pretty good team again, contending for a national title once a decade or something like that, but nothing like they want.
Hey Bama, I've been to numurous Pro Football/College/High school games, I've mamged the lowly Texans to 3 superbowls on Madden 2007(Pro Bowl Level) PS2, and I turned a pitifull Rice program into a 2x National champion on NCAA 2007 PS2. I think I can turn your program around. Call me.
He really took the hometown discount by turning down a chance to double his salary. On the WV message board, they went from calling Rodriguez a dirty mexican to hero in matter of hours. Funny stuff.
