Rodriguez aims to put Arizona on fast track

TUCSON, Ariz. If his players want to hold hands, Rich Rodriguez said, they will not do it on the field. The huddle is the biggest waste of time in college football, Rodriguez said when he was introduced as Arizonas football coach Tuesday afternoon. This is a man in a hurry. I have something to prove every day, Rodriguez said. Hours into the job of returning Arizona to Pac-12 relevance, Rodriguez does not know his personnel well enough to understand how the holdovers will fit into his preferred spread attack or how many high-impact recruits he will be able bring in to make it function at peak efficiency. It will require at least one spring practice to assess the current group, which returns a significant amount of offensive talent but will lose record-setting quarterback Nick Foles and must adapt to a radically different style of play. For that reason, Rodriguez was wise enough Tuesday not to set a timetable, although he made it clear he is not afraid to shoot high, almost expected at grand openings such as this. His goals win the Pac-12, win the Rose Bowl, win it all. "Why not Arizona? Why not us? Why can't we win a national championship?" Rodriguez said in a news conference on the floor of McKale Center that was open to former UA players. Rodriguez built a national championship contender with his no-huddle spread attack at West Virginia, and despite an unpleasant experience at Michigan, other members of the coaching fraternity believe in him. Arizona athletic director Greg Byrne, while on a feeling-out meeting with Urban Meyer, said Meyer had this to say about the man he eventually hired: Hes one of the five great minds in college football today. Byrne said he and Rodriguez met three times during the hiring process: Over pepperoni rolls two weeks ago in Detroit, for breakfast at Penelopes in New York the day before the UA played St. Johns in the Coaches against Cancer tournament at Madison Square Garden last Wednesday, and for a final time in El Paso before the Tulsa-UTEP football game that Rodriguez worked for CBS last Saturday. A day after Arizona beat Arizona State, Byrne and Rodriguez began the negotiations that resulted in a guaranteed five-year, 9.55 million package, which includes his university pay plus with Nike and IMG salaries of 300,000 a year for each of the next five years. He will earn a 1.45 million salary in 2012 and receive gradual raises to 1.8 million for 2016. Rodriguez also can earn as much as 300,000 in bonuses per year, topping out if the Wildcats play in the BCS title game. Rodriguez will hit the ground running. He planned to begin calling new recruits and previous commits Tuesday evening, and his goal is to have his staff in place by the New Year while not interrupting teams preparations the rest of the season. He has had a strong recruiting presence in Arizona in previous years, wooing former Scottsdale Chaparral recruits Taylor Lewan and Craig Roh to Michigan, where both are starters. Chaparral coach Charley Ragle gave Byrne a glowing report about the way he was treated by Rodriguez even after Lewan and Roh chose Michigan. With Arizona in the early stages of an 85 million project that will include a four-story football training facility in the north end zone of Arizona Stadium, Rodriguezs timing could not be better. The Wildcats will play fast, but not fast and loose. Byrne made certain that his due diligence included a look at the NCAA infractions committed during Rodriguezs three bumpy seasons at Michigan, which ended when he was fired with two years remaining on his contract following the 2010 season. In Rodriguezs first season, Michigan was charged with five major violations that included abusing practice time limits and failing to monitor the program to assure compliance. One violation was later viewed to be minor, but Michigan cut practice time by 130 hours in each of the next two seasons, fired a graduate assistant coach and issued a letter of reprimand to Rodriguez, who took the blame and initiated changes. Major, minor, whatever they were. They are infractions, and we dont want them, said Byrne, whose top two directives are graduating students and following the rules. I take that very seriously. He was very transparent with it, so much so that he said We thought it was OK. We looked at it at West Virginia, and they were doing the same things there. Once they knew about it, they addressed it. Michigan may be in the rear-view mirror, but the progress of the program stands to Rodriguezs ability to put a product on the field. Michigan's record improved in each of his three seasons there, and the players his staff recruited, led by duel-threat quarterback Denard Robinson, are currently 9-2 and a possible BCS bowl participant. Keep that in mind.