Jan 2, 2006: Atlanta, GA, USA: West Virginia Mountaineers head coach Rich Rodriguez claps after a touchdown in the second quarter of the Nokia Sugar Bowl against the Georgia Bulldogs at the Georgia Dome. Mandatory Credit: Photo By Christopher Gooley-Imagn Images Copyright (c) 2006 Christopher Gooley Christopher Gooley-Imagn Images

Sports Illustrated Tabs Rich Rodriguez as One of the Top Coaches of the Last 25 Years

Originally posted on West Virginia Mountaineers on SI
By Schuyler Callihan | Last updated Aug 7, 2025 9:38 AM ET

When folks start talking about the best coaches in college football, you often hear the same names pop up — Nick Saban, Urban Meyer, Dabo Swinney, Kirby Smart, etc. But once you get past that first handful of coaches, it becomes very subjective. Rarely, West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez is mentioned in that second or third cluster of top-tier coaches.

In Pat Forde's top 25 coaches of the past 25 years on Sports Illustrated, Rich Rod did get some love, checking in at No. 22, ranking just ahead of David Shaw, Lance Leipold, and Jerry Moore.

"It’s ironic that RichRod’s only losing tenure to date came at the school where that was least likely to happen. Going 15–22 at Michigan is hard to do—but so is winning 70% of your games at West Virginia, 55% at Arizona and 73% at Jax State. In his first stint at WVU, Rodriguez took the Mountaineers to the brink of playing for the national championship in 2007 before suffering a crushing upset loss to rival Pittsburgh in the regular-season finale. He then made two fateful decisions, turning down Alabama (clearing the way for Saban) and going to Michigan. Rodriguez showed his staying power—and ability to evolve beyond being on the cutting edge of the spread offense—by rebounding from that tenure."

The first thing everyone thinks of when it comes to Rodriguez is his days at West Virginia the first time around. He led the Mountaineers to the best three-year stretch in program history and had them on the doorstep of a national championship appearance.

But as Forde mentioned, he did things at Arizona and Jacksonville State that hadn't been done in a long time, or had ever been done. If Michigan had given him a fourth year, his tenure that probably look a lot different as well.

The job he did at Jax State may be one of the most impressive coaching jobs we've seen at the Group of Five level in recent memory. He won nine games in each of the program's first two years at the FBS level and won the Conference USA championship in year two. The man knows how to win, and there's no question he'll do it again in Morgantown.