Rich Rodriguez. Dave Hyatt / Special to the Gadsden Times / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Report: Rich Rodriguez close to a return to West Virginia

Originally posted on Larry Brown Sports | By Grey Papke | Last updated Dec 11, 2024 7:00 PM ET

Rich Rodriguez is climbing back up the coaching ladder, and he is doing so in a place that will be very familiar to him.

Rodriguez is close to a deal to become the new head coach at West Virginia, according to Pete Thamel of ESPN. No agreement has been reached yet, but the two sides are close.

Sources: West Virginia is targeting Rich Rodriguez as the school’s next head coach. A deal is working toward completion, but yet to finalized. Rodriguez, 61, went 60-26 in his seven year there from 2001-07, including three-straight 10-win seasons. pic.twitter.com/GyjjnQPBwI

— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) December 11, 2024

Rodriguez returns to the school where he made himself famous, and he does so 15 years after he left. He went 60-26 in a seven-year stretch there from 2001 to 2007, a stretch that included a pair of BCS bowl wins. He jumped to Michigan ahead of the 2008 season, where he went just 15-22 over three seasons. He resurfaced with Arizona, where he went 43-35 before being fired amid a workplace misconduct allegation. He has been the head coach at Jacksonville State since 2022, and has posted three consecutive nine-win seasons there.

West Virginia has never quite reached the same heights that they did under Rodriguez. Previous coach Neal Brown was fired in the aftermath of a 6-6 campaign, though the team did go 9-4 in 2023. Rodriguez has certainly seen it all since leaving Morgantown, and it would really be something if he was able to capture anything close to the same success this time around.

This article first appeared on Larry Brown Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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