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Former Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez reportedly is a candidate to join Group of 5 coaching staff
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There was a time, not too long ago, when Rich Rodriguez was considered one of the bright young coaching lights in major college football, but that was before things went sideways.
Now, three years after Rich-Rod was fired from the University of Arizona following an investigation into sexual harassment and workplace misconduct complaints, and two years after he was an offensive coordinator at Ole Miss, he may be getting back into the business.
According to Adam Hunsucker of the News-Star of north-east Louisiana, Rodriguez reportedly is a candidate to join head coach Terry Bowden’s staff at the University of Louisiana-Monroe.
https://twitter.com/Adam_Hunsucker/status/1344728426113101824?s=20
Back in 2007, Rodriguez was a world beater, having marched West Virginia University to the gates of the national championship game before the Mountaineers were stunned in the Backyard Brawl by rival Pittsburgh to end the regular season. Rodriguez wold leave Morgantown before the team’s bowl game to take over at the University of Michigan, where his career went another direction.
After going 60-26 over eight seasons with the Mountaineers, an astonishing 32-5 mark over his final three, and four of the final five Big East conference championships, Rodriguez’s Michigan teams finished 15-22 over three tumultuous seasons, amongst the worst in the program’s long and storied history.
After being fired and run out of town by irate Michigan boosters, Rodriguez got another chance in Tucson, finishing up 43-35 over six unremarkable campaigns before the ouster on the heels of the investigation into his conduct.
Now Rodriguez may be back, as an assistant coach on the sideline of a Sun Belt football program, and not where anyone would have imagined him back in the heady days of the early oughts.
Mark Schipper is a reporter, sportswriter, and aspiring novelist living in Chicago, Illinois.