Being a college football head coach entails being an administrator, recruiter, motivator, teacher, and father figure just to name a few of his duties. For Arizona Wildcats head coach Rich Rodriguez, he is all of those things and then some, but he has gotten back to mainly being a football coach. It appeared to be a marriage made in heaven when Rodriguez was named as the head football coach of the West Virginia Mountaineers in 2001. Rodriguez grew up in West Virginia and he played for the Mountaineers from 1981-1984. By 2005, Rodriguez had turned the Mountaineers into a powerhouse as they won the Sugar Bowl. But in 2007, Rodriguez shocked many people in the college football world when he left his alma mater for the almighty dollar to become the head football coach of the Michigan Wolverines. Rodriguez rubbed some people the wrong way during his time in Ann Arbor and he never appeared to fit there. It also didn’t help that in his three years at Michigan, Rodriguez was only 15-22 and the Wolverines never finished a season ranked in the top 25 while also failing to keep their pipeline to the National Football League going. Rodriguez was fired by Michigan immediately following their 52-14 loss in the 2011 Gator Bowl to the Mississippi State Bulldogs and after one year away from college football, Rodriguez resurfaced in 2012 with the Wildcats.
Like he did at West Virginia, Rodriguez is making things happen in Tuscon with Wildcats. In two years at Arizona, Rodriguez became the first head football coach in the history of the program there to lead the school to consecutive bowl victories in his first two years on campus. After consecutive 8-5 seasons with Arizona, Rodriguez’s team has begun this season with a record of 5-0. The Wildcats shocked the nation this past Thursday night when they went on the road and knocked off the Oregon Ducks who were the second-ranked team in the country and heavily favored to win the game. The 31-24 victory over Oregon by ‘Zona will catapult them into the top 25 as they are focusing on winning the Pac-12 Conference for the first time in school history.
One of the main reasons why Rodriguez had success at West Virginia is the same reason why he is currently achieving great things at Arizona which is that there hasn’t any pressure on him to win in either location. If West Virginia went 7-5 or 8-4 under Rodriguez it was looked at as a terrific season and anything better than that would be the icing on the cake. The same can be said at Arizona which has historically been a basketball school. However at Michigan, the expectations were through the roof. The Wolverines have won more than 800 football games and they are expected to win the Big Ten Conference every season. The Wolverines were unaccustomed to Rodriguez’s spread offense and by the time that he began to win he was too far behind the curve as the losses to Ohio State and Michigan State mounted and he had run his course in Ann Arbor.
Now Rodriguez’s spread offense is once again en vogue in Tuscon. Arizona quarterback Anu Solomon is a true freshman and he is running the spread offense similar the way that Pat White did under Rodriguez at West Virginia. Solomon has 14 touchdown passes to only 4 interceptions this season which was highlighted by him passing for 520 yards yards and 5 touchdowns in Arizona’s 49-45 victory over California on September 20. At Michigan, Rodriguez was never able to find those dynamic play makers on defense, but he has found one at Arizona in sophomore linebacker Scooby Wright who already has 5 sacks this season as he is leading the Wildcat defense.
Yes the Wildcats are 5-0 this season, but they are far from being out of the woods. This Saturday, Arizona will host the USC Trojans before they will have consecutive road games against the Washington State Cougars and the UCLA Bruins respectively. But with the fast start in 2014 things are definitely looking up for Rodriguez and the Wildcats in the Pac-12.
Sources: Sports-reference.com, Cfbstats.com
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