until someone can fill these, er, I mean, wear this hat?
Posted on 12/07/2006 11:06:26 AM PST by petitfour
UPDATED 12:45 p.m. TUSCALOOSA | The University of Alabama has extended an offer to West Virginia University’s Rich Rodriguez to become the new head football coach of the Crimson Tide, sources confirmed to The Tuscaloosa News on Thursday.
Deliberations continued late into the night, and this morning. A representative of UA made the offer to Rodriguez this morning.
The salary and other terms of the offer to Rodriquez were not immediately available. Speculation over the past week has centered on Rodriguez and Miami Dolphins coach Nick Saban.
UA director of athletics Mal Moore, who is leading the search, arrived back in Tuscaloosa Wednesday afternoon after spending three days in New York and did not leave Tuscaloosa on Wednesday night.
According to the Charleston Daily Mail, Rodriguez met Wednesday for two hours with WVU athletic director Ed Pastilong.
Pastilong said the two discussed the upcoming Gator Bowl game against Georgia Tech on Jan. 1, 2007, among other matters.
Asked if the Alabama job was discussed, Pastilong said, “I cannot talk about that, because it is a personnel issue.”
Pastilong indicated to the Daily Mail that the school was not be inclined to offer Rodriguez another raise after signing an extension in the summer that also included a raise to close to $1.1 million annually and a possibility of more than $400,000 in additional performance bonuses.
Rodriguez’s contract includes a $2 million penalty if he leaves West Virginia before Aug. 31, 2007.
A source told the Daily Mail that, contrary to published reports earlier Wednesday, no Mountaineers assistant coaches had been pulled off the recruiting trail.
Moore’s return to Tuscaloosa was not his original plan for this week. The UA athletic director was scheduled to fly from New York — where he was attending College Football Hall of Fame ceremonies and talking with coaches and agents about the Alabama vacancy — to Chicago today to attend the Tide’s fourth-ranked men’s basketball team at Notre Dame.
Rodriguez and Moore talked informally Tuesday in New York.
Rodriguez, who is 49-24 in six seasons at West Virginia, said last week he planned on being at WVU the remainder of his career “if they’ll have me.”
According to a report from The Miami Herald, Saban has declined an offer from the university and Thursday morning told his players he is not leaving Miami. The coach also told owner Wayne Huizenga on Sunday he was not interested in Alabama.
After practice, he confirmed that Alabama had approached his agent, Jimmy Sexton, who said thanks but no thanks. Saban also said he never interviewed or spoke directly with Alabama officials.
The Miami Herald report indicated Saban was offered a salary of over $5 million per year, but sources told The Tuscaloosa News it was "extremely unlikely" that UA would offer such a salary.
Thursday a.m. story TUSCALOOSA | University of Alabama officials continued to ponder their choices in the search to name a new head football coach on Wednesday night, but the evening passed with no candidate being offered the position, sources told The Tuscaloosa News.
Deliberations were expected to continue late into the night and perhaps into this morning with sources saying a decision about the direction of the search could come as soon as today.
There was widespread speculation concerning the Tide’s interest in West Virginia University head coach Rich Rodriguez.
However, Rodriguez did not indicate on Wednesday night that he had received an offer from UA.
“There’s no news today," Rodriguez told reporters on Wednesday night as he left the Charleston Civic Center after attending the West Virginia-North Carolina State men’s basketball game.
Numerous published reports, including one on ESPN’s web site, indicated that Rodriguez had “a window" of 72 hours in which he would consider an offer.
Sources who had indicated to The Tuscaloosa News on Tuesday that Miami Dolphin coach Nick Saban was “a prominent figure" in the UA coaching search reaffirmed that information on Wednesday. However, there was no confirmation of a Mobile television report that unspecified UA officials had flown to Miami to meet with Saban.
UA director of athletics Mal Moore, who is leading the search, arrived back in Tuscaloosa Wednesday afternoon after spending three days in New York and did not leave Tuscaloosa on Wednesday night.
Moore spoke briefly to reporters upon his arrival in Tuscaloosa.
“I don’t have anything for you guys yet," Moore said from the passenger side of a car before driving away from the Bama Air terminal at Tuscaloosa Regional Airport.
“I think things are going well. We are just following our planned course of action."
When asked whether he has offered Rodriguez the job to replace Mike Shula and become Alabama’s 27th head football coach, Moore said, “I don’t want to comment on any of that right now. Just give me some time, here.
“Both sides are working."
According to the Charleston Daily Mail, Rodriguez met for two hours with WVU athletic director Ed Pastilong.
Pastilong said the two discussed the upcoming Gator Bowl game against Georgia Tech on Jan. 1, 2007, among other matters.
Asked if the Alabama job was discussed, Pastilong said, “I cannot talk about that, because it is a personnel issue."
Pastilong indicated to the Daily Mail that the school may not be inclined to offer Rodriguez another raise after signing an extension in the summer that also included a raise to close to $1.1 million annually and a possibility of more than $400,000 in additional performance bonuses.
“We are like any organization or company," he said. “On June 30, we have to balance the checkbook, but we do realize we need to do everything possible to have a successful football program."
Rodriguez’s contract includes a $2 million penalty if he leaves West Virginia before Aug. 31, 2007.
A source told the Daily Mail that, contrary to published reports earlier Wednesday, no Mountaineers assistant coaches had been pulled off the recruiting trail. Also, the University of Miami has not contacted West Virginia for permission to talk to Rodriguez about its vacancy.
Moore traveled from Teterboro Airport in suburban New Jersey to Tuscaloosa via a chartered Canadair CL-600 Challenger 604 jet. He was the only one on the plane to disembark in Tuscaloosa at 1:20 p.m. before it traveled to Montgomery later Wednesday.
Moore’s return to Tuscaloosa was not his original plan for this week. The UA athletic director was scheduled to fly from New York -- where he was attending College Football Hall of Fame ceremonies and talking with coaches and agents about the Alabama vacancy -- to Chicago today to attend the Tide’s fourth-ranked men’s basketball team at Notre Dame.
Sports writer Tommy Deas contributed to this report.
Reach Cecil Hurt at cecil.hurt@tuscaloosanews.com or 205-722-0225,
Reach David Wasson at david.wasson@tuscaloosanews.com or at 205-722-0229.
College Football Ping
It better be for a lot of money, as I think Rodriguez would have to be crazy to leave Morgantown. There is the SEC versus Big East consideration though.....
WHEW!!!
I thought Navy would lose Paul Johnson. Turns out the Navy job pays more than Alabama anyway.
Hubby wanted the Navy guy. Coach Rodriguez might not take the offer. We'll see.
I thought Rodriguez said he was staying? He said it the night they played Rutgers..
I don't think Rodriguez will take it. I think he'd be nuts if he did.
LOL. Bama will be paying more money to WVa to buy out the contract then they will be paying Rodriquez to coach!!
Sounds like rodriquez will be a gap filler at Bama.
Meanwhile, Shalala and Co in Miami maybe could get Howard Schnellenberger to come back to Coral Gables. :)
It's a pretty good bet he's staying, especially since WVU announced Wednesday that they're pouring a few million bucks into the football program.
As an alumnus of Pitt, I hope he takes the job.
I'm gonna try this again. If I have pinged you twice, I'm sorry. I copied the wrong ping list from MikefromOhio's About page. lol
College Football ping
YOu are looking at his current salary. Bama is offering Coach Rod around $2.2 Mil a year (basically doubling his salary), and with incentives, TV/radio, etc he will be well over $3 Mil when it is all said and done.
WVU definately has an edge in that it is his hometown and alma mater -- but what WVU is talking about is peanuts compared to what Alabama has done and is doing. THey are talking $3-5 million in upgrades. Alabama just completed a $250 Million upgrade to the stadium and all facilities, including state of the art Sports Medicine and fitness facilities. And they have started planning ANOTHER 10,000 seats to the stadium to take it over 100,000.
Alabama's spending in the hopes that people won't notice their program sucks.
For some unknown reason I don't like that guy, I've seen WV play 3 or 4 times this year and something about him just bugs me!
Bump! :) But Mal ain't going anywhere. He's nothing but a puppet for Paul Bryant, Jr., and Bryant likes the power.
until someone can fill these, er, I mean, wear this hat?
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