Posted on 12/08/2006 1:11:19 PM PST by TheBigB
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez turned down Alabama on Friday, telling his players that he'll be back for his sixth season with the Mountaineers.
RodriguezRich Rodriguez has guided West Virginia to three Big East championships and four straight New Year's Day Bowl games, including the 2007 Toyota Gator Bowl vs. Georgia Tech.
A loud applause could be heard from inside the Milan Puskar Center at Mountaineer Field after Rodriguez told his team he would be staying at his alma mater.
"I fully respect his decision and wish him the best," Alabama athletic director Mal Moore said in a statement. "I want to remind everyone of what I said at the outset of this process: my only objective is to get the best person available to lead the Alabama football program.
"I remain determined to bring to our program a proven head coach with impressive credentials."
Alabama officials offered the job to Rodriguez on Thursday morning, but the definitive answer didn't come until more than 24 hours later. Reportedly, Alabama offered Rodriguez a $12 million, six-year contract.
West Virginia athletic director Ed Pastilong worked on a proposal to keep Rodriguez at the school, but details were not immediately released.
"It's a very good contract," said Stephen P. Goodwin, chairman of the WVU Board of Governors. "It's fair to the university. We're all tickled to death."
Goodwin said West Virginia wasn't trying to compete with Alabama's offer.
"We tried to make Rich the best offer WVU could make to keep him continuing on as a football coach. We didn't get into a bidding match. We couldn't have won that war," Goodwin said.
WVU sports communications director Mike Fragale said Rodriguez would hold a news conference later Friday.
Rodriguez has built West Virginia into a Big East power, winning the Sugar Bowl after the 2005 season and a share of three straight league titles. The Mountaineers are 10-2 and will play Georgia Tech in the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Fla., on Jan. 1.
Rodriguez signed a seven-year contract in June that pays him $1 million this year with $50,000 annual raises after that, and $600,000 in deferred compensation in December 2011 if he remained as coach.
Alabama fired Mike Shula on Nov. 26 after the Tide went 6-6 in his fourth season and lost its fifth consecutive meeting with rival Auburn.
The Tide had also made overtures to South Carolina's Steve Spurrier and Nick Saban of the Miami Dolphins, but both high-profile coaches opted to stay put.
Then, Alabama's attention turned squarely to Rodriguez, who had both the offensive pedigree and the track record for winning the Tide wanted.
It wasn't clear who the Tide will turn to now, though the university's original wish list also included Navy's Paul Johnson, Wake Forest's Jim Grobe and possibly California's Jeff Tedford.
There have been no confirmed interviews with any of them.
The once-mighty program is again left Crimson in the face in another coaching search. The Tide is seeking its fifth coach since Gene Stallings stepped down in 1996. Stallings is the only coach to manage sustained success since Bear Bryant's retirement after the 1982 season.
Alabama Officials told Paul Finebaum on the radio that they were blind-sided by Rods about face. They said they had the verbal agreement and that they were waiting for Rod to have his team meeting, and then they were told WVU had matched the offer.
An analyst was on and said that Alabama made the same exact mistake they made in the last coaching search -- they lowballed Rodriguez and left WVU room to match. If they had offered even $2.3-2.5 Mil WVU would not have been able to match -- but the boosters poneyed up enough to match the $2 mil.
Such is the world of college football.
What did Alabama expect really?
They've had what 5 coaches in 7 years?
that kind of instability will cause most of the big names to want to stay put.
I hear John L. Smith is lookin for work. Bwhaahaahahahahahaahahahaaaa!!!!
Rich could end up being a god at WVU. He would be able to post 9-3 and maybe even 8-4 records here. Not so much at 'bama.
No apologies necessary :) Even if this has been posted before, it gives some of us so much pleasure to read how Spurrier and now Rodriguez have spurned Bama.
Note to self - must ping this great news out to the AU football list.
NO, keep him! With Mal Moore in charge, Bama will remain where in its rightful place ;)
Source?
Oh, puh-leeeez.
Everyone talks like the fact that the Big East had such strong records was just a product of having played weak teams. The bulk of the teams the SEC teams beat were either Division IAA, Division II, winless, or had a single win. Louisiana Monroe was IAA, Duke and Florida International were 0-12. At least Alabama played Hawaii. There were only 7 wins by all of the opponents of 7 SEC teams. And I mean the total of all seven teams, not just the total of each team's opponents!
West Virginia beat Maryland and Rutgers. Who'd Alabama beat?
Gee, let me see where to start: ESPN, ESPN News, ESPN.com, CBS Sportline.com, SI.com, Birmingham News paper, Tuscaloosa News, AL.com newsline, several Alabama TV stations.
Oh, and the Pittsburgh newpaper that covers that area.
Cool yer jets, yer speedin'.
I'm a WVU fan and was making no such claim about record strength. I was merely pointing out that the 'bama boosters won't stand for season records that WV will as well as the fact that Rodriguez is much loved in WV.
OK maybe not a trick, but Rodriguez has beeh pushing WVU to give him and his staff a raise and to improve facilities and they were acting slow. Alabama made him a very nice offer that he I am sure seriously was considering and had told Alabama that so he takes the offer to WVU and waits to see if they would counter, which they did. He played it very smart.
BTTT... what is the news verdict now at 7pm. Hee hee hee, I'm lovin it better than a Big Mac
"Don't worry Alabama fans. You'll get a good coach. Pete Carroll was USC's third choice in 2000, and it worked out okay."
Geez, I think Pete was actually the fourth choice. I think it went Dennis Erickson, then Bellotti at Oregon, and then Mike Riley. No one even knew who Carroll was when Mike Garrett ended up hiring him and all the crusty old alums had the red-ass over the selection! Beautiful. If I'm Alabama, I take my time and get the right guy, because things turn around real quick when you get a great coach on board. The evidence is all over the college football landscape.
I was at WVU for a few years. It was one huge party. Thank God I survived(:
puleeze....Shula will be waiting tables before we ever bring him back....one, Mal Moore needs to be fired....two, Rodriguez played us for fools....he's running around claiming he never agreed to anything but that's a lie....my vote is that we keep Kines for a year and then take our time getting a good coach! This has been a total goat rope! But Shula was not the man....and he's not going to be missed!
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