Rich Rodriquez Back in Coaching

It didn’t take long for Rich Rodriquez to leave the TV booth and return to coaching.

Rodriquez left CBS College Sports to try to resurrect the Arizona Wildcats. His official appointment was announced this week.

When I first heard the news, I thought another Rodriquez was moving to Arizona—Alex. But then I thought why would A-Rod leave the New York Yankees to go to the Arizona Diamondbacks?

The other Rodriquez is trying to repair his coaching reputation. First, Rich-Rod as he is called, suffered a nasty divorce with West Virginia as he departed his alma mater to go to Michigan. I think Rich-Rod looked at Michigan as his dream job. It was a dream alright—a bad one. Many of the Michigan fans just plain disliked the guy. He also ran into trouble with the NCAA and couldn’t win enough games to satisfy the Michigan faithful. All these factors led to his firing

His spread offense should do fine in the offensive-happy Pac-12. His defenses were generous at Michigan, but defense doesn’t seem to be a problem in the Pac-12. The key is to just literally outscore the other opponent like say, 60-52. Plus, Rodriquez should be in a much lower-key job than the bright lights at Michigan. Despite what the league says, the Pac-12 still suffers from an exposure problem. The time zone factor is the major culprit. Lots of the games start too late for Midwest and East Coast viewers.

So, it will be interesting to see how Rich-Rod plays out in the Southwest. He’s at a basketball school but he no doubt was hired to elevate the importance of the football program. Hopefully, Rich-Rod has learned from his mistakes and will do well in Tucson.