A year is an eternity in college football. Nick Saban’s retirement was bound to cause a seismic shift in the sport as a collective. A year on, aftershocks are still reverberating across the epicenter. For the entirety of the Saban era in Alabama, heading into the Bryant-Denny was akin to going to a bar on the weekend. You knew you were about to get battered and then leave empty-handed. Multiple championships were won, and hoards of talent were developed.
The house that Saban built was a revolving door of high-rated recruits. Tuscaloosa saw more 5-stars than downtown LA. Produced more NFL players than any program. But what if all this never happened? Where would the sport be? Rich Rodriguez is a personified line in the sand between that hypothetical and reality.
Bama wasn’t always this pillar of CFB synonymous with success. Even this blueblood had a stretch of adversity. Much more onerous and longer than what it went through under Kalen DeBoer last year. 2006/7 was a fork in the road. The school relieved current South Carolina OC Mike Shula from head coaching duties and needed a messiah. Someone who’d win them their first Natty since 1992. We know they appointed Nick Saban and the rest is history.
But he wasn’t the only coach in the reckoning. Rich Rodriguez, the newly appointed WVU head coach who coincidentally was in his first stint in the same role back then, was approached by the Bama brass first. Almost 2 decades on, Rich Rod has leveraged his true feelings about declining the job. As well as a demand now that the dust has settled on the Saban era.
Rodriguez guested on The Athletic’s Until Saturdays podcast on YouTube. He was confronted by host and reporter David Ubben on that fateful decision to reject Alabama in favor of staying in West Virginia. “I think part of that was certainly that we were better than Alabama at the time,” he said. As hyperbolic as this may sound, VWU really was better at that juncture than Alabama. Of course, this was largely down to Rich Rod himself. He elaborated on affairs that eventually culminated in Nick Saban’s dynasty.
Rich Rod proceeded to say, “Alabama was going through transition. One, we had a really good team coming back. Then, a bunch of our supporters really stepped up and made a commitment to some of the things that we needed to have in our program.” Cruelly, Rodriguez revealed that while those supporters and boosters came through, the school didn’t quite.
VWU didn’t pour gasoline on the proverbial fire that Rodriguez had going. Didn’t strike while the iron was hot. Things eventually dissipated, and the program’s inability to back Rodriguez with resources meant they diverged their separate paths. Before reconvening in 2025. So now that he knows how things transpire, any regrets about giving the Crimson Tide a stiff arm?
Rich Rodriguez has a proposal for Nick Saban and Alabama
Rich Rodriguez further cleared the air on those conversations back in ‘06. As well as reiterated just how much he was bought into what he was building with West Virginia. “I don’t know what the rumors were. [But] I never did tell them I was going. I never, did accept the job, even though it’s Alabama.” resounded Rich Rodriguez. He followed this up with a rather cheeky demand. Which, if you’re a proponent of the butterfly effect, you’d concur with it wholeheartedly.
“I told them I deserve a statue down in Tuscaloosa, too!” exclaimed Rodriguez. “Because I’m part of the reason they got them 6 national championships! They went around and got Nick the second time. There he is, you know, had the greatest career of any college coach ever,” The humor is sure not lost on Rich Rod. Maybe not a statue, but you’d hope Nick Saban’s been sending him a Christmas card ever since.
Loyalty doesn’t always end well. Retrospectively, Rich Rodriguez’s career trajectory could’ve been a whole lot different had he jumped ship. At the same time, it’s this loyalty to WVU that’s gotten him a second bite at the cherry this season. Saban’s story in Alabama is over, but Rodriguez is still penning his up in the mountains.
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