Rich Rodriguez and the Rumors

It’s that time of year again, silly season in college sports. The season where coaching vacancies are opening and newspapers are reporting every printable rumor they can to fill column inches.

Again, some of the rumors center on West Virginia University head coach Rich Rodriguez and the vacancies at Alabama and Miami. He is believed to be on the list of candidates that Alabama is interested in hiring and that is where the majority of the speculation has centered.

Rodriguez is a hot coaching prospect because of what he has been able to do at West Virginia in the past six season - take a team that was once happy just to make it to a bowl game into a national powerhouse. No coach in Mountaineer history can say they’ve taken the program to five straight bowl games, something Rodriguez can say when bowl bids are announced likely Sunday. The previous best was a string of four straight appearances by Don Nehlen from 1981 to 1984 (Nehlen won three of those four games before starting an 8-game bowl losing streak, while Rodriguez is 1-3 in bowl contests.)

The rise West Virginia is on currently reminds me of the rise Virginia Tech took in the early 1990s when it rose from also-ran to national powerhouse in a few short years. Like Rodriguez, Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer was also rumored for multiple coaching positions.

So Rodriguez, a former Mountaineer, has a decision to make at the end of the year? Does he stay at West Virginia or does he head south for more money, but not necessarily a better situation?

The Alabama job promotes problems as they’ve had troubled keeping coaches since Paul “Bear” Bryant last walked the sidelines. The school has had seven coaches since Bryant last coached in 1982. The longest-tenured coach in that time frame was Gene Stallings, who led the Tide to the national title with a win over Miami in 1992-93.

At Miami, you are dealing with an atmosphere of problems with both on-field and off-field issues, but have the strong Florida recruiting base to work from.

Rodriguez is saying he is not been contacted about either position, which hasn’t stopped the media from reporting the story. A newspaper in West Virginia is reporting today that Rodriguez has had contact with a consultant who is working for both schools.

It would not surprise me if Rodriguez does leave West Virginia, however it wouldn’t surprise me if he stays, either. I keep going back on what I think will happen in the next few weeks, right now I believe he is staying, but you never know with these things.

Only one person knows, and he is busy preparing for major game tomorrow night against Rutgers.

A sports world gone mad?

Every team, no matter if it is professional or college, has the fan group that makes you want to pull your hair out. They’re the over hype, over sensitive, take everything way too seriously type.

You know the type.

They spend all their days on a message board talking about why their coach is going to leave for some insane job offer in some other part of the country. They place “For Sale” signs on the homes of the coach if their team fails to win the big game. And they think their program is the next up-and-coming dynasty even though history shows the program has been nothing more than a second-ran with few moments of brilliance.

This type of fandom can’t see past their own beliefs about the program they love and support and when others call it for what it is, they say “you don’t understand,” or “it’s just another attempt of the media wanting us to fail.”

(As a former sports writer, I never knew a media writer who wanted a local team to fail. Local team does well, means increased rack sales. Increased rack sales means publisher is happy and when the publisher is happy, everyone is happy.)

There is a lot of insane fandom going around in college sports today, which shows just how far off the beaten path college sports has become. As Murray Sperber wrote in Beer and Circus, college athletics today is more of a business than anything else.

Something is wrong when fans will throw a coach under the bus even if he has advanced the team to five straight NCAA berths, but then support a coach who couldn’t win a big football game if he was spotted 14 points and the opposing team played with only seven players.

It’s all about what are you doing for me today, in college sports, just as it is in today’s marketplace of ideas and the society we live in. Patience has been replaced with impatient bickering as today’s society is more concerned about instant gratification. They often say sports is a reflection of society. So what does it say about a society when our fans our out of control, and we support out of control coaches, as well as players who show off after the smallest of accomplishments on the field.

I miss the days of Emmitt Smith. Granted, I was never a Dallas Cowboys fan, but Smith was someone we could all enjoy. He was not flashy. He was not brash. He was a hard worker who made great plays on and off the field. His touchdown celebrations was the classy handing the ball to the referee.

Society needs more people like Smith. Those who are willing to work for what they have in life and be respectful in the process. Society may be a better place if that ever takes place.