West Virginia University just did something this week that is rare in college football. They rehired a former successful coach who had left in 2007 for a head coaching job at Michigan.
Usually, when a college coach leaves a school, it is for one of two reasons. There's a bigger, better opportunity waiting that's been offered elsewhere, or the team he coaches isn't winning like the fans expect, and he gets let go. Rich Rodriguez, who played at WVU, his alma mater, and coached there from 2001 to 2007, and whose coaching tenure there led the Mountaineers to most of the high points it experienced in football, including several Big East conference championships and a 2006 Sugar Bowl victory over the Georgia Bulldogs, and a 2007 2nd place ranking during the season, was just rehired by the university this week as their head coach, replacing Neal Brown, who was fired after six years of futility.
Rodriguez made a lot of WVU supporters and fans angry by the manner in which he left in 2007, to accept a much more prestigious, and higher paying position as Michigan's head coach. There were those who thought that he was distracted during the final game of the season with WVU's bitter rival, Pitt, and that distraction cost him the game. He had also said, prior to the offer being made, that he wasn't considering a move, but accepted the Michigan position and left before WVU beat Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl that year.
Things didn't work out for Rodriguez at Michigan, where the retirement of the former head coach had drained the talent pool of players, and left him nothing to start with. His teams and his record improved each year, but not enough to please Michigan's fan base, which expects to be among the top teams in the country every year. The players he recruited went 11-1 during the next regular season after he was let go, but that, of course, is water under the bridge.
His next coaching job came three years later, at hard luck Arizona. Rodriguez's tenure with the Wildcats is the only stretch in the last decade reflecting a consistent pattern of winning. Rodriguez took Arizona to five bowl games, including one of the New Year's 6, the Fiesta Bowl, got into the only Pac-12 conference championship in which Arizona had ever played. He's the only coach with a winning record at Arizona since 2000.
He was fired from the job, in part because there were some critics of his loud and aggressive coaching style on the field, and because his administrative assistant filed a sexual harassment complaint against him, and sued the university, claiming he forced her to keep quiet about an alleged affair he was having. Like the rumor mill at West Virginia, swirling around his departure there, a lot of facts never really reached the public. In spite of the fact that the sexual harassment claim was discredited, and later dismissed, and so was the lawsuit, the University let him go and paid out his contract settlement.
After coaching as an assistant at a couple of different places, Rodriguez landed at Jacksonville State University in Alabama, when it became a "group of 5" member of the Conference USA. He won the CUSA title his second year there, this past season, and got the school into a bowl game. And that's when West Virginia came looking.
Well, why not? He is a WVU alum and former player, and former coach. It's been 17 years since he left, and the rumor mill never really got the facts right about his departure. Of course, everyone is entitled to their opinion and there have been some strong ones at WVU through the past three coaching tenures, about whether bringing Rodriguez back would also bring the kind of success he had while he was there, which was the program's football pinnacle. His name surfaced in all three of the recent coaching departures since he left in 2007.
Here's Where the Politics Come In
Social media has been buzzing about Rodriguez since Neal Brown was fired after the last game of the season. While a lot of those who were opposed to his return went back to the manner in which he left WVU for Michigan, there were a lot more who cited "moral concerns" about his alleged affair, and sexual harassment leading to his dismissal at Arizona as the reason they didn't want him back.
And that's what I found interesting.
In each of the last three elections, West Virginia has been one of the most supportive states, in terms of percentage of voters casting ballots for Trump. It's been above 65% all three times. And there were a few people, in the social media melee that surrounded the coaching discussion, who pointed out that it seemed a bit hypocritical for people who more than likely voted for Trump in past elections to consider rumors about an affair to be a disqualifier for hiring a head football coach.
I mean, if people are all that concerned about the dishonesty, lack of integrity and immorality reflected in the character of someone who had an extra-marital affair, shouldn't that be a much bigger concern with regard to putting someone in the Presidency, where character matters and where that kind of dishonest lack of integrity and morality could endanger the entire country, than it would be in coaching a college football team?
Trump had multiple extra-marital affairs, some surreptitiously, some he bragged about to boost his own brand. In once case, he committed multiple felonies, 34 to be exact, to cover up an affair he had with a porn star. But it doesn't appear that was enough to disqualify him, at least, not as far as the people of West Virginia were concerned. So why should unsubstantiated rumors of an affair by a former football coach, and all charges dropped regarding the sexual harassment suit after an investigation, be a problem for West Virginia football fans, many of whom obviously voted to put the proven, three time adulterer in the White House?
There were some posts on social media which pointed this out, and to their credit, there were some individuals who noted that they didn't support Rodriguez' return because of what had transpired at Arizona, and they also had not voted for Trump, because integrity, ethics and morality were high on their list. But for the most part, in the same way it went by the wayside in the election, it was ignored in this particular issue as well. Sad to say, but it is clear that a majority of Americans prefer winning over morality in sports, and corruption over integrity in politics.
Somewhere in the midst of all of the rumors around Rodriguez are the facts. He has exhibited a measure of repentance, admitted making mistakes, including in the way he left WVU for Michigan, and in what occurred at Arizona, and has apparently settled the issues with those who were directly involved and who are closest to him. Trump, on the other hand, remains unrepentant, claiming there's nothing wrong with his lifestyle and exhibiting neither regret nor any desire to behave differently.
I think West Virginia University made the right choice for their football program, extending the kind of forgiveness and a second chance to one of their own who has asked for both.
I think the country is already starting to regret the choice they made at the ballot box in November.
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