The formula for success on the football field isn’t complicated for Rich Rodriguez.
It really boils down to a few key components necessary to elevate a program to the next level.
“What we want to have back is we had really, really good players that played really hard,” Rodriguez said on The Triple Option Podcast.
That’s what the Mountaineers had during the first tenure under Rodriguez with iconic players such as Pat White, Steve Slaton and Noel Devine, along with a number of others.
But on top of their skill each of those players was known for their effort on the field.
That made Morgantown one of the epicenters of the college football landscape during that tenure.
“And it didn’t matter who got the credit for it or anything like that,” he said. “And so that has always been the staple of our programs.”
But it was the success that Rodriguez had during his time at Jacksonville State that made him a priority candidate this time around for the Mountaineers job, not what unfolded in the past.
And it was that tenure that finished 27-10 and ended with the Gamecocks winning the Conference USA Championship in his final season.
“I would like to think we got hired because we won at Jax State. And if we had lost at Jax State nobody was going to call me,” Rodriguez said. “But we won in a tougher situation at Jax State so that allowed us to make this move.”
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