One of the biggest challenges for WVU head coach Rich Rodriguez since he took the job at the end of last year has been assembling a coaching staff.
One of the biggest advantages was the resource pool granted to him in his contract, allowing him to be more aggressive in hiring coaches and allowing him to build his staff the exact way he wants to.
When Rodriguez signed with WVU, there was $5,000,000 committed for his staff every year of the agreement beginning in 2025 and at least $2,500,00 for every year of the agreement beginning in 2025 for football support staff.
"There was a handful of guys that had been with me for a long, long time that understand exactly how we want to run our program, what we want to do. I was able to bring a core group of guys with me who were with me at Jax State or had worked with me at other places," Rodriguez said.
One of those guys he brought in was Zac Alley to be his defensive coordinator. Rodriguez said with his resource allotment at WVU, he's able to be more aggressive to get guys like Alley, compared to his resource allotment while at Jax State.
"Like Zac Alley, he was with me at Jax State, then he went to Oklahoma. Well, I couldn’t compete with Oklahoma when I was at Jax State, but when I was at West Virginia, I could. So I was able to hire him, and he was a key piece. There was a good strength coach here in Mike Joseph that was already here, who I knew of, but I also had Parker Whiteman, who was my head strength coach at Jax State, but I wanted to have him as well. So, I was able to hire both of them," Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez has also been able to replace coaches who have left, including Chad Scott and Blaine Stewart. The added resources allowed Rodriguez to find quality replacements when those guys left for other jobs.
"Having the resources to get the guys that you really want to put together, and there’s also a handful of new guys, a couple of guys we were going to hire, left for other opportunities, and now able to hire really good guys to take their place," Rodriguez said.
Overall, the increased resources have allowed Rodriguez to build his staff the way he wants to, and that's made him quite happy with the current complexion of his coaching staff.
"So if you have enough resources, there are a lot of really good coaches out there. What I wanted to make sure I had was a mix of veterans, a couple older guys who had been there, done that, whether it had been my system or somebody else's, and then some young, hungry guys who wanted to get after it and recruit and coach guys up. That mix came together really well," Rodriguez said.
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