📡 Rich Rodriguez: ‘Alabama would have been a better fit for me than Michigan’ - CollegeFootballTalk

[Bama News]

Rich Rodriguez: 'Alabama would have been a better fit for me than Michigan'

RichRod was offered the job that ultimately went to Nick Saban.

collegefootballtalk.nbcsports.com

You can hear the butt cheeks of the entire state of Alabama in general and its football fans specifically puckering up over the mere thought.

On Nov. 27, 2006, Alabama fired Mike Shula as its head football coach. Nick Saban was Mal Moore‘s top target, but initially rebuffed the athletic director’s overtures. Moore then turned his attention to Rich Rodriguez, then the head coach at his alma mater, West Virginia. Offered the Alabama job, Rodriguez officially turned it down on Dec. 8 of 2006 to remain in God’s Country.

RichRod lasted just one more season at WVU, leaving to take over at Michigan following the 2007 season. In three years with the Wolverines, Rodriguez went 15-22 overall and 6-18 in Big Ten play. In January of 2011, Rodriguez was fired.

Rodriguez had previously stated that the move from West Virginia to Michigan was a mistake. In a story posted to ESPN.com, Rodriguez further acknowledged to writer Chris Low that the Crimson Tide “would have been a better fit for me than” the Wolverines.

“We all have things in our lives that we would do differently if we had that opportunity,” Rodriguez told Low. “And, sure, hindsight is always 20-20, but Alabama would have been a better fit for me than Michigan. …

“It’s like a lot of things. It got out there and got legs and maybe there’s an assumption that, ‘Of course you’re going to go to Alabama.’ Maybe I could have had more foresight than I did, but at the time — and I know it sounds crazy now — we were in a better place at West Virginia than they were at Alabama. You could see that they had a plan and that Mal was on top of everything. They showed me pictures when we were in New York of everything they were going to do facility-wise on campus.”

After being rebuffed by Rodriguez, Alabama circled back to Saban. Then the Miami Dolphins head coach, Saban subsequently changed his mind after a very public denial and the rest, as they say, is history. Even Rodriguez is wise enough to acknowledge that Alabama football got the better end of the deal.

“I’d say it worked out pretty well for Alabama, because they went out and got the best college football coach of all time.”

Five national championships later with Alabama football, it’s hard to argue.

 

[UAgrad93]

That was a bullet dodged!!!

 

[#80]

That was a bullet dodged!!!

AMEN to that!

 

[bamachine]

It is the one thing I can actually thank Finebaum for, as he pretty much called Roch's wife ugly. That probably helped in keeping them away.

 

[planomateo]

It is the one thing I can actually thank Finebaum for, as he pretty much called Roch's wife ugly. That probably helped in keeping them away.

She always looked a whole lot of fake to me.

 

[JoseyWalesTheOutlaw]

It is the one thing I can actually thank Finebaum for, as he pretty much called Roch's wife ugly. That probably helped in keeping them away.

The fact Pawl called anybody ugly is kind of funny but regardless he was correct about ole Rita. Hell should couldn't even get hired as a waitress at The Oasis in Cottondale.

 

[JoseyWalesTheOutlaw]

 

[alabama mike]

I am just thankful that RR did not get take the Bama job AND that Mal Moore was patient in his dealing with Coach Saban.