World's worst secret keeper
Rich Rodriguez to stay at West Virginia. Per ESPN and AL.com.
If Mal Moore and the Bama trustees could have kept their mouths shut, this would've been over quickly. But they couldn't help themselves. This story had more leaks than a White House investigation.
Rich Rodriguez was in a horrible situation. He was born in West Virginia, and he went to school at WVU. His entire extended family is in West Virginia. He married a WVU cheerleader. For him to walk away from WVU would have sent the signal that their program had absolutely no long term future.
He needed to be able to communicate his decision to leave Bama in a manner that would leave West Virginia's alumni, fans and players with their dignity. He needed to communicate that decision without burning every bridge in the state. Mal Moore and company's instance on having such an "open process" forced Rodriguez's hand. He couldn't handle things gracefully or quickly, and Bama made themselves look ridiculous in the process.
Their bumbling actions gave Rodriguez time to pause and reflect on the job. His hestitation gave WVU time to counteroffer and plead their case. Bama a chance at a top quality coach today, and they've made the job less attractive to the next candidate.
Mal Moore is a bumbling oaf. Roll Tide.
Paul Westerdawg
Alabama Native and Part-time Bama Fan (when UGA isn't playing)
BTW -- At what point does someone from the Birmingham News get fired for failing to be right on a single one of their calls related to this story?
14 comments:
Dead on, PWD. The question at this point has to be who they turn to. Maybe Jim Mora, Jr. will be free?
While totally implausible, I would derive untold karmic pleasure from seeing Tuberville "pull a Petino" and go to 'Bama. I can just imagine Tubs sitting in his office and wondering "How do I really get back at Bobby Lowder?" before having the eureka moment when he decides to move to Tuscalooser.
In other news, unconfirmed reports have Mal Moore landing in Lubbock with a bucket of hot wings intended for Mike Leach . . .
Couldn't agree more, Dawg. I'm a part-time Bama and WVU fan (parents went to WVU, and I just sorta like the Tide), and I was really disappointed with the disrespect Bama, the Bama media, and Bama's fans gave WVU through this whole process.
Whatever one may think of the Big East, WVU has a relatively consistent history of success. While I don't think they'd beat a good SEC school most years, they aren't some MAC squad whose coach is waiting for a BCS school to recognize his greatness and pluck him into the rarefied air of real college football. Your post earlier on the challenges of winning in Morgantown was right on, but that shows all the more how remarkable RR's (and, for a time, Don Nehlen's) career has been there.
Bama people totally discounted RR's roots and his loyalty to his alma mater. This lack of respect only made the school and its program less palatable for someone whose public statements oozed a desire to make a break without breaking his West Virginia neighbors' hearts.
Of all people, the rabid Bama fan should understand that, when it comes to football, there are just some things that are more important than money. By forgetting this, the Tide has paid a high, high price.
And while we're at it, how did he go about getting referred to as "Coach Rod"? It sounds like a character from a naughty cheerleader movie.
Amen, Paul.
As someone who married into a huge, multi-generational Tide family - I can tell you that this was bungled from the get-go and will leave Bama scrambling for some time.
Go Dawgs!!
Word to them balls. I called our local sports-talk station during their afternoon call-in show a week ago while they were discussing how awesome it would be if they managed to snag Rodriguez, and I got on the air. I told them that whatever the Bama fans' own perception of the UA coaching job was, that's not necessarily how the rest of the country saw it, and they were really getting too big for their britches if they thought people of Rodriguez's stature would just drop everything to coach at the Capstone.
The two hosts responded with a bunch of stuff about how much better the SEC is than the Big East, how WVU is small potatoes heritage-wise compared to UA, and how Rodriguez would be on TV so much more and have so much more national prominence as Bama's coach, and that'd be hard for him to turn down. Not when he knows he may have it for only three or four years before the fans start getting restless, I told them, but apparently that didn't sink in.
Like y'all, I'm a not-so-closeted Bama fan, so I take no pleasure in saying any of this, but maybe a high-profile embarrassment like this one was what the program needed to finally drill into the fans' skulls that they can't just snap their fingers and watch every good coach in the country beg to take their job. Bama's pretty much like everyone else now, which means they may have to settle for a talented but not-necessarily-name-brand coach. Once they do, maybe after all this they'll learn that they have to give him time and they're not entitled by divine right to a 10- or 11-win season. If not, we'll be back having this same conversation in three or four years.
Not to rain on anyones "Hate Bama" parade, but you ought to be careful that you don't paint with too broad a brush...
"I was really disappointed with the disrespect Bama, the Bama media, and Bama's fans gave WVU through this whole process."
Come have a look at the other side of things. The most vocal members of the WVU community weren't exactly paragons of class and virtue. It wasn't a community effort, it was a small group of loud and trashy fans. So while it might help you to feel justified and feel as though good prevailed, keep in mind that the hundreds of thousands of fans you either didn't hear from or didn't notice? Yeah, those are the vast majority of the Bama Nation.
And, for what it's worth, I don't think the media really picked sides in this one. They were equal opportunity insulters... because that's what sells.
Getting a new coach in a program has always been a difficult task. We Dawg fans only have to recall Glenn Mason, and even when something pretty decent pops up (CMR) there's always going to be questions until some time passes as to whether this was the "right" thing to do. Bama fans probably would pitch a hissy fit, but the best thing to do right now is look for a really good seasoned assistant coach kind of like Richt was or Dooley. This business of having to have this name or that name is soooo tricky and expensive and uncertain, I think they should just rethink the search process. They don't need a big name; they're Alabama. They do need a good coach or pretty soon it won't matter that they're Alabama.
"Dewey Defeats Truman"
They remind me of the process that brought Ray Goof... oops... Goff in as head coach. I remember, the selection "committee" never met a microphone they didn't like! I wonder if these people moved on to Bamma?
PWD,
You are the biggest loser in Dixie. If I could find you, I'd ring your pencil neck like a pigeon.
Like all dog-mutts, you eat s*^t and bother people.
EagerEagle
If you all remember, the last search Bama did for a coach didn't go well either. Mike Price? Mal Moore and dare I say Paul Bryant Jr. have done a lot of damage to the credibility of the program.
Bama is now one of those teams you can count on beating. They are like we were in the 90's, especially the mid 90's.
Pete, while I'm certainly glad RR stayed home, I certainly take no joy in the circumstances. I didn't mean to suggest that the national or regional media had picked sides -- just meant the Alabama media (Birmingham, et. al.) were reporting that he was gone two days before UA had even make a cash-money offer. I had friends who are Bama alums asking me to diagram the WVU offense for them while ESPN was reporting that Mal Moore was on a plane back to Tuscaloosa after a nice chat. These aren't obnoxious fire-breathing idiots who call into the shows and try to raise the Bear from the dead. But when I tried to suggest that there might be very, very good reasons for RR to stay, they questioned my sanity. Strenuously.
Face it, folks -- Bama has fallen far enough that it needs a renaissance. I hope that renaissance comes - it will be good for the state and good for the SEC. Still, it wouldn't have been called the Renaissance if they hadn't just left the Dark Ages. The quicker the Tide can start acting as humble as their program has become, the better the football world - coaches included - will greet them once they are restored to greatness.
The best thing Bama could do at this point is hire Dooley to be athletic director. He would be worth $2 million a year playing the part of a much needed Joel Eaves. That is what UGA needed in 64. Almost as much as Bama needs it now.
Mal Moore is an idiot they need to suck it up and get Newsome from the baltimore ravens as the AD and sit back and watch him work
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