Rich Rodriguez’s decision to leave West Virginia for the head coaching job at Michigan is something Mountaineer fans will never forget, and it’s also something that Rich Rodriguez, to this day, considers his biggest professional mistake.
The year before he left for Ann Arbor, there were rumors circulating that Rodriguez was set to become the next coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide. Reports came out that he had already accepted the job and that it was a done deal, but obviously that was not the case and Rodriguez stayed put in Morgantown for the 2007 season.
With Rich Rod staying at WVU, it led Alabama to hire Nick Saban as its next head coach. There, he went on to have a dominant 17-year tenure, compiling a record of 206–29 while winning six national championships.
In a recent interview with Josh Pate of CBS Sports, Rodriguez joked about how Alabama should honor him for declining the job nearly 20 years ago.
“Obviously, with Coach (Nick) Saban’s success, he was the greatest college football coach ever. Not even questioning that. That’s what I tell everybody, you know, I didn’t go to Alabama the year before (I left for Michigan). I always tell this story…where’s my trophy in Tuscaloosa? Where’s my statue outside there? Because if I had gone there, you probably wouldn’t have had those six national championships. That’s what’s so interesting about my journey and how one decision can affect a whole lot of different programs.”
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