Looks like Arizona football has a new head coach. If you stick to his record at West Virginia, that’s something to be excited about. His more recentl 15-22 stint at Michigan is somewhat less impressive, however.
The Arizona Wildcats have found their next head coach. According to multiple reports, Rich Rodriguez will be announced as the next head coach of UA football within the next 48 hours. Nothing has been made official by the UA athletic department, but an announcement could be made as early as this evening from Tucson.
Bruce Feldman, who might have the most credibility of any national football writer, just tweeted the news:
Expect Rich Rodriguez to be named the next Arizona head coach in the next 48 hours according to sources.
This is huge news for the University of Arizona. Mike Bellotti, the former head coach of Oregon, was the hot name over the weekend among reporters and boosters, but Athletic Director Greg Byrne was using it all as a smokescreen to land Rodriguez, who had been coveted by multiple programs across the country.
Confirmed! (via @greg_byrne):
This article appears in Nov 17-23, 2011.
UA never seems to learn the value of true character. The firing of Dick Tomey, obstensibly the best football coach in recent US history, followed by the inane hiring plus antics of John Malkovich displays the schizoid characteristic of this athletic department. Now RichRod enters the scene fresh from a Michigan firing and NCAA difficulties to lead the Wildcats. UA could have held out longer for a quality candidate both in football professionalism and character, but as usual decided for a rush to hiring. Only time will tell whether more millions will be wasted on severance pay.
Rich Rod is a BUM!!! U of A would be better off letting my eleven year old daughter coach…