Rich Rod
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Caveats
Not sure what is going on with his legal situation, last I knew the woman that accused him never filed her suit. Obviously this has to be sorted before he could be hired.
He probably says no, but you call anyway.
That said, he’s a great option that I haven’t seen kicked around yet. He’s not perfect obviously but KU isn’t going to get a top shelf coach. You either have to go established with some baggage or young and risk the coach not being very good.
D1 Coaching career
Took West Virginia to national prominence.
Bit off a bit more than he could chew at Michigan. Rebuilt the roster after Carr retired and Brady Hoke went 11-2 with RR’s players before flaming out.
Turned around Arizona from the stink of Mike Stoops. Arizona is a similar football job to Kansas. Better location and slightly better natural talent base but not by much. Had more actively good programs than the Big 12 does when he was succeeding there. Last few years there were mostly average but competing with very good programs in Washington, Stanford, USC etc…
Exhibit A for coaching ability: Khalil Tate playing for RR vs playing for Kevin Sumlin.
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@BShark He’s probably a realistic option compared to other names that have been thrown out there. He recruits pretty well and gets the most out of the talent he has. RR does seem like the type of hire that is high risk, high reward. He probably has 10 years left.
I would like the hire for one main reason, and that is his offensive system. I’ll quote from his Wiki page.
“Rodriguez is considered a pioneer of a no huddle, run-oriented version of the spread offense, although a pass-first version was already being implemented by others. He first developed this offensive approach at Glenville State and refined it during his stops at Tulane with Shaun King, at Clemson with Woodrow Dantzler, and at West Virginia most notably with dual-threat quarterback Pat White. This strategy features frequent use of the shotgun formation. Rodriguez is also credited for inventing the zone read play run out of the shotgun formation.”
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What he was able to do with an unheralded guy in Pat White was incredible. He proved it wasn’t a fluke with Khalil Tate. He certainly has the ability to take an athlete, put them at QB, and make an offense work.
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I wouldn’t HATE Rich Rod, but wouldn’t like it much either. Here’s another name I heard over the weekend: Gus Malzahn. There’s some big time Auburn folks who want him gone (because they’re insane) and their AD is tired of being second fiddle to Bama. If Gus gets fired, I expect Long to make him a priority candidate. I also think his system would be a great fit for KU and the Big 12. Very run heavy, but lots of eye candy and personnel groupings that can put defenses in significant conflict if they aren’t disciplined, as Big 12 defenses tend not to be. Also can recruit the region, with his ties to Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas.
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@FarmerJayhawk sounds like Auburn fans are approaching LSU fan level stupidity. Holy shit would I take Malzahn in a second.
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@BShark Without a doubt. I’ve always loved Gus, from even back in his Springdale days. It would be dumb as hell to fire him, but could be KU’s MASSIVE gain.
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Yep, it would be incredibly dumb. But there is plenty of precedent for delusional fanbases driving the firing of a very successful coach at the college level.
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Rich Rod had a great stint at West Virginia but things went south after that. At Michigan he was a disaster not only compiling overall and conference losing records (15–22, 6–18) but also raking up a number of NCAA violation that landed Michigan in hot water with the NCAA and forced it into a number of self imposed penalties. At Arizona his record is pedestrian by big programs standards ( KU’s record is abysmal by the same standard).
Rich Rod would no question be a big improvement over what we have now but he comes with a lot baggage of the bad kind and we would have to hold our collective nose and look the other way. In comparison, Gus Malzahn would be a gift from heaven.
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Gus has been on the hot-seat for a while with fans. Sad but that’s sports these days
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I’m confident that Gus would be offered a better job than us. I mean, if Will Muschamp can get $4M/yr at another SEC school after his disastrous stint at Florida I can only imagine what jobs Gus could land.
We would have to offer him the world.
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Rich Rod would be like Charlie Weis 2.0 IMO, guys like Les Miles and Gus probably have better options than Kansas but who knows. Long was hired because of his football connections, it will interesting to see who he can get.
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@kjayhawks strongly disagree. RR has some coaching chops. Weis did not.
@Kcmatt7 Agree. If SEC nepotism can keep Muschamp employed…
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Rich Rodriguez is not Charlie Weis. Rodriguez got a raw deal at Michigan as they just weren’t patient enough with him. Michigan’s record got better each season under Rodriguez and he had some good players coming into the program that he could’ve done some great things with like Denard Robinson who would’ve done amazing things had Rodriguez been around in 2012 for his senior season.
I think his baggage is too much and too fresh right now to consider Rodriguez, but I would consider him a great option for KU if he didn’t have his current baggage.
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KU is so far away from hiring a guy of Gus’s stature its funny to even see his named mentioned
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BeddieKU23 said:
KU is so far away from hiring a guy of Gus’s stature its funny to even see his named mentioned
Reading different message boards, and discussing with friends / other people it blows my mind at the names being thrown out. I have said multiple times that KU people are going to be very dissapointed at the names on the true target list.
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Woodrow said:
BeddieKU23 said:
KU is so far away from hiring a guy of Gus’s stature its funny to even see his named mentioned
Reading different message boards, and discussing with friends / other people it blows my mind at the names being thrown out. I have said multiple times that KU people are going to be very dissapointed at the names on the true target list.
I don’t follow KU football at a fan level but I do want them to be successful. But your right, the true target list is going to be a real shock to those unless Long gets lucky and has a connection with someone with a big name and gets extremely lucky.
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Woodrow said:
BeddieKU23 said:
KU is so far away from hiring a guy of Gus’s stature its funny to even see his named mentioned
Reading different message boards, and discussing with friends / other people it blows my mind at the names being thrown out. I have said multiple times that KU people are going to be very dissapointed at the names on the true target list.
Strong disagree. Long has a giant checkbook and strong reputation at his disposal. Zenger had neither.
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@FarmerJayhawk Les Miles is going to be the biggest name on the list and I believe that’s who Long is maneuvering to try and land with some of these hires that he’s made so far. Vollmer has a long standing relationship with Les Miles. Les Miles is also a pretty known name in college football along with his reputation and quirks so hiring someone to specifically run the PR side of KU Athletics seems like another move to try and get Miles.
Beyond Les Miles, I don’t see a realistic candidate out there that’s going to immediately blow people away with his resume.
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Texas Hawk 10 said:
@FarmerJayhawk Les Miles is going to be the biggest name on the list and I believe that’s who Long is maneuvering to try and land with some of these hires that he’s made so far. Vollmer has a long standing relationship with Les Miles. Les Miles is also a pretty known name in college football along with his reputation and quirks so hiring someone to specifically run the PR side of KU Athletics seems like another move to try and get Miles.
Beyond Les Miles, I don’t see a realistic candidate out there that’s going to immediately blow people away with his resume.
Yep. Miles is gonna be the guy Long really targets. Probably sooner rather than later. Guessing Willie Fritz is plan B. Not sure any of the younger G5 up and comers give serious thought to KU, even at $3m+ per year.
