Rich Rodriguez Fallout: In Search of Off Campus Coaches at WVU

The search for a college coach can be a painful experience for everyone involved, rom the administration tasked with actually finding the coach, the boosters that may help in financing the coach, the fans of the school that are waiting and speculating on who the new coach may be, and finally, fans of other schools who worry about whether or not their coach will leave them.

The search for a coach is infinite.

When a coach is found, unless it's his his first coaching position, that coach must be replaced. And so on and so forth, until someone hires the person who doesn't have to be replaced, such as a rookie coach.

The big news coaching wise this year can be summed up in one word "Michigan."

After 13 years with the maize and blue, Lloyd Carr stepped down as the head coach of the program that has more college wins than any other in the country. When Lloyd decided that his time would be better spent in the retirement community rather than courting more high schools seniors than Debra Lafave, he sent an unprecedented ripple effect through college football that has unfolded into one of the most unusual and highly covered coaching searches that I can remember.

When Michigan's AD went on a coach poach, they had one man in mind: Les Miles.

Les miles, who had replaced Nick Saban as the head coach of the LSU tigers and was preparing to coach in the BCS championship. He was coaching the first two loss team to ever reach the national championship.

Many claim that Miles is overrated due to the fact that he is playing with Nick Saban's kids. Ask Cam Cameron about playing with Saban's players, and I'm sure he'll have a different outlook on the subject.

Some say that no one knows how good Miles really is because he isn't playing with his recruits yet. If that were true, then why would arguably the best college football program in the country look at Les Miles?

Simple: he is what's referred to as "A Michigan man." He was a player and assistant at the big house.

When Michigan Athletic Director Bill Martin wanted Les Miles to come home, it was a given that people said "No doubt—he is a Michigan Man." It was even confirmed by Kirk Herbstreet on ESPN that Miles would in fact be headed to Ann Arbor. Kirk was wrong of course.

Les Miles, in an angry and short press conference, stated his position clearly so no one would misunderstand. "I am the head coach at LSU. I will be the head coach at LSU. I have no interest in talking to anybody else."

Well what happened? He was a "Michigan man" after all.

Miles' decision Bill Martin, who continued his search. He turned to Rutgers and Greg Schiano, who last year turned down Miami. Schiano gained the least amount of coverage in this search because without delay or confusion, he simply said that he would continue to coach at Rutgers.

Now we get to the meat of the subject. 359 miles southwest of Bill Martin's second choice lay his third.

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