Rich Rodriguez: Great Coach or Awesome Players?

Too often over the past few years we have credited Rick Rodriguez with the success of the WVU football program. 

We need to think about that for a bit.  Coach Rod got lucky!  Adam Bednarik gets hurt and Hocus-Pocus—Pat White is now the QB and he is awesome, and Steve Slaton becomes a star.

Where did these guys come from? 

If Coach Rod was as great as we have given him credit for, then why weren't Pat and Steve already starting  each game?  Coach Rod got lucky.  Not taking anything away from White and Slaton, the fact is, they are both awesome.  But, if it weren't for ONE game where the starting QB got hurt, who knows if we would have ever known the name Pat White. 

We may have never seen the dynamic duo in action.  As unlucky as it was for Adam Bednarik, it was even more luck for Coach Rod.  We need to keep the players in mind. 

That's who makes up a team.  Not the coach! 

Don Nehlen is the best coach to ever coach the Mountaineers.  He wasn't worried about his stature among man, but was more concerned for the team and the state of WV.

If it were not for Nehlen, there would be no Mountaineer football as we know it today.  And if it were not for one young man's career ending injury,  Coach Rod wouldn't look so perfect. 

As for Adam Bednarik, I think he was a great QB.  I feel he should have had more playing time once he healed.  Perhaps he could have done much better things than Jarrett Brown.  

But, there again the Great Coach Rod was the decision maker.

So Mountaineer football "is a heck of a lot bigger than Rich Rodriguez,"  as Mr. Nehlen put it during a meeting with the WVU football team shortly after the departure of Lloyd Carr's replacement. 

 I only hope for the sake of the children of the new head football coach at U-M that daddy gets lucky again.

 www.thankscoachrod.com