Alabama NewsCenter 2022 football preview: Jacksonville State University
New Head Coach Rich Rodgriguez talks to his Jacksonville State University Gamecocks at a practice. The former West Virginia and Michigan coach is well known nationally, but in Alabama he's especially famous for turning down an offer to coach the Alabama Crimson Tide in 2006, which resulted in the hiring of Nick Saban. (Jacksonville State University Athletics)
Rich Rodriguez paused for a moment as he pondered if he had ever coached where his program was not the signature college football program of that state.
“Good question. Let’s see,” the coach began. “At West Virginia, we were. Michigan? Of course. Arizona? We thought we were there.”
The answer to the question came where Rodriguez got his start, at Glenville State College, a school “you can’t even get there from here. You can’t get there from anywhere.”
But the man now known as Rich Rod went on to success from that school in West Virginia. He took a program that was 0-10 the season before he arrived to a league championship in four years.
Rodriguez’ teams earned four straight West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championships with a fast-paced, no-huddle offense that led the conference in total offense and scoring in six of the coach’s seven years.
Rich Rod, now the head football coach at Jacksonville State University, is once again leading a program that is not the bell cow of the state. But the man who could have had that lofty perch has his sights set on leading the Gamecocks as they play their final season in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) before joining Conference USA in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS).
Rodriguez was hired in November 2021 to succeed John Grass in leading JSU on the gridiron.
“We had to completely revamp and grow the program (at Glenville State) and after a couple of years, we got that going,” he said. “The neat part about us (at Jacksonville State), I think, is we’re realistic. We know we’re not going to be Alabama. We’re not going to beat out Auburn. But the rest of the schools, we think we can compete with them. That’ll be our focus.”
What makes Coach Rich Rodriguez most excited, concerned about Jacksonville State Gamecocks this season from Alabama NewsCenter on Vimeo.
Rodriguez will forever be linked to the job of head football coach at the Capstone in Tuscaloosa. He turned down an offer to lead the Alabama program on Dec. 8, 2006, deciding instead to stay at his alma mater West Virginia. With that, then-Athletic Director Mal Moore took another shot at netting Nick Saban, now often considered the best college football coach of all time.
“Yeah, that was 15 years ago,” the JSU coach said. “I get reminded of that quite a bit now. I tease them (saying) that they should make a statue of me. I’m partly responsible for them having all those six national championships that Nick has won.
“But you try not to look back with regret,” he continued. “That was obviously a great opportunity, but at the time, where our program at West Virginia was, we were better than them at the time.”
In 2007, Rodriguez did leave West Virginia, “which I probably shouldn’t have.” Since then, he had wondered if the door had closed on him coaching in Alabama.
“I knew how important athletics – and football in particular – was in this state by going through that process,” he said. “It’s kind of neat now that I’m doing it at another school.”
Coincidentally, Saban recently said he is open to taking on in-state opponents. Rodriguez said the Gamecocks “aren’t where they’re at.”
“Ninety-nine percent of the programs in the country aren’t where they’re at, and won’t be as long as Nick is there,” the Gamecocks coach said. “I can see that Auburn and Alabama, what’s their benefit of playing us? They’re supposed to beat us, supposed to be this bad. I can understand why if they’re gonna pay somebody, pay somebody else that it’s out of state and they ain’t got to hear about all that.
“For us, it’s like, ‘What do we have to lose?’ Well, we get our brains beat in, but we get a lot of money.”
Jacksonville State’s move to FBS (formerly Division IA) means guaranteed paydays will be more lucrative, rising from $300,000 or $400,000 to more than $1 million.
“We’ve got South Carolina next year and we’re getting paid over $1 million to play them,” Rodriguez said. “That makes sense in that regard.”
Jacksonville State was 5-6 overall in 2021. The Gamecocks had waved goodbye to the Ohio Valley Conference with their ninth league title in a 2020 season that spanned the fall and spring.
JSU has begun its transition to Conference USA and the Football Bowl Subdivision. The move will see the Gamecocks play 2022 in the inaugural season of ASUN Football before playing a Conference USA schedule in 2023.
Alabama NewsCenter is posting season previews for all 16 college football programs in Alabama. Look for a new preview each weekday.
