Architect of one of the most potent and versatile offensive schemes in college football, Rich Rodriguez brings his up-tempo style to ULM in 2021 in his first year as associate head coach and offensive coordinator for Terry Bowden’s Warhawk program. Rodriguez also will work with the ULM’s quarterback corps.
With more than 30 years of coaching experience and 24 years at the helm of collegiate programs, Rodriguez’s zone read concepts invented more than two decades ago have become a component of most modern-day college offenses. His dynamic offenses have rewritten the record books at each of his NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision head coaching assignments – at West Virginia (2001-07), Michigan (2008-10) and Arizona (2012-17) – and he holds the distinction of being named conference coach of the year five times in three different leagues.
Most recently the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Ole Miss (2019), Rodriguez served for six seasons as head coach at Arizona (2012-17). He earned Pac-12 Coach of the Year honors in 2014 after leading the Wildcats to their first 10-win season in over 15 years. He also guided the Mountaineers to three 10-win seasons.
At Arizona, Rodriguez helped establish the Wildcats as one of the most explosive offensive programs in the Pac-12. Arizona tied or set more than 100 offensive school records and all-time leaders were set for career rushing and all-purpose yardage.
The Wildcats won 33 games in Rodriguez’s first four seasons, the most in school history over a four-year period. That total included four consecutive bowl berths, another feat previously never accomplished at the school. Those four seasons all had one notable achievement in common: each earned a win over an Associated Press Top-10 team.
In 2017, Rodriguez helped orchestrate a Wildcat offense that led the Pac-12 and ranked among the national leaders in rushing offense (2017: 309.3 yards per game; 2016: 235.0 ypg.) for the second-straight season as well as posting impressive averages for total offense (489.5 ypg.) and scoring offense (41.3 ppg.). The 2016 Wildcats set a school record with 511 rushing yards in a blowout win over rival Arizona State to claim the Territorial Cup Championship for the second time in three seasons.
Rodriguez’s most successful season in Tucson came during the 2014 season, highlighted by a 10-4 record, a Pac-12 South Championship, a Fiesta Bowl berth and winning the Territorial Cup game against ASU. Arizona finished the regular season with 10 wins for only the third time in program history as Rodriguez was named the Pac-12 Coach of the Year.
Prior to Arizona, Rodriguez served as head coach at Michigan from 2008-10 where he tutored a young quarterback, in Denard Robinson. In 2010, Robinson set the single-season FBS record for rushing yards by a quarterback and became the only player in NCAA history to both pass and rush for 1,500 yards on his way to earning first-team All-America honors. Robinson finished sixth in that year’s Heisman Trophy balloting and set several individual passing marks and contributed to multiple U-M program passing records during his career.
Rodriguez compiled a 60-26 record as head coach at West Virginia from 2001-07, won four Big East Conference titles (2003-05, 2007) and was selected as the Big East Coach of the Year twice, in 2003 and 2005. He led the Mountaineers to two Bowl Championship Series bowl appearances, the 2005 Sugar Bowl with a victory over Georgia for an 11-1 record and a victory over Oklahoma in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl to finish 10-2 shortly after Rodriguez had left for Michigan. Under his tutelage, WVU quarterback Pat White became a household name after being selected Big East Offensive Player of the Year in consecutive seasons in 2006-07.
Before accepting the position at West Virginia, Rodriguez honed his skills as offensive coordinator and associate head coach for Tommy Bowden at Clemson in 1999 and 2000 as the Tigers recorded a 15-9 record over two seasons. He was offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for Bowden at Tulane for the two years prior (1997-98) where he helped lead the Green Wave to a 19-4 mark, including an undefeated 12-0 season, Conference USA Championship and Liberty Bowl victory in 1998.
Rodriguez became the youngest head coach in college football at age 24 when he was appointed by Salem College to the position in 1988. The offensive mastermind started his full-time coaching career in 1986 with the Tigers, first as a secondary and special teams coordinator and then as assistant head coach and defensive coordinator in 1987. His next assignment as head coach at NAIA Glenville State saw his team win or share four consecutive West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WVIAC) titles. He was selected WVIAC Coach of the Year in 1993 and 1994, as well as the NAIA Coach of the Year in 1993 after leading his team to a national runner-up finish.
From Grant Town, West Virginia, and an alumnus of North Marion High School, Rodriguez started as a walk-on in 1981 and became a three-year letterwinner as a defensive back for the Mountaineers from 1982-84. He graduated from West Virginia in 1986 and added a master’s degree from Salem in 1987.
Rodriguez and his wife Rita have two children, Raquel and Rhett. Raquel co-hosts a weekly podcast “Hard Edge Football” with her father while Rhett has two years of eligibility remaining as a quarterback at ULM.
