ESPN Personality Says West Virginia 'Would Win This Cycle' by Hiring Rich Rodriguez

The Jacksonville State head coach is being considered for the West Virginia vacancy.

Jason Bridge-Imagn Images

There are only two Power Four head coaching jobs that remain open - West Virginia and North Carolina.

Following the news late last night of Tulane's Jon Sumrall telling school officials that he is staying with the Green Wave, both the Mountaineers and Tar Heels can officially cross him off their respective lists. Sumrall garnered a lot of interest this cycle, but bigger jobs are likely on the table for him in the near future.

Over the weekend, some surprising news came out about the North Carolina job as legendary NFL head coach Bill Belichick is not only interested in the position but according to ESPN's Adam Schefter, he met with UNC for five hours on Sunday. If UNC goes in that direction, West Virginia won't have to worry about having to outbid anyone for their guy, and they may not have to anyway.

Penn State offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki, Jacksonville State's Rich Rodriguez, and Army's Jeff Monken are the three most talked about names for WVU at this stage. Ty Schmit, a member of the panel on the Pat McAfee Show, believes Rich Rod is the way for the Mountaineers to go.

“You want to get the right guy, but you want to win the cycle as well," Schmit said on the McAfee Show Monday afternoon. "Obviously, if Bill goes to North Carolina that’s massive, and it’ll eat up a bunch of stuff. But there really hasn’t been that candidate that’s emerged that every school wants right now. Like usually, we have one or two of those guys when all these jobs open up. No disrespect to Barry Odom or anything like that, but you didn’t see Purdue fans going crazy when he got hired. If Rich Rod got hired by West Virginia, sure some of the limelight might get stolen by Bill potentially going to UNC but you would win this cycle.”

In two years at the FBS level, Rodriguez has coached the Gamecocks to an 18-8 record and a Conference-USA championship.

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