Michigan Hires Rich Rodriguez; Jim Grobe is From Huntington, WVa

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..I’m just saying…

Check out this link to the West Virginia message boards. Some fans are supporting former NC State assistant, Doc Holliday for the West Virginia job; and The Sporting News has their initial list of potential candidates already up.

Please feel free to use this entry to discuss other coaching items that are developing. For example, we haven’t discussed David Cutcliffe’s hiring at Duke.

There is no doubt that Cutcliffe is quite an improvement over Carl Franks and Ted Roof.

Cutcliffe went 44-29 and led Ole Miss in five bowl games from 1999-2004, and will remain with Tennessee for its Outback Bowl appearance next month against Wisconsin while also embracing the challenge of reversing the fortunes of a football program that has struggled mightily while most of Duke’s other teams have flourished.

Cutcliffe has longed for another head coaching opportunity ever since Ole Miss fired him following a 4-7 finish in 2004, a year after winning the Cotton Bowl and the first season of the post-Eli Manning era in Oxford.

Ole Miss was crazy to push out Cutcliffe, by the way.

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62 Responses to Michigan Hires Rich Rodriguez; Jim Grobe is From Huntington, WVa

  1. ruffles31 12/16/2007 at 4:18 PM #

    That would be fantastic. Grobe is the best coach in the ACC and I am all for him relocating. Bobby Bowden has already said he would chip in $50,000 for him to leave. I will at least add $25.

  2. RBCRowdy 12/16/2007 at 4:39 PM #

    Rich Rodrigeuz is from West Va, played there, met his wife there, and coached there and he left. So, unless there are published reports of Grobe being interested this is silly speculation.

  3. StateFans 12/16/2007 at 4:51 PM #

    Dear captian obvious,

    OF COURSE it is nothing more than speculation.

    Thanks so much for nailing that insight for us.

  4. RBCRowdy 12/16/2007 at 4:56 PM #

    It’s just a pointless new topic and dumb to push down the Tremayne Stephens story for this. That type of crap is found on the premium boards, usually decent info is found here.

  5. dbo2874 12/16/2007 at 4:58 PM #

    not to mention grobe would be a great fit with WVs personnel.

  6. StateFans 12/16/2007 at 5:48 PM #

    RBCRowdy,

    We are very excited to start reading your blog where you can implement your own editorial strategies. Until you give us a link, please focus your comments on our blog on the content of entries as opposed to your personal opinions of whether you like the entries. Nobody could give a shit.

    With so many coaching stories developong – Duke, etc – we wanted to get something up to provide people an entry for coaching conversations.

    I’m sorry that my wife and little boy needed me to run some errands before I was able to spend more time on the entry.

  7. gopack968 12/16/2007 at 6:06 PM #

    Wow. For a fun little post on a quiet Sunday night this post is flaming.

    Do I sense a little pent-up frustration in NC State-land?

    Where is our yuletide spirit?

    As for an opinion on the post: seems like after his good, honest, honorable guy speech a few weeks back, Grobe ain’t going nowhere.

  8. Lunatic Fringe 12/16/2007 at 6:23 PM #

    …so Michigan is paying $6.5M in buyouts for two WV coaches in the less than a year. Wow!

    I guess Ann Arbor has decided to open up the checkbook. 🙂

  9. dbo2874 12/16/2007 at 6:27 PM #

    Belein was forced to pay his own buyout. Not sure about Rodriguez.

  10. Pack1998 12/16/2007 at 7:09 PM #

    Just stopped by and saw the good news for Michigan. Pretty funny banter . . . very happy Michigan gets a guy higher up their list.

  11. ShootingGuard 12/16/2007 at 8:56 PM #

    No reason not to speculate on Grobe going to WVA. The other possibilities Grobe had laid before him, such as Arkansas, were uphill battles. If he were ever going to leave Wake for a sure win, high profile situation, it would be WVU. Great talent coming back. Easy conference. He’s a better coach than RR by far, and he would have at least some shot at an NCAA title right out of the shoot. Being from WVU, as SFN has pointed out, addresses the age old “fit” question.

    I don’t want my own blog nor do I want to suggest topics, but, if Grobe stays, again, and even if he doesn’t, we should all devote some time to pondering the greatness of Ron Wellman and how, on his watch, “little old Wake Forest” just churns out and rotates success all around with recent titles in men’s soccer, football, women’s field hockey, basketball, baseball, etc. while Lee Fowler schedules games at ECU and fans of mediocrity or just plain sucking throw contributors like Quentin Jackson under the bus to defend Lee Fowler.

  12. VaWolf82 12/16/2007 at 9:30 PM #

    Grobe to WVU is indeed interesting speculation. I never expected Nebraska or Mich to pursue him….but I could easily see WVU going after him.

    Who did RR turn down last year? Was it Alabama?

  13. Wolf-n-Atl 12/16/2007 at 9:51 PM #

    Will we ever see a point in college athletics where schools pursue AD’s the way the pursue coaches? I would like to see us get an upgrade.

  14. Wulfpack 12/17/2007 at 6:00 AM #

    RR turned down Bama last year.

    I agree that it would be much easier to win at WVU than Wake, but I am not buying the idea that WVU is the best that Grobe can do. I just don’t see WVU as a consistent national power.

    This is the ugly side of college athletics. The Neers are getting ready to play Oklahoma in what was sure to be a great bowl game, and their leader will be putting draperies up in some new office in Ann Arbor. I understand why RR made the move, it just sucks for the guys he left behind.

  15. PackMan97 12/17/2007 at 6:31 AM #

    Cutcliffe was as good of a hire Duke could expect with the current state of their program.

    I would be very surprised if Grobe looks at WVU. I’m certain there is interest from WVU…any school with an opening would be stupid not to look at Grobe. That said, I think if Grobe wasn’t going to bite on Arkansas, I doubt he’ll bite now. Perhaps, if WVU had come calling first he might be gone…but after having flirted heavily with AK and deciding to stay, I can’t see him leaving now.

  16. Pack92 12/17/2007 at 7:32 AM #

    Twice in one year. Wow! Most WVU fans must feel like used dish rags right now. I just can’t help but think MI could have done better. RR hasn’t exactly won the house (especially his last game) and MI desperately wants someone, anyone who can beat the Vest. I am not convinced RR can do that with regularity.

    Grobe to WVU is a tough call.

  17. JimValvano 12/17/2007 at 7:42 AM #

    I was listening to ESPN radio the other day and someone said something to the effect of “At no point in a season is a professional athlete allowed to quit playing for one team just because he’s decided that he’d rather go play for another team. Why is it that we let coaches get by with doing things the way they do?” I think this was/is a valid point. It is time (with the Petrino, Saban, and almost the Butch Davis situations) to start doing something about some of these jumps these coaches are making. First and foremost they shouldn’t be able to switch jobs before the season is over. They did sign the contract. The other thing is that the buyout on their contract should be equal to what the team has agreed to pay them if they were to be fired. It just doesn’t make sense that while Kobe Bryant (sorry, but he’s a good example) has begged for a trade, he’s been unable to quit the Lakers even though there are other teams that want to sign him. Kobe can either honor his contract or retire. How did coaches get a different deal. College players can quit playing, but they are basically penalized for doing so…they either lose their scholarship (kind of like retirement) or they have to sit out a full year due to transfer rules. Why are the rules for coaches so different? What needs to be done to stop it?

  18. RedTerror29 12/17/2007 at 7:45 AM #

    ^Who do you propose that would beat Tressel regularly while he is the coach at Ohio State? He’s a definite top 5 coach in D1A today in my book.

    The Big East was #2 in the Sagarin ratings this year. It’s not as easy as you think. Although WVU is higher in their conference’s pecking order than Arkansas is.

  19. Mr O 12/17/2007 at 7:59 AM #

    We have a lot of experience with a head coach riding the coattails of an NFL QB. Didn’t Cutfcliffe’s career at Ole Miss time perfectly with the arrival of Eli Manning?

  20. PackMan97 12/17/2007 at 8:05 AM #

    RedTerror29,

    I would think that Paul Johnson would be a good candidate 🙂 I seem to recall Johnson coached Georgia Southern and beat the living snot out of Tressel’s Younstown State. I don’t remember the exact score, but it was by 30 something points in the Div 1-AA championship.

  21. packplantpath 12/17/2007 at 8:15 AM #

    Man, can you imagine being pissed that a coach would leave. Now that is a strange thought.

  22. Sam92 12/17/2007 at 8:43 AM #

    supposedly Beilen paid $1.5 million to the WVU foundation, but didn’t Michigan pay him that money first?

  23. PamlicoPack 12/17/2007 at 8:46 AM #

    Mr. O: difference is, Ole Miss pulled the plug on Cutcliffe after one dismal season post-star QB…we let Amato linger for three dismal seasons and put the program absolutely nose-first into the ground.

  24. LRM 12/17/2007 at 8:52 AM #

    WV is becoming like Michigan’s very own coaching farm team.

  25. Mr O 12/17/2007 at 9:30 AM #

    Pamlicopack: I guess my point was that I don’t know if you can be all that impressed with Cutcliffe’s record because of Eli Manning.

    Am I the only one that thinks it doesn’t matter who Duke hires? I don’t know the exact admissions standards for Duke football players, but I am willing to bet that they are significantly higher than any other team in the ACC including Wake Forest. So even pointing to Jim Grobe doesn’t mean Duke can be successful. I still have doubts that Jim Grobe will ALWAYS be successful at Wake Forest simply based on who he recruits. The last few years it appears that the players he has recruited have worked out. But recruiting lower ranked players is much more hit or miss, so even a good coach isn’t necessarily going to be successful long term. Grobe has recruited a lot of speed which seems to be his secret. His guys also seem coachable, so maybe that is the recipe for success at Duke as well. However, higher admission standards make it very, very difficult to overcome at Duke.

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