"What if" Rich Rodriguez Had Taken the Alabama Job?

As any follower of ESPN knows, the whole "what if" debate has been raging in college football the last several weeks. Well, we want to begin by addressing a few "what if" scenarios of our own.

Today's focus will center around Rich Rodriguez and his possible impact at Alabama had he taken the head coaching job back in 2007.

In 2006, the Alabama Crimson Tide, coming off a disappointing 6-7 season, decided to fire Head Coach Mike Shula (who went 6-6 that year before being fired and did not coach the Independence Bowl). One of the first big names that emerged to replace him was West Virginia Head Coach Rich Rodriguez. Coach Rodriguez was an ideal fit for the folks in Crimson for several reasons:
1)  He had succeeded in rebuilding West Virginia into a national power. The Mountaineers were Big East champions every year from 2003-2007, with 2006 being the lone exception. They had defeated UGA in the 2005-2006 Sugar Bowl in Atlanta. They were a win away from playing for a national championship in 2007. There was no question he seemed to be the guy that could return Alabama to the top of the SEC and was just the type of big name they were looking to land.
2)  Going along with the first aspect, Rodriguez had a very impressive record at WVU. His seasons looked like this:
             2001: 3-8 (1-6 Big East)
             2002: 9-4 (6-1 Big East)
             2003: 8-5 (6-1 Big East)^
             2004: 8-4 (4-2 Big East)^
             2005: 11-1 (7-0 Big East)*
             2006: 11-2 (5-2 Big East)
             2007: 10-2 (5-2 Big East)^
* Outright Big East Champions
^ Co-Big East Champions (no Big East Title Game)
Having a lot more resources and being in more fertile recruiting ground, there was no reason to believe he could no duplicate this success at Alabama.
3)  Rich Rod was key in the innovation and maturation of the spread offense, particularly the zone-read with Pat White at WVU. We know, We know, the spread cannot work in the SEC right? WRONG! Urban Meyer had just won a national championship with it at Florida. So, there was no reason to believe it would not work at Alabama.
4)  He could recruit to West Virginia, so there was no reason to believe he could not recruit to Alabama. After all, he got QB Pat White from Alabama and RB Steve Slaton from Pennsylvania. Also, WVU is very successful in the State of Florida, getting people like star RB Noel Divine to come to Morgantown.

However, news of his potential deal with Alabama appears to have leaked before anything was done and Rodriguez, similar to what would happen with Les Miles and Michigan a year later, backed out of the deal. He would remain at West Virginia for one more year.

We should not feel bad for Alabama though as they happened to land the one guy who swore above all else that he would not be their next coach.....NICK SABAN! The rest as we know is history. Saban wins a national title in his 3rd year and Rodriguez is on the "hot seat" at Michigan.

Now, all of this begs the question, "What if Rich Rodriguez had taken the Alabama job?" It is no secret Alabama has more lives than a cat with the NCAA. They have had probation, probation, double-secret probation, and finally "this is your last chance, but not really" probation. We know Rich Rod is in trouble at Michigan with him ordering excessive practice time. It appears he violated the rule at West Virginia as well. Of course, more practice could help Michigan, who has missed a bowl game the last two years after not missing one in forty years. So, we here applaud him for at least realizing that! Oh, let's not forget this is the first time the all-time winningist program in college football has ever been on any type of NCAA sanctions. It's not that they have not cheated before. ALL programs do. Rodriguez was the one who got caught. So, there is a lesson here.....DON'T GET CAUGHT!!

So, if we combine his infractions with that list of Alabama's, which is longer than the Christmas list given to Santa Claus every year, Alabama could be in some serious trouble. Maybe it would be Southern Cal kind of trouble. Before you laugh, no one thought Southern Cal would face sanctions as severe as the ones they got. Worse, the NCAA could have given Alabama the "death penalty," something not seen in NCAA football since it happened to SMU in the 1987.

The "death penalty" is the most severe punishment levied against a program. It would require a school to sit out of that sport one whole year. Now, before anyone laughs and thinks Alabama or any other SEC school could recover quickly, remember it took SMU 25 years to make it back to a bowl game. So, a repeat offender in terms of coaches and a repeat offender just coming off probation in terms of schools sounds like a perfect combination for the "death penalty."

In Rodriguez's case, being a repeat offender could possibly land him the "show-cause" punishment, AKA the Kelvin Sampson treatment. This would ban Rich Rod from coaching college football for 5 years unless a school could show cause that he served his punishment. This still could happen, pending the investigation at WVU.

As for Saban, he would have returned to college alright. It turns out, there would have been an opening at his home-state school. That's right, Rich Rodriquez's departure to Alabama would have left the West Virginia job open for Saban to return. Saban grew up in Fairmont, West Virginia and would have been welcomed home with open arms. Oh, how history could be different today!

Of course, would Saban have left Miami and the Dolphins for West Virginia? That's the $64,000 question that Saban himself probably could not answer right now. It is highly unlikely he would have been given the same 8 year/$4 million per year contract at WVU that he ultimately received from Alabama and probably would have stayed with the Dolphins. Again, we will never know.

The real winner here is Alabama Athletic Director Mal Moore. As anyone who follows college football is aware of, he just got a HUGE raise and contract extension. According to ESPN, his salary will go from $425,000 to $550,000 per year plus incentives. Had he brought in Rich Rodriguez, he would have most likely gotten the "Mike Garrett-USC" treatment and just been bought into retirement. Fortunately for him, things did not work out that way. Instead, people will forever remember him as the man who brought in Nick Saban, the coach who returned Alabama to being a national power.