Football: FSN Pittsburgh to Air Coach Rod Feature
November 15, 2004 11:40 AM | General
November 12, 2004
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – On Tuesday night Fox Sports Pittsburgh will air a one-hour special about the coaching career of Rich Rodriguez, his rise from the small college ranks at Salem and Glenville State to his present position at West Virginia University.
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| FSN Pittsburgh will air 'Coming Full Circle' Tuesday night at 9 pm.
Gary Lake photo |
Fox Sports Tonight anchor Dan Potash produced the special called ‘Coming Full Circle.’
“When I first came to WDTV in 1995 Rich was the coach at Glenville and the first thing I always heard about was Mountaineer football this and Mountaineer football that,” Potash said recently. “But really the sidecar to Mountaineer football was what Rich Rodriguez was doing at Glenville State. They were like the showcase of the West Virginia Conference and I learned so much about their program in a short amount of time because they were so fun to watch.”
It just so happened that just about everywhere Rich went Potash seemed to be right there with him. “I went to Charleston, S.C., and my first year there he and Tommy Bowden came to Clemson,” Potash said.
Potash was working for the ABC affiliate WCIV in Charleston, S.C., when Bowden named Rodriguez his offensive coordinator at Clemson.
“I obviously helped break the story that he was coming to Clemson because I called him and we talked and I kind of got the inside information,” Potash said. “I go to West Virginia and he’s in West Virginia. I go to South Carolina and he comes to South Carolina. I kind of new what to expect from his days in Glenville and I thought he might bring something special to the Tigers’ offense and he did. In the two years that he was there he really helped put them on the map.”
Two years later, Potash took an anchor job at Fox Sports Pittsburgh and he had some prophetic words for Rodriguez right before he left.
“I got hired at FSN Pittsburgh in September of 2000 and the last Clemson Tiger game I covered was Clemson at Duke,” Potash said. “Rich was walking up to the booth getting in his normal spot as the eye in the sky and he knew I was leaving and he said, ‘Hey, good luck in Pittsburgh.’ And I said, ‘Who knows Rich, maybe someday you’ll join me?’ Sure enough in November of 2000 he was hired as the Mountaineer football coach. In a sense we both kind of came full circle. We followed each other.”
The fact that Potash had covered Rodriguez’ career so closely helped him come up with the idea of producing an hour-long special. Potash already had footage of Rodriguez coaching at Glenville State, and was also able to use his connections to get much more difficult footage of Coach Rod at Salem.
“I guess because of all of the stations I worked with coincided with all of the steps he took I realized that I’ve got access to all of this video because I know people that worked with him,” Potash said. “It seemed like the perfect thing for me to go ahead and put all the video together with all of the interviews I had to assemble with the people I knew and tell his story.”
Potash said it took about two months for him to finish the project.
“I was able to get all of those people for those interviews because I still know a lot of them: Tommy Bowden, Terry Bowden and what have you,” Potash said. “The people I asked for help were more than happy because they were excited about telling the story of Rich Rodriguez.”
Potash said he encountered very little logistical problems tracking down the Bowdens. Terry is an analyst for ABC sports living in Orlando, Fla., while Tommy is, of course, still coaching the Clemson Tigers.
“I called (Terry) at his home and as soon as I told him what I was doing he said, ‘Where do you need me to go and when do you need me to do it? I’m more than happy to do it because Rich is a great guy.’ He drove to the ABC affiliate and hooked up with my friend (Dan Hellie) there who did the interview for me,” Potash said.
The only person missing from the feature Potash would have liked to have talked to was former Tulane quarterback Shaun King.
“I tried numerous times to get him and it just didn’t happen,” Potash said.
Despite airing a WVU-related feature in the Pittsburgh market, Potash said he met no resistance from his superiors at Fox Sports Pittsburgh.
“It was not tough at all because FSN Pittsburgh is obviously seen in all of Pittsburgh but we are on throughout the entire state of West Virginia,” Potash said. “I just knew that a story like this would spark the interest of Mountaineer fans but to be honest with you, I think it’s a good story. Not only did I know it would appeal to Mountaineer football fans, but I also knew that it would appeal to a general sports fan.”
Potash is grateful for all of those who helped him with the project, particularly Mark Loudin, Dave Stingo at WBOY, John Breen and Alan Dye at WDTV, Goff Hart at WYFF in Greenville, S.C., and all of the subjects interviewed.
The special will air Tuesday, Nov. 16, at 9 pm on Fox Sports Pittsburgh and will repeat at various times throughout the remainder of the year.
“Everybody has obstacles ... I think Don Nehlen said it at the end of the piece, ‘Everyone has to go through crazy bumps along the way.’ To have his program pulled (at Salem), and then go to a D-I program and get passed up for a job and then turn down a job with the hope that maybe he’ll wait for the next one … I think his story was a little bit more compelling than the average ups and downs for any other coach,” Potash said.
